The Golden Globes are broadcast every year to award those with outstanding performances and works in the film industry. This year, the 81st Golden Globes were held on January 7th, and fashion wasn’t the only thing that got the audience’s attention. Jo Koy was the host this year, and like most people, I had no idea who he was. For those who don’t know, Jo Koy is an actor and stand-up comedian with six comedy specials on Comedy Central and Netflix. Koy’s speech started off just fine, and he discussed how hosting was a dream come true and an early childhood memory he had involving Meryl Streep. He then goes into the discussion of what could arguably be the two most popular movies of 2023: Oppenheimer and Barbie. He talks about Oppenheimer and how it is about the Manhattan Project. He then goes on to make a misogynistic comment saying, “Oppenheimer is based on a 721-page, Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project. And Barbie is on a plastic doll with big b**bies.” He completely belittles the movie and its message about women’s empowerment. After realizing the joke went too far and fell flat, he proceeds to say, “Some [jokes] I wrote, some other people wrote,” and blames the screenwriters of the award show. He also made a joke about Taylor Swift, which once again, fell flat and he proceeded to say, “Yo, shut up. I wrote some of these, and those are the ones you’re gonna laugh at.” Once again, he has blamed anyone but himself and fails to land a good, inoffensive joke. 

Within the first three minutes of his ten-minute long monologue, Koy lost his audience and made himself public enemy number one. The cameras show some of the audience’s reactions including Ryan Gosling and Robert De Nero, both of which are not laughing and have a serious look on their face. This is also how I reacted to the horrible joke. I thought the joke was extremely offensive considering certain events that have happened in the past few years, like Roe v Wade being overturned. Barbie was meant as a form of empowerment for women and to show what girlhood is really about, which is being true to yourself. 

I am not the only one who found this joke to be extremely offensive. Several people online have expressed their distaste for Koy’s joke and called him out for his sexist behavior. Bob Jones senior, Carmen Hunderman, weighed in and said, “I didn’t like him. I am one of the many people who did not know of his existence prior to the show. As soon as the joke left his mouth, I left the video and didn’t want to hear anything else he had to say.” Koy is now going on what everyone is calling his “apology tour” where he basically is saying that even though he understands how his jokes were offensive, he still loved the monologue he gave. In my opinion, this doesn’t sound much like an apology considering he still loves what he has done and does not address that his jokes may have hurt people.