Jo Koy made history this year as the first Filipino-American to host the Golden Globe Awards, but it’s the polarizing punchlines the comedian made during the ceremony’s opening monologue that will have people talking for years to come.
During Sunday’s awards proceedings — which saw big wins from Oppenheimer, Poor Things and The Holdovers on the film side, and Succession, The Bear and Beef in the TV categories — Koy kicked things off with a few jokes poking fun at some of 2023’s top titles, especially the Barbenheimer phenomenon that dominated box offices last year.
After ribbing the long runtime of Christopher Nolan’s beloved epic biopic and joking that he felt “creepy” for being attracted to Ryan Gosling’s chiseled Ken, Koy drew groans when he said that, while Oppenheimer was based on a “721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book,” Barbie was merely about “a plastic doll with big boobies.” It may not have played well with the Globes’ audience, and his monologue was roasted online, but the movie’s director Greta Gerwig had a good-natured reaction to Jo’s jibes. She laughed it off in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today program:
Well, he’s not wrong. 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. Barbie by her very construction has no character, no story, she’s there to be projected upon.
Despite Koy’s diminishing wisecracks, it’s clear that plenty of people saw Barbie as more than just a movie about a well-endowed plastic doll. The thoughtful comedy raked in more than a billion dollars at the box office, a staggering theatrical success that put it among 2024’s Golden Globe winners as it took home the newly anointed Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category on Sunday night.
Barbie also scored the trophy for Best Original Song, for Billie Eilish‘s ”What Was I Made For?” (which is also an Oscar frontrunner), and it earned nine total Globe nominations, including for Best Musical or Comedy Motion Picture, Best Actress for star Margot Robbie and Best Director for Gerwig.
As for transforming the titular fashion doll into one of this year’s most beloved movie characters, Gerwig added:
Barbie has been around since 1959. And she’s been a villain and she’s been a hero, but it felt like, in a way, even though it’s so seemingly superficial, that it was such a rich place to start.
Greta Gerwig isn’t the only Golden Globe attendee who has commented on Koy’s catastrophic hosting gig from this weekend’s festivities.
Only Murders in the Building star Steve Martin was similarly gracious toward Koy. He posted on Threads that he “tips [his] hat” to anyone who takes on the “very difficult” role of awards show host, calling it the “toughest gig in show business” and one that is “not for the squeamish.” Martin would know: the comedy star himself has hosted several awards ceremonies in the past, including the Academy Awards solo in 2001 and 2003, and with Alec Baldwin in 2010.
Koy echoed Martin’s sentiments in his own response to the much-maligned monologue during a recent appearance on ABC’s GMA3:
I had fun. You know, it was a moment that I’ll always remember. It’s 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. I kind of went in and did the writers’ thing. 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.
We doubt Jimmy Kimmel will make the same mistake of talking down about Barbie when he plays host at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, which will be broadcast on ABC on Sunday, March 10. But even if he does, at least Greta Gerwig has a good sense of humor about things!