Jo Koy on stage at Golden Globes

  On January 7, 2024 comedian Jo Koy was given the honor of hosting the 81st Golden Globe Awards. He went on stage in front of a room full of the most famous and well respected celebrities, and performed his opening monologue. 

  Being a comedian, Koy’s monologue was littered with jokes and comments poking fun at the shows, movies, and actors that received nominations, which is to be expected at an award show. They are meant to be entertaining after all. Koy’s monologue, however, was far from entertaining. 

  Sophomore Grey Hall thought Koy’s jokes were “uneducated and unfunny.”

  English teacher, Ms. Denning says, “I think Jo Koy’s ‘jokes’ at the Golden Globes were insensitive, misogynistic, and extremely weird. What’s worse is that he is just not funny.”

  Koy praised “Oppenheimer” saying, “I loved ‘Oppenheimer.’ I just just got one complaint: [it] needed another hour. I felt like it needed some more backstory,” before comparing it to “Barbie,” “‘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.”

  Not only did Koy sexualize “Barbie,” he also boiled the entire movie down to the characters’ bodies, going on to say, “The key moment in ‘Barbie’ is when she goes from perfect beauty to bad breath, cellulite, and flat feet. Or what casting directors call character actor.” 

  Grey says, “The ‘Barbie’ movie was about feminism and the struggle women everywhere and making a joke about that is tasteless and insensitive.”

  The difference between Koy’s genuine description and praise of “Oppenheimer” and his gross oversimplification and objectification of ‘Barbie’ is insanely misogynistic and painfully unfunny. Although claiming he loved “Barbie,” it is strikingly clear its message went right over Koy’s head.

  Koy also went on to comment on Taylor Swift’s relationship with NFL star Travis Kelce, an overused topic in the media, and made uncomfortable jokes about actor Barry Keoghan’s body in reference to an explicit scene from “Saltburn.”

  Simply put, Koy’s monologue wasn’t funny. The audience was clearly so unamused and uncomfortable to the point that a laugh track had to be used heavily in order to mask the awkward silence in the room. Koy tried to save face saying, “Yo, I got the gig 10 days ago. You want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up. You’re kidding me, right?”

  While some could argue that a week and a half is plenty of time to come with 10 minutes of funny material, especially for a comedian, it is still interesting that Koy would default to uncomfortable and insensitive jokes while under a ‘time crunch.’

  Comedy is supposed to be comedic. It’s supposed to make people laugh and feel good. And while there definitely is value to ‘dark’ or otherwise controversial comedy, there are still lines that should not be crossed. Jo Koy crossed these lines. If something belittles a group of people, makes people uncomfortable, or is just not funny, it isn’t comedy.