Prince Harry, James Corden and Ellen DeGeneres were among the famous faces roasted by Chelsea Handler during her opening monologue at Sunday night’s Critics’ Choice Awards.
The US star didn’t hold back in having a jokey dig at the headline makers of the last 12 months as she opened this year’s bash in Los Angeles.
“It is an honour to be your host tonight after everything that we have all been through together over the past few years between Covid, monkeypox, the Don’t Worry Darling press tour,” Chelsea began. “It’s been a lot.”
And just a week after he released his memoir, Spare, it didn’t take long for Chelsea to have a dig at Prince Harry - or rather the royal’s “frostbitten penis”.
In the book, which has become the fastest selling non-fiction book since its release, the duke discussed a trip to the North Pole, and described how his genitals had been frost-nipped.
“Niecy Nash-Betts is nominated for Dahmer,” Chelsea continued. “Dahmer became the third highest viewed show on Netflix, which a combined watch time of 1 billion hours, which, apparently, is the same amount of time we’re going to have to listen to Prince Harry talk about his frostbitten penis. Enough already.”
Prince Harry’s mate James Corden wasn’t spared either, following his alleged behaviour towards waiting staff that saw him briefly banned from NYC restaurant Balthazar.
Acknowledging the cast of the restaurant-based dramedy The Bear, Chelsea said: “They showed us how gruelling and how absolutely miserable working in the restaurant industry can be, and they didn’t even have to wait on James Corden.”
She went on to take aim at another talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres, and the toxic workplace allegations by staffers on her former daytime show, although Chelsea didn’t go as far as naming Ellen.
“In the movie Tár, Cate [Blanchett] portrayed an iconic lesbian whose career is affected by her toxic behaviour. And she didn’t even have to host her own daytime talk show,” Chelsea told the audience.
Jennifer Coolidge and Brendan Fraser were among the winners at Sunday night’s awards, which are often an indicator of success at the Academy Awards.
Watch Chelsea’s opening monologue in full above.