Jo Koy Pokes Fun at Golden Globes Audience After Shaky Hosting Gig

Comedian Jo Koy made his return to the stand-up stage on Friday night and he joked about his widely-panned performance at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards. Koy hosted the award show and his monologue and other jokes did not land with the live audience or the viewers at home. Koy has taken the experience in stride, though he did joke that the Golden Globes audience simply didn’t like his material because “they’re soft.”

Koy kicked off his Jo Koy World Tour on Friday night at the Stifel Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri for a packed audience, according to a report by Variety. The crowd was warned in advance that hecklers would not be tolerated at this show, but it’s safe to assume that people who bought tickets were pre-existing fans of Koy. The audience welcomed him with thunderous applause, and Koy clearly basked in it as he said: “Holy s-, right? This big hug that you gave me is all I need, swear to god. F-ing whirlwind, goddamn.”

Koy was almost certainly alluding to the Golden Globes when he joked about other audiences being less receptive to his material. He said: “Lots of marshmallows, man. They’re delicious, but goddamn, they’re soft. I just come from a different time. I see the changes that are happening. I get it, but goddamn, can we f-ing laugh at ourselves?”

This was a slight change of tone compared to Koy’s other commentary on the night. He has appeared on several talk shows since the Golden Globes and has generally blamed himself for the subpar performance. He mentioned that hosting an award show is a uniquely difficult job for a stand-up comic, and discussed with The L.A. Times how under-prepared he was for the gig. He also acknowledged his mistake in throwing his writers under the bus during his monologue, calling it a “rookie move.”

Koy is out now on his Jo Koy World Tour, and tickets are available for most of the upcoming shows. He’ll spend January in Tennessee, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma, and will continue touring the U.S. through the end of April. After that, he’ll head over to Europe and tour through the end of May. You can check on ticket availability on his website here. Koy’s stand-up specials are streaming now on Netflix.