This time last week, many were buzzing about the 2024 Golden Globe winners, but the roster of victors wasn’t the biggest story to come out of the awards show. What most were seemingly discussing was host Jo Koy. After his opening monologue, much of the Internet roasted Koy, apparently coming to the conclusion that he bombed. A number of his quips have been maligned by fans and a handful of notable celebrities. Among those who took issue is Koy’s ex-girlfriend and fellow comedian, Chelsea Handler. With that, Handler took aim at him while hosting the Critics’ Choice Awards, specifically referencing a joke in which he threw his writers under the bus.
What Did Jo Koy Say At The Golden Globes In Regard To His Writers?
Jo Koy received backlash for several of his comments, including a joke about Barbie simply being a doll with big boobs and one that took aim at Taylor Swift. Some of the jokes hit while others didn’t seem to connect with the audience at all. While referencing his mixed puns during the segment, he said, “Some I wrote, some other people wrote.” As mentioned by E!, he also said the following:
Yo, I got the gig 10 days ago. You want a perfect monologue? You, shut up. You're kidding me, right? Slow down. I wrote some of these and they're the ones you're laughing at.
All in all, the comments above really seem to have rubbed people the wrong way. The Chelsea Lately star, for her part, has never been one to bite her tongue, so it should be no surprise that she opted to speak up when she got the opportunity to take the stage herself.
Chelsea Handler Responded To The Writer Joke With A Wisecrack Of Her Own
Chelsea Handler’s opening spiel at the CCA seemed to be better received than her ex’s opening comments at the Globes. During her monologue, she joked about Harrison Ford and Robert De Niro while saying that she likes her men “old and hot.” Not only did she refer to Ford as a “smoke show,” but she also joked about her desire to take De Niro and “toss him around like a little Italian meatball.” After the audience laughed, she said the following:
Thank you for laughing at that, my writers wrote it.
That quip garnered an even larger response from the crowd. It should be mentioned that her former partner was not mentioned at the time. Nevertheless, those at the event and likely viewers at home as well, seemed to understand what the comic was referring to.
Meanwhile, Jo Koy has been speaking about his hosting experience since that highly discussed night. The star, who did take on the gig on short notice, believes he “did well given the circumstances.” He also spoke about the show during his first post-Globes stand-up gig, referring to the situation as a “fucking whirlwind” and calling those who were at the awards show “marshmallows.”
It’s fair to say that whether the comedian meant offense to writers or not when making his joke, you can’t help but consider the optics of the comments. We did, after all, just finish out a year that saw a historic WGA writers strike take place, during which Hollywood scribes sought better treatment and benefits from the industry at large. There’s no telling if he’ll respond to Chelsea Handler’s latest jab but, at this point, it definitely looks like the ball is in his court.
