"Barbie is a Big-Breasted Doll Movie... Swift Shows Less Skin" Comedian Dampens Golden Globe Ceremony

"Criticism for 'Big-Breasted Doll Movie' Demeaning Remarks
Jokes Made Referencing Swift's Private Life"

Comedian Jo Koy (53), who hosted the American entertainment awards show Golden Globe, is facing fierce criticism for inappropriate jokes.

Barbie doll. [Image source=Pixabay]

On the 7th (local time), Jo Koy served as the host of the 81st Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles (LA), California, USA. In his opening remarks, he mentioned the films 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer,' which were competing in the box office hit category.

Jo Koy explained, "Oppenheimer is based on a 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project," then disparagingly referred to Barbie as "a movie made with big-breasted plastic dolls." He added, "I watched Barbie. It was good. I hope you don't think I'm a weird person," but also said, "The key moment in Barbie is when perfect beauty turns into bad breath, cellulite, and flat feet."

The movie 'Barbie' reinterprets the Barbie doll, which symbolized typical beauty standards, portraying diverse femininities and raising issues about women's achievements and gender roles. After sweeping the global box office last year, it surpassed $1.4 billion (about 1.8 trillion won) in global revenue, gaining recognition for both its commercial success and artistic value.

Lead actors Margot Robbie (right) and Ryan Gosling (left) from the movie 'Barbie' are making stern faces while listening to Joe Coy's joke.
[Image source=Golden Globes YouTube capture]

As Jo Koy made mocking jokes without understanding the work, the atmosphere in the audience quickly cooled. Greta Gerwig, the director of 'Barbie,' along with lead actors Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, showed displeasure with stern expressions. Actress Emma Stone also frowned, and Selena Gomez touched her forehead and bowed her head.

A New York Times (NYT) reporter who was present at the scene said, "I've never seen an audience protest a host so quickly," and added, "A famous director described it as a 'disaster.'" Time magazine pointed out that "it unintentionally revealed the fundamental sexism the film faces," and netizens also criticized, saying, "Barbie was made because of people like Koy," and called it "sexist and misogynistic remarks."

Comedian Jo Koi, who served as the host of the 81st Golden Globe Awards, is being criticized for inappropriate jokes. [Image source=Reuters·Yonhap News]

Jo Koy's problematic remarks did not end there. He referred to pop star Taylor Swift, who attended the awards ceremony, saying, "The biggest difference between the Golden Globes and the National Football League (NFL) is that there are fewer camera shots of Swift at the Golden Globes."

This was a reference to Swift frequently attending games to support her football player boyfriend, who is publicly dating her, and being caught on broadcast screens. However, Swift's stern expression was immediately captured by the camera, leading to criticism that Koy's remarks were inappropriate.

As the controversy grew, Jo Koy explained in an interview with a media outlet the next day, "I accepted the Golden Globe host offer just 10 days ago," and "It took 10 days to write the script, so how perfect could it be? Some lines were not written by me." Nevertheless, he said, "Although I feel bad about the criticism, I still love my performance." Netizens who saw this pointed out that Koy was making excuses to justify his mistakes.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.