With monologue falling flat, Golden Globes host Jo Koy gets defensive

Los Angeles, Jan 8

Well, there's definitely been worse, 'The Hollywood Reporter' comments, as it reports on how first-time -- and relatively last-minute -- Golden Globes host Jo Koy "struggled a bit to generate laughs during his monologue opening the 2024 awards show".

"I got the gig 10 days ago!" Koy informed the Beverly Hilton's celebrity-filled audience at one point. "You want a perfect monologue?"

"Some I wrote, some other people wrote," said Koy, who was announced as host on December 21. "I wrote some of these and those are the ones you're laughing at."

And later, after one joke got a tepid response, he said, "That’s hilarious, I don’t care."

Reaction to the monologue on X came swift: "As a Filipino American, this Jo Koy monologue is like watching a car crash," wrote one viewer. "He looks like he’s about to have an aneurysm." Wrote another: "[A] comedian's nightmare fuel up there on stage today."

Public broadcaster NPR's Eric Deggans, according to 'The Hollywood Reporter', was being more diplomatic when he wrote, "Jo Koy is a great comic, but I’m not sure he's used to working a showbiz crowd hosting the #GoldenGlobes. His monologue wasn't biting enough but also was a little too biting in the same moment. Tougher gig than it looks."

Still, the Filipino American comedian's monologue was arguably less cringe-inducing than last year's ceremony, where host Jerrod Carmichael awkwardly laid into the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the people behind the Golden Globes.