Jo Koy called his decision to blame his writers when his Golden Globes hosting gig began to go south “a rookie move.”
Speaking with the LA Times, Koy explained that he was “grasping” when he told the audience on Sunday night, “Some [jokes] I wrote, some other people wrote. Yo, I got the gig 10 days ago! You want a perfect monologue? Shut up! You’re kidding me, right? I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”
But Koy backtracked on the direction of his blame in the interview published Thursday.
“I love my writers. I love all three of them and I shouted them out. And I told them, like, that was a moment right there where I’m just grasping,” he told the Times.
He added, “There’s a lot of greats that make rookie moves. That was a rookie move. Those writers are dope and that was not my intention at all. They were amazing, they had my back and I need to make sure I fix that and I will, I always will.”
However, he doesn’t have a lot of regrets about taking the job, despite the savage reviews. “I’m the first Asian to ever solo host. It’s 2024, I’m the first out of 81 years. Sandra Oh was the first co-host, but I was the first solo host…. if I didn’t say yes, there still would never have been [one],” he explained.
“I think I did well given the circumstances… I’m gonna give myself an A-plus just based on the courage [to do it],” he said in the interview.
Amid all the criticism, a few comedians have come to Koy’s defense, including Steve Martin and Marc Maron.
As Koy has already explained, he had only 10 days to watch the nominated films and write jokes for the Globes, only two days with the writer and one rehearsal before the live show. That’s compared to returning Oscar host, Jimmy Kimmel, who does six months’ worth of prep before the big night.
Koy still doesn’t understand why his Taylor Swift joke bombed. Swift, who was in attendance, kept a straight face at the joke as the camera cut to her. Koy said that viewers have a better chance of spotting her during an NFL game thanks to boyfriend Travis Kelce than at the Globes.
“We kept hammering it and cutting it down. But the whole intention of that joke was to make fun of the NFL,” Koy said.
The comedian is preparing for two shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Feb. 16 and 17, which kick off his five-month world tour.
