The Golden Globes is an award show to recognize American and international film production. It has been held every year since 1944 to honor artists and professionals for their work. Each year there is a different host to the show and this year it was hosted by Joseph Herbert, commonly known as Jo Koy.
Jo Koy is a standup comedian and actor who has made appearances in multiple comedy specials. He was chosen to be the host of the 81st annual Golden Globes in 2024. During this award show Jo Koy made multiple controversial jokes that didn’t go over well with the audience.
Koy made a reference that the camera would cut away more sparingly from Taylor Swift at the Golden Globes more than at NFL games, referencing her new public relationship with Travis Kelce and how she is seen on camera at many of his games. Taylor was very unamused by the joke and Koy later spoke out about the joke. he later said “The Taylor one was just a little flat and you know, it was a weird joke, I guess, but it was more on the NFL. You know what I mean?” Koy continued. “I was trying to make fun of the NFL using cutaways and how the Globes didn’t have to do that. And so it was more of a jab towards the NFL but it just didn’t come out that way.”
Taylor’s reaction to the joke was shown when her Eras film was nominated for cinematic and box office achievement and she seemed to purse her lips and take a sip from her champagne glass.
Koy made another joke pertaining to the Barbie movie that came out in July of 2023. While Koy was introducing the films he referred to the Barbie movie as “Barbenheimer” jokingly comparing it to Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”. He then followed by saying “Oppenheimer’ is based on the 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project — and ‘Barbie’ is about a plastic doll with big boobies”. Resulting in a muted laugh from the audience, this joke did not take well to the public.
The media did not appreciate this joke because Greta Gerwig created the Barbie movie fighting against gender stereo types. Gerwig appeared on “BBC Radio 4 Today” and made positive of the joke. She said: “She’s the first doll that was mass-produced with breasts, so he was right on. And you know, I think that so much of the project of the movie was unlikely because it is about a plastic doll…The insight that Ruth Handler had when she was watching her daughter play with baby dolls.”
The Barbie movie won the box office achievement award and hit an office force of 1.4 billion worldwide. Their ticket sales made the comedy the highest grossing movie of 2023, as well as the top “Warner Bros” in history.
