COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER | Jo Koy at the Golden Globe Awards. (REUTERS)
He may have royally bombed as the host of the 81st Golden Globes held on Sunday (Monday morning in the Philippines), but Jo Koy said that he “had fun” and “it was a moment [he’ll] always remember.”
The Filipino American standup comedian received a ton of online backlash after his opening monologue for the annual awards that recognize the best in film and on TV.
The Golden Globes kicked off the awards season and was the first big event of the industry after the monthslong strikes in the United States led by writers and actors last year.
Hollywood’s biggest stars were in attendance. They were ready to party but Jo Koy, whose real name is Joseph Glenn Herbert, did not deliver.
His low-brow jokes on actor Barry Keoghan’s penis, actor-director Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose, and Barbie’s breasts were met with grimaces or—in the case of singer Taylor Swift—a withering glare and stony silence.
Jo Koy cracked a joke about Swift and how there were fewer shots of her at the Golden Globes compared to when she’s watching her beau, Travis Kelce, play for the Kansas City Chiefs in the US National Football League.
Memes of Swift sipping on her drink and glaring at Jo Koy began circulating almost immediately.
Another meme showed Swift wielding a broom with the caption, “Trash takes itself out every single time.” It’s a quote attributed to her when she talked about her decade-plus feud with former couple Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.
‘Bad gig for the ages’
After the telecast ended, The Guardian came out with an online article titled, “The joke’s on Jo Koy: Golden Globes host delivers a bad gig for the ages.” A writer for Vogue Magazine’s online portal said that “while Koy may have been new to the hosting gig, his jokes were not quite fresh.”
The writer for Vanity Fair’s online component described his monologue as “a horrid, sophomoric mishmash of lazy jokes.” The New York Times said it was “a highlight reel of mortifying moments.”
In his interview on the ABC program “GMA3” the day after, Jo Koy said it had been “a tough room. It was a hard job, I’m not going to lie… I’d be lying if [I said] it doesn’t hurt. Hosting is just a tough gig. Yes, I’m a standup comic but that hosting position—it’s a different style.”
Apparently, he was not the first choice for the job. Other comedians had passed on the gig so when it was finally offered to him and he accepted, he only had a week and a half to come up with material and work with the writers before the event held at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.
“We had 10 days to write this monologue. It was a crash course. I feel bad, but I got to still say I loved what I did,” he said in the interview, adding, “I wanted to give a bit more of me.”