On Jan. 7, Comedian Jo Koy hosted the Golden Globes. While on stage, Koy made a series of jokes about nominees and their films — as award show hosts typically do. Koy’s beginning monologue, spanning an awkward 10 minutes long, was a terrible start to the night. His jokes were hurtful to the nominees and others watching, making the entire monologue generally uncomfortable.
While not all of Koy’s jokes were blatantly misogynistic or overall uncomfortable, none were good. His jokes degraded the meaning of “good films” and made the immense achievement of being nominated for a Golden Globe seem embarrassing. Koy made his appearance for the night definitely memorable, but not in a good way.
On the topic of blatant misogyny, his most talked about moment from the night was his “Barbenheimer” joke, based on the two hit movies this summer, “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie,” which were both released on the same day.
The joke went as follows: ‘“Oppenheimer’ is based on a 721-page, Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project. And Barbie is on a plastic doll with big boobies.”
The Barbie movie’s entire meaning surrounds being a woman in today’s society, making this joke a complete diss to women everywhere. Koy goes on to say how he watched Barbie and loved it; maybe he did watch the film, but he surely was not paying attention. He even goes as far as to state how he thought it was “kind of weird being attracted to a plastic doll.”
Koy added weird smirks and giggles into his jokes about Barbie, which as a viewer, made me extremely uncomfortable and changed the entire mood in the room; especially once Greta Gerwig, director of “Barbie,” was shown on screen with a disappointed expression plastered on her face. Koy starts talking about his love for Ryan Gosling and “his eyes” which leads to Koy telling Margot Robbie that not everything is about her. Keep in mind, Robbie plays Barbie.
As a woman, I found his jokes offensive. When hearing his jokes about “Barbie,” all I could think about was me as a little girl wanting to be just like Barbie and not because I wanted to be a “plastic doll with big boobies” but because I followed Barbie’s slogan, “You Can Be Anything.”
America Ferrera gave a 331-word monologue about how hard it is to be a woman, Barbie gets catcalled once she makes it into the real world, all the dolls deal with men overpowering them and try to come back and be themselves and Barbie learns what it is like to be authentic; but the film is just about a plastic doll with big boobies, right?
Koy’s next act pointed to the film “Saltburn,” which had its strange moments but there was a meaning to the film. Still, Koy felt what should be talked about was Barry Keoghan’s penis since at the end of the film Keoghan’s character, Oliver, dances around the estate naked.
Once again, another failed joke went as follows: “Where’s Barry Keoghan seated? Where’s your penis seated? Down front? That was the real star of the movie, Barry Keoghan’s penis,” Koy said.
Koy’s joke then spiraled into saying Keoghan’s privates were actually the nose used on Bradley Cooper in “Maestro,” a film about Jewish composer Leonard Berstein. Koy not only sexualized Keoghan but hit on a Jewish stereotype. While Koy stood on stage and picked apart two actor’s body parts, once again, the mood in the room was enough to make me cringe.
And again, another joke by Koy goes: “By the way, ‘The Color Purple’ is also what happens to your butt when you take Ozempic,” Koy said.
Yes, Koy actually compared a film about a struggling black teenager and the hardships she faces to celebrities’ butts. The disrespect that sentence held and the reaction he received even led him to make a joke about how “half of the room was cringing.” The Color Purple is often talked about for its beautiful portrayal of a heartbreaking story, but Koy felt the need to strip the film of any beauty it holds.
Koy proceeded to make a jab at Taylor Swift, one of the most talked about people this year.
“The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift,” Koy said.
Swift visibly did not appreciate the joke, once the camera panned to her, she was sitting tall with pursed lips without any expression. Although the joke was not as rough as the other offensive jokes he made, his “swift” comment was unnecessary and only made her angry. Swift never did anything to Koy, so why did he feel the need to put her down in front of millions?
Overall, Koy’s appearance at the Golden Globes was not only awkward and uncomfortable but disheartening. In a 10-minute monologue, Koy took away the meaning of a powerfully built film, degraded women, sexualized amazing actors and proved that his white male privilege gives him tunnel vision to avoid any understanding outside his bland demographic.
