Golden Globes host Jo Koy’s monologue didn’t go over well with those in attendance or viewers watching at home. Still, his comedic colleagues had his back, despite some of their criticism of his decision to shift the blame to his joke writers. The evidence of support was Comedy writer Ben Siemon sharing: “He’s juggling, and he’s killing it … . The audience is providing zero support, and he’s slogging through.”.
Comedian Laurie Kilmartin, who is also host of a podcast about comedy, expressed her perspective sympathetically, detailing the struggles with having a famous, nervous and humorless audience, writing, “They’re famous, nervous and humorless, and 10 days is genuinely not enough time to write about 500 jokes, which is how many you need to find 15 suitable jokes.”
“She is right, if not lowballing it a little,” said comedian Eliza Skinner. “It’s a wildly specific crowd — huge celebrities that are braced to be roasted on camera. You can see it on their faces — they’re like, ‘Oh f–k, what now’ as soon as they’re on camera.”
“Those people in that audience do not want to be made fun of,” radio host Howard Stern said on his show teasingly, “They’re very concerned about their image and their publicist. I mean, if you’re shelling out 25, 30 percent of your income on publicists and agents, you don’t wanted to be goofed on on television.”
That’s why awards show hosting can be a somewhat thankless job, as well as one of the toughest tightrope walks on television.
“The job isn’t just ‘tell funny jokes’ — it’s find a way to crack that very tough room and get them to laugh with you,” Skinner said. “Personally, I think that takes getting the crowd to trust you. But I think nowadays, a lot of comics miss that.”
Just three writers were credited at the end of the broadcast, one of whom was also one of the show’s executive producers, with three others receiving credit for “special material.” There are often uncredited writers who contribute to awards show monologues, but it still appeared to be an understaffed effort.
“You need a ton of writers for a good monologue,” Skinner said. “You need union TV comedy writers, who are dedicated to just writing (not also directing or producing the show). I wonder how many that show had. Awards shows often cut corners on that these days because they are so invested in the celebrity power of the show, they think that’s all they need.”
Jo Koy didn’t do himself favors by being seen as throwing his writers under the bus, though, as he made a point to note as things went awry that he’s the one who wrote the jokes actually drawing laughs. Comedy writer Ben Siemon was one of numerous writers,