The 81st Golden Globe Awards occurred at The Beverly Hilton Hotel, in Beverly Hills, California. The ceremony was broadcast live on January 7, 2024. The Golden Globe Awards Ceremony is an iconic event that honors the best achievements of film making in the most recent year. The 1st Golden Globe Awards took place in January of 1944 at the 20th Century Fox Studios. The event itself has been held at many different venues over the years such as the Beverly Hills Hotel, and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The award show honored the best in film American productions of 2023. Some of the nominations included Best Motion Picture (Drama), Cinematic and Box office achievement, Best Director (Motion Picture), and Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy). This year differed from previous years because of the controversy surrounding the host, Jo Koy, and his off-color comments.
With the show averaging 9.4 million viewers watching from home this year, up from 50% since the 2023 award show, many people were chatting about the show the next day, specifically about some of the comments that were made by American comedian and actor, Koy.
During the most award shows it is ubiquitous for the host to poke fun and “roast” certain celebrities. But we all remember the Chris Rock vs. Will Smith drama, so it’s no surprise that the audience felt like Koy took some of his jokes too far. Koy opened with a jab at singer Taylor Swift: “The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL, on the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift.” Swift did not seem very amused and chose to take a sip of her champagne instead.
One of the most reputable movies that came out this year and was recognized at the Golden Globes was the Barbie movie. It was released in July of 2023 and fans immediately took a liking to the film because of its realistic demonstrations of what it is like to be a woman. Barbie was played by actress Margot Robbie, and Ken, by actor Ryan Gosling. As the Barbie movie was one of the most well-known films that came out this year, Koy also decided to take a jab at the film’s values by comparing it to another popular movie that was also released this summer, “Oppenheimer.” Koy described Oppenheimer as being, “based on a 721 page Pulitzer Prize-winning book based on the Manhattan Project, while then stating, ‘And ‘Barbie’ is based on a plastic doll with big boobies.”
“I think that his comments really defeated the entire purpose of the Barbie movie, and they came across as very sexist to me,” said Jack Murphy, a senior at Thomas Worthington.
Koy’s comments came across as demeaning to many people, but surprisingly not broadcaster and media personality star Howard Stern. Stern defended koy by criticizing hollywood instead of koy himself. On Stern’s Sirius XM show, he said that the hosting gig is “stupid” and added that, “nobody wanted to host this thing. Those shows are f*cking hard to do, Hollywood has no sense of humor about itself. Those people in that audience do not want to be made fun of. They’re very concerned about their image and their publicists…So to go up there and be the host of the Golden Globes is a ridiculous gig.”
The events that took place during the Golden Globes this year were definitely memorable. WIth more award shows coming up soon this year, will other hosts tone down their commentary or follow in Jo Koy’s footsteps this awards season?
