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 really difficult job and never for the squeamish.”
“I do know because I’m still throwing up from the last time I did it in 2010,” continued Martin, who has hosted the Academy Awards 3 times.
“So, Congratulations to Jo Koy, who took on the hardest gig in show business, hit, missed, was light on his feet, and now has twenty minutes of recent material for his stand-up,” Martin concluded.
Martin is not the only person to have lept to the 52-year-old comic’s defense.
EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg, who hosted the Academy Awards 4 times, also commented on how “brutal” hosting an award show will be.
“For the first time, slapstick 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.”
“For those who don’t know the room, for those who’ve not been in these rooms before and also you’re thrust on the market, it’s hit and 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] pretty much as good because it gets with regards to stand-ups.”
During his opening monologue, Koy — who was hired a mere 10 days before the ceremony — made several jokes that appeared to fall extremely flat with the star-studded audience.
“The massive difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we’ve fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift. I swear.” Koy said earning him a glare from the “Love Story” singer.
Koy found himself in further disgrace after he made a comment that: “‘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 that “I had a good time. You realize, it was a moment that I’ll at all times remember. It’s a tricky room.”
“It was a tough job, I’m not going to lie,” he added during his appearance on GMA 3 the following day.
“I’d be lying if [I said] it doesn’t hurt . . . Hosting is just a tricky gig,” continued the comedian. “Yes, I’m a stand-up comic, but that hosting position, it’s a special style.”
Koy later stated that if he could redo anything, he would take back the joke about Swift.
I believe it was when the Taylor [Swift] one was just just a little flat,” he said. “It was a weird joke, I suppose.”
“Nevertheless it was more on the NFL . . . I used to be attempting to make fun of the NFL using cutaways and the way the Globes didn’t have to do this,” Koy explained.
“So it was more of a jab toward the NFL. Nevertheless it just didn’t come out that way,” Koy admitted.