A Quick Rundown
“Oppenheimer and Barbie are competing for Cinematic Box Office Achievement. Oppenheimer is based on a 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project, and Barbie is on a plastic doll with big boobies,” Comedian Jo Koy remarked barely 2 minutes into his opening monologue for the 2024 Golden Globes. The screen then panned to shots of displeased director Greta Gerwig, confused actor Ryan Gosling (“Ken”), and embarrassed actress Margot Robbie (“Barbie”). As the audience continued to fall out of his grasp, Koy decided to double down on the “joke,” saying, “The key moment in Barbie is when she goes from perfect beauty to bad breath, cellulite, and flat feet. Or, what casting directors call ‘character actor!’” This quote garnered a strong reaction from singer Selena Gomez, who put her hands to her forehead in disgust, and actress Emma Stone, who practically death-stared Koy.
Unpacking Koy’s “Jokes” about Barbie
As Koy begins his opening monologue, he explains that when he was offered to host the Golden Globes, he sat down and watched every single nominated movie. As he makes his way through the list of movies, he gets a few laughs here and there but certainly no boos. It’s when he makes his way to the Barbieheimer conversation that everything goes south.
Barbie and Oppenheimer took the media by storm earlier this summer when they released on the same date. Both movies were not only highly acclaimed by critics but also performed extraordinarily well in the box office with Barbie surpassing $1 billion and Oppenheimer gathering over $900 million, earning them a coveted nomination for the Cinematic Box Office Achievement Award. But, Koy’s approach to introducing both movies is really where the issue begins.
Koy seems to do nothing but appreciate the value of Oppenheimer, stating that it is based on a “Pulitzer Prize-winning book.” Compare that to his shallow and derogatory introduction of the feminist film Barbie as a movie about a “plastic doll with big boobies.” And, his demeaning attitude towards the film becomes really clear when he laughs at Barbie’s transformation from “perfect beauty” to “bad breath, cellulite, and flat feet,” basically ridiculing the (very real) body image issues for women across the globe. Perhaps that’s why Selena Gomez, who has been an advocate for body positivity for many years, could do nothing but shake her head at the comment.
Koy’s Professionalism (Or Lack Thereof)
As if Koy’s horribly unfunny jokes weren’t enough, Koy completely lost his cool during the opening monologue. After sensing the scattered laughter in the crowd, he immediately jumped to his defense while throwing script writers under the bus, saying, “Some I wrote, some other people wrote.” Realizing that wasn’t enough for the displeased crowd, he went fully off-script, yelling, “I got the gig 10 days ago. You want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up!…I wrote some of these and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”
Blaming writers as if you didn’t approve those jokes in the end? Yelling at your audience because they won’t laugh at your jokes? Complaining that you got the opportunity of a lifetime? Yikes! Doesn’t seem like the right host to me!
Have We Lost What an Opening Monologue Is?
I feel like the entire purpose of the opening monologue has been lost. At one point, opening monologues used to be filled with lighthearted and somewhat stupid jokes aimed at stars and their films. Take for example, Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh’s opening monologue at the 2019 Golden Globes. They took the “fake roasting” approach, acting as if they were about to insult actors/actresses in the crowd but, in reality, complimenting them.
Now, opening monologues are filled with the same regressive stereotypes that we have been trying to move on from. To take a feminist movie that aims to dismantle misogyny and dilute its message down to a misogynistic statement is perhaps one of the most disheartening things I’ve ever seen. Whether or not it was meant to be a “joke,” introducing a film like that at an award show with a viewership of 9.4 million people puts off the wrong message altogether.
If someone didn’t watch Barbie, they may now have more reason not to watch it because “Who wants to watch a film about a plastic doll with big boobies?”
