He will always be our Jo Koy

By Cristina DC Pastor

He hosted the Golden Globe Awards and delivered one flop after another. The mainstream media began to crank out brutal putdowns of his monologue even as the award ceremony was still airing.

“Jo Koy bombs at the Golden Globes” — New York Post

“Jo Koy’s Jokes Draws Stony Silence at the Golden Globes 2024” — Vanity Fair

“2024 Golden Globes: Jo Koy labeled ‘the worst host ever’ as social media blasts comedian after dreadful monologue that left audience resorting to pity laughs” – Daily Mail UK

As a Filipina who is a Jo Koy fan, it hurt. It felt like the comments were hurled at our entire community accusing us of not being a funny people. Now, some are blaming Jo Koy, our beloved jokester, our FilAm funnyman, our cultural icon, for bringing shame upon all of us.

I was prepared to watch the full Globes and plopped on the sofa expecting a hearty laugh. None came. I looked at my husband beside me and asked, “Anything funny?” He shrugged.

He began by saying his mom predicted Meryl Streep to win because “she always wins,” I thought it was a good start. But no punchline followed.

When he said the big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL is because “we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift” in the Golden Globes, her face was a blank. I felt embarrassed that this one made no impact.

He lobbed another bomb this time on “Saltburn” and Barry Keoghan’s penis, I thought, “Oh no, not another penis joke.”

As an up-and-coming comic in Las Vegas in early 2000, Jo Koy’s jokes about his son’s “ting ting” were laughable because they’re a novelty until they maxed out their welcome. Lately he’s been known to poke fun of his mom’s peeing style in a “tabo,” and that may have been ok for a while until it became in poor taste.

Generally speaking, he can be funny and it hurt to see his Hollywood audience not seeing the humor in him. His standups were at their most hilarious especially when he talked about his Filipino family. How his parents met in the Philippines and how he became the Purple Heart of his military service dad. How his mom asked him to “hide her purse” when his sister’s African American boyfriend came to visit for the first time and how she castigated him for being racist. How his mom cried and implored him to be a nurse instead of being a comedian because “do you see a clown in our family?”

At the Golden Globes, there was no riff on his Filipino family. Instead, he commented on nominated films with jokes that quickly fell flat. At one point, he appeared to be blaming his writers.

“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.” To which the Daily Beast detected, “A general rule of comedy: If you’re scolding the audience for failing to laugh at your jokes, you’ve already lost. Apparently, however, no one told Golden Globes host Jo Koy that.”

I wondered why Jo Koy never mentioned he was Filipino? Not sure how that would have affected his performance but the way it looked, he felt like that boy in school that wisecracked his way around his classmates to fit in. He may not be white – Jo Koy is half white — but he mimicked the accent, brought the same American food and made sure he made everyone laugh.

It was obvious he was nervous which may partly explain why the jokes came out flat. I trust Jo Koy will recover. Someone who was once upon a time hungry for acceptance — not so much fame – knows what it felt like to be booed in a bar. He rose above the taunts and jeers just as I believe he can rise above his botched Golden Globe act and lift himself up and back in the comedy game.

Years down the road he will look back at this gig and make fun of it and we, his Filipino tribe, will laugh along with him.

Next year Golden Globes, get Ricky Gervais!

© The FilAm 2024