Comedian Jo Koy has shared his take on some of his jokes that didn’t go down so well during this year’s Golden Globes ceremony.
During Sunday night’s broadcast, it’s fair to say that Jo’s comedy monologue received a somewhat muted response from both the celebrities in attendance and viewers watching at home.
One joke in particular that fell flat came when he referenced Taylor Swift, who was in the audience, and looked decidedly unimpressed with the joke.
“I didn’t understand the Taylor tiff,” the comic admitted to the LA Times. “Mind you, that [joke] was just getting rewritten 50 million times, never ran it through, all the way up until we had to walk out. It’s just weird, where do you place it, and and we kept hammering it and cutting it down.
“But the whole intention of that joke was to make fun of the NFL. It’s like, the cool thing about the Globes is we don’t need to do cutaways for ratings.”
He continued: “What hurts the most is me just supporting Taylor, I support her, I love her work. I got nieces that I bought tickets for. There’s no ill intent in that joke. The joke is about the NFL and how they keep using cutaways to [her]. And it’s an obvious reason why.
“I’m not saying anything that no one’s saying, and it’s obvious what that joke was. It’s about the NFL. It’s like out of everything that has happened this is the one you choose to go after.”
Jo previously received something of a backlash when he quipped that Oppenheimer was “based on a 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project,” while Barbie was inspired by “a plastic doll with big boobies”.
Reflecting on “the reaction to the Barbie joke”, Jo said: “The things that are being said, it’s just like, man, I don’t think you understand who I am as a person, you know what I mean?
“Because if you’ve ever seen me, you’ll see just how much I praise and shine light on women, from my ex-wife to my mum. My whole goal is to try and change that type of narrative and just that look of being part of a divorced family.
“I’m telling a joke — what happened to society where we can’t even joke with each other anymore. I bought the movie. I supported the movie. Yes, that’s the story that that doll needed. And I’m glad because now there’s people that look like my mum that can support that.”
Since Sunday’s ceremony, Barbie director Greta Gerwig has also revealed her surprising reaction to Jo’s joke about her film.