Koy kicked off the night at the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom in Beverly Hills, California, trying to humour the star-studded audience with his jokes on various topics, including Ozempic, Meryl Streep’s award-winning streak, and ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie’.
Going by comments on social media, fans of the Margot Robbie starrer ‘Barbie’ weren’t too pleased with Koy’s ‘distasteful’ remark about the film. During his opening monologue, he gave his take on the Barbenheimer frenzy and tried to summerise both films. He said, “Oppenheimer is based on a 721 page Pulitzer Prize winning book about the Manhattan Project. Barbie is based on a plastic doll with big bo****s.”The remark earned him a range of awkward reactions from Barbie cast, including Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and director Greta Gerwig. Even fellow nominee Selena Gomez, who was sitting in the audience, couldn’t help but cover her face with her palms.
Koy also took a dig at nominee Taylor Swift, for her highly publicised romance with NFL star Travis Kelce. “The difference between the NFLand the Golden Globes is that we get less shots of Taylor Swift,” he said. As the camera panned to Swift, the singer did not seemed amused and chose to sip on her drink instead.
The awkward reactions did not go unnoticed by fans, who took to their handles to slam the host. “SOMEONE CALL WILL SMITH,” fans tweeted and added, “I need him to slap this man.”
“Imagine reducing a movie with the most heartbreaking/influential speech for women ever to a movie about ‘big boobs’,” said another.
Another said, “YOU HAVE MARGOT ROBBIE, THE CAST OF BARBIE & TAYLOR FXCKING SWIFT IN THE AUDIENCE & YOU’RE NOT JUST HYPING THE F**K OUT OF WOMEN? THAT’S ALL YOU HAD TO DO. YOU HAD ONE JOB!”
Another said, “The awkward silence at Jo Koy’s Barbie jokes… He told smart jokes about the other nominees and all he had about Barbie was ‘big boobs’.”
“That joke about barbie was completely out of line. a doll with big b***s??? did you even watch the movie?” A fan asked.
“Reducing Barbie to a movie about “a doll with big b***s” for a joke… did you watch the movie with your eyes closed??? how did you miss the whole point?” commented another.
Despite some initial hiccups, Koy navigated the evening, addressing the challenges of taking on the hosting role on short notice. “Yo, I got the gig 10 days ago. You want a perfect monologue?” said Koy. “I wrote some of these and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”
It took two hours for ‘Barbie’, the year’s highest-grossing film with over $1.4 billion in ticket sales, to claim its first award. Billie Eilish‘s ‘What Was I Made For?’ secured the Best Song category, swiftly followed by ‘Barbie’ winning the new honour for “cinematic and box office achievement.”
Margot Robbie, star and producer of “Barbie,” dedicated the award to moviegoers, emphasizing the significance of theatres.
The anticipated showdown between “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” extended to the Best Screenplay category, where an unexpected turn of events saw Justine Triet and Arthur Harari winning for the French courtroom drama ‘Anatomy of a Fall’.
Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic ‘Oppenheimer’ dominated the 81st Golden Globes, winning five awards including best drama, while Yorgos Lanthimos’ Frankenstein riff ‘Poor Things’ pulled off an upset victor over ‘Barbie’ to triumph in the best comedy or musical category.