MANILA, Philippines — With the awards season in full swing, a number of hosts and presenters are looking to do better than Filipino-American comedian Jo Koy at his recent historic hosting of the Golden Globes.
Jo Koy became the first individual of Filipino descent to host the tumultuous awards ceremony, but his performance drew flak because of jokes that viewers found to be flat and unfunny at times.
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The comedian's monologue was fairly safe and basic, but the night took a turn for the worst when he described "Barbie" as a movie "on a plastic doll with big boobies," attempted to make a joke about cameras pointing at Taylor Swift, and ultimately threw writers under the bus.
"Some I wrote, some other people wrote," Jo Koy said during the ceremony. "Yes, I got the gig 10 days ago! You want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up. You're kidding me, right? Slow down, I wrote some of these and they are the ones you are laughing at."
He later admitted to feeling hurt by the criticism he's been receiving for his hosting, although his fellow comedians found opportunities to take jabs at his performance, including Jo Koy's ex-girlfriend, Chelsea Handler, who hosted the 2024 Critics Choice Awards.
Handler joked about being attracted to older men like Harrison Ford, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese, all of them octogenarians, though the latter was not present.
"Unfortunately, Martin Scorsese isn't here tonight, but that's not gonna stop me from letting everyone in this room know that I would toss him around like a little Italian meatball," Handler said, which elicited laughter from the crowd. "Thank you for laughing at that. My writers wrote it."
there will be no taylor slander at the 2024 PCAs that's a personal guarantee https://t.co/cbLROABz7s
— Simu Liu (@SimuLiu) January 11, 2024
At the 75th Emmy Awards, which was also delayed for several months because of the Hollywood strikes, "Community" stars Joel McHale and Ken Jeong reunited onstage to present the Outstanding Reality Competition award and also took a dig at Jo Koy's hosting.
Jeong began by comparing reality television and medicine as he was formerly a practicing physician, then McHale joked that he was "kicked out for killing a guy."
"You can't say that!" Jeong replied. "The instruments that almost killed that dude were the ones the nurses left in. The ones that saved his life, I left in. Besides, I only had the gig for 10 days at that point so give me a break."
Earlier this week, Marvel and "Barbie" star Simu Liu was confirmed to be hosting the 2024 People's Choice Awards and he reposted the announcement on X (formerly Twitter) with yet another jab at Jo Koy.
"There will be no Taylor [Swift] slander at the 2024 PCAs that's a personal guarantee," Liu wrote, previously admitting to be a fan of the singer-songwriter.
Amid the jokes and criticism, Jo Koy gave his hosting an A-plus grade because of the courage it took him to do it and also pointed out that he is the first Asian to host solo the Globes in its 81 years (Sandra Oh co-hosted the ceremony in 2019 with Andy Samberg).
RELATED: 'A-plus': Jo Koy grades his Golden Globes 2024 hosting, reflects on 'bombed' jokes