The anticipated Golden Globes awards show had a controversial host this year and it led to some intense backlash from viewers.
It was expected to be a big year with Barbie, Oppenhiemer, The Bear, Beef, Poor Things, and many more worthy movies and shows released in 2023.
In December, Jo Koy was announced as the host for the 2024 Golden Globes, yet many people asked the question, Who is Jo Koy?
“I genuinely had no idea who he was, it seems like no one did,” said senior Caroline Leire.
Koy is an Filipino American stand-up comedian and actor, but his attempt to bring in his own comedy throughout the show was disappointing to many. The disappointment began with Koy’s joke about how Barbie’s entire purpose was to focus on a plastic doll’s body.
“His joke about the Barbie movie was literally the whole point of the Barbie movie – the power of women’s achievements; there was nothing funny about it,” said senior Paige Mason.
Barbie took home the award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, which shows just how wrong Koy’s misogynistic joke was.
Not only did he inappropriately comment about Barbie, he also managed to throw in some unnecessary sexual slander at Oppenheimer, which was given a hard stare from Robert Downey Jr.
The comedian faced blank and confused faces from the crowd before opinions and comments on social media began.
“I kept seeing videos of all the celebrity reactions on my Tiktok and I thought, well I’m glad that they aren’t giving him his desired reactions for rude jokes,” said senior Kaylie Ubaldo.
Some celebrities in the crowd gave what seemed to be a pity laugh, but it was most definitely not enough to outweigh the silence and upset faces. If the crowd wasn’t being shown, the laughs seemed to be louder, yet any moment the camera panned the crowd there seemed to be no one laughing, causing many to believe that a laugh track could have been involved.
The crude jokes continued throughout the night, hitting every base of ridiculous and uncalled for. They even hit the beloved star Taylor Swift.
In an attempt to make fun of the NFL, Koy asked “What is the big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? On the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift.” This dull comment with poor delivery was just another mistake of the evening.
“The joke about Taylor Swift was just weird; she wasn’t having it either,” said senior Paige Hurton.
Koy seemed to have a needless joke about every nominee of the night, including one about Saltburn, singling out actor Barry Keoghan and making him seemingly uncomfortable as he hid his face with his arm.
As the night went on, Koy became defensive and angry after picking up that his jokes and monologue were not going well, blaming it on his writers and the amount of time he had before the show.
“I don’t understand why people say offensive things disguised as jokes. Does he really think in 2024 they are going to be funny?” asked senior Riley Campbell.
The Golden Globes awards show is created to represent and honor the outstanding creations of directors, writers, actors, producers and everyone else that goes into making our favorite movies and shows. Viewers agreed that there was no need to use distasteful jokes throughout the evening. Thankfully, there were some more light-hearted comedic moments in the show, including a skit from Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell. However, these moments were overshadowed by Koy’s hosting.
With this year being the 81st Golden Globes, it feels lazy and unprepared to not have a trusted and well-known person host the event. It would have been better to recruit someone who has taken on the job in the past and not taken the mood of the show and pushed it in the wrong direction.