The cohosts of The View think Taylor Swift needs to calm down when it comes to Jo Koy‘s joke about her and the NFL.
Whoopi Goldberg opened up the discussion on the Monday, January 8, episode of the ABC daytime show, recapping what went down at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards one day prior. “For the first time, stand-up comedian Jo Koy took on the hosting duties, and it was a rough room for him,” Goldberg, 68, said before throwing to a clip of Koy’s monologue.
Koy, 52, kicked off the awards ceremony on Sunday, January 7, with a few digs at Hollywood favorites that didn’t quite land, including a sexist joke about Barbie. While gauging the response from the audience, Koy put the blame on the writers. “I got the gig 10 days ago! You want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up. … I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at,” he claimed.
After a commercial break, he set his sights on Swift, 34, whose relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has made her a frequent feature during NFL broadcasts. “The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift. I swear,” he said.
The camera panned to show Swift, who took a sip of her drink with an unhappy expression on her face.
As a fellow comedian, Goldberg noted on Monday that she felt for Koy. “These gigs, these hosting gigs are brutal. They’re just brutal,” she said. “If you don’t know the room, if you’ve not been in these rooms before and you’re thrust out there, it’s hit or miss. … 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] as good as it gets when it comes to stand-ups.”
Goldberg emphasized that hosting isn’t “an easy gig,” encouraging viewers to “read any of the reviews” from some of her own performances that weren’t well-received.
While Ana Navarro admitted that Koy “wasn’t funny” to her, cohost Sara Haines took more of an issue with the crowd’s reaction — Swift included. “I love Jo Koy and the whole time I was nervous for him because I think he’s so funny. He’s kind, he’s good, all the things,” Haines, 46, argued. “What bothers me more in watching this is, get a sense of humor, because we need to protect these national treasures called our comedians, because life needs them.”
Haines declared that Koy was “punching up” with his Golden Globes jokes, adding, “No one feels sorry. Just smile.”
Sunny Hostin was interested in the opinion of The View‘s biggest Swiftie, Alyssa Farah Griffin, asking whether Koy’s comment was really “that bad” to elicit such a strong reaction. “I was a little surprised,” Griffin, 34, confessed. “I thought that was kind of a lay-up. … I thought [Jo] got very good as the night went on.”
Swift hasn’t addressed the joke further, but Koy has repeatedly stood by his work.
“Aww, man, it was cute. I was just saying it was cute,” he told Entertainment Tonight after the show. “I was just saying it’s less cutaways, that’s all.”
He explained to Extra, “It was a compliment, like, she could be more intimate tonight, that’s all.”
Speaking to GMA3 on Monday, Koy said he’d “be lying” if he said the criticism of his performance wasn’t hard to hear. “It was a weird joke, I guess,” he said of his Swift quip. “But it was more on the NFL … I was trying to make fun of the NFL using cutaways and how the Globes didn’t have to do that. So it was more of a jab toward the NFL. But it just didn’t come out that way.”
