Steve Martin jokes hosting is ‘not for the squeamish’ after Jo Koy’s Golden Globes performance
Give ’em a hand!
Hollywood legend Steve Martin defended Joy Koy on Tuesday after the stand-up comic’s lukewarm performance during Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony.
“I tip my hat to anyone who steps out on stage to host a live awards show,” Martin, 78, posted on Threads. “It’s a very difficult job and not for the squeamish.
“I know because I’m still throwing up from the last time I did it in 2010,” continued Martin, who has hosted the Academy Awards three times.
“So, Congratulations to Jo Koy, who took on the toughest gig in show business, hit, missed, was light on his feet, and now has twenty minutes of new material for his stand-up,” Martin concluded.
Martin is not the only person to have leapt to the 52-year-old comic’s defense.
EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg, who hosted the Academy Awards four times, also commented on how “brutal” hosting an awards show can be.
“For the first time, stand-up comedian Jo Koy took on the hosting duties, and it was a rough room for him,” Goldberg, 68, said. “These gigs, these hosting gigs, are brutal. They’re just brutal.
“If you don’t know the room, if you’ve not been in these rooms before and you’re thrust out there, it’s hit or miss,” the “Sister Act” star stated. “I don’t know whether it was the room or the jokes; I didn’t get to see it, but I do know that [Jo is] as good as it gets when it comes to stand-ups.”
During his opening monologue, Koy — who was hired a mere 10 days before the ceremony — made several jokes that seemed to fall extremely flat with the star-studded audience.
“The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift. I swear,” Koy said, earning him a glare from the “Love Story” singer.
He found himself in further disgrace after he made the comment: “‘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.”
A “hurt”-looking Koy later admitted, “I had fun. You know, it was a moment that I’ll always remember. It’s a tough room.”
“It was a hard job, I’m not going to lie,” he added during his appearance on “GMA3” the following day.
“I’d be lying if [I said] it doesn’t hurt … Hosting is just a tough gig,” continued the comedian. “Yes, I’m a stand-up comic, but that hosting position, it’s a different style.”
Koy later stated that if he could redo anything, he would take back the joke about Swift.
“I think it was when the Taylor [Swift] one was just a little flat,” he said. “It was a weird joke, I guess.”
“But it was more on the NFL … I was trying to make fun of the NFL using cutaways and how the Globes didn’t have to do that,” Koy explained.
“So it was more of a jab toward the NFL. But it just didn’t come out that way.”
