{"id":21449,"date":"2024-01-21T05:30:15","date_gmt":"2024-01-21T15:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=21449"},"modified":"2024-01-21T05:30:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T15:30:16","slug":"defending-jo-koys-golden-globes-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2024\/01\/21\/defending-jo-koys-golden-globes-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending Jo Koy\u2019s Golden Globes Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Emil Guillermo<\/em>

<\/strong>Social media was brutal. Even among Filipinos. Media commentators were no better. The overwhelming majority crucified comedian Jo Koy for his jokes at the Golden Globes on Jan. 7.

But I will not.

Koy, who was born Joseph Herbert in the Philippines to a Filipino mother, has made a name for himself telling Filipino stories, and I shall defend what he did that night.

But first, is anyone surprised there were no real political speeches given at the awards event?

Not a peep for the earth, global warning, or any of the world\u2019s geopolitical hotspots, pro or con. No calls for a ceasefire.

Not even in Koy\u2019s case, a cease-monologue.

There were only words of gratitude from the winners and those lucky enough to be in the room.

And that\u2019s OK, because the crucial political speech we need for 2024 may have been given by President Joe Biden on the eve of Jan. 6\u2014the third year after insurrection day in America, the most threatening anti-government violence in the U.S. since before the Civil War.

\u201cWhether democracy is still America\u2019s sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time,\u201d said Biden. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what the 2024 election is all about.\u201d

Make no mistake. Democracy is on the ballot, and so is your freedom, the president said. \u201cThe alternative to democracy is dictatorship. The rule of one, not the rule of we, the people.\u201d

The rule of one? That would be the former president who wants to be president again.

\u201c[Donald Trump] is willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power,\u201d said Biden as he contrasted Trump\u2019s campaign with his own.

\u201cOur campaign is about America. It\u2019s about you. It\u2019s about every age and background that occupy this country.\u201d

Which means America is all about diversity, equity and inclusion. And guess which end of the political spectrum is mounting a full-scale attack on that?

The history of Jan. 6, 2021 is a somber one with more than 1,200 people charged with assault, and nearly 900 of them convicted or pleading guilty.

\u201cThe whole world watched in disbelief and Trump did nothing,\u201d Biden said as he went over the history, noting how Trump calls insurrectionists hostages and patriots.

Like I said, if you haven\u2019t read or watched the speech, do so now: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jobw57hsu6w<\/a>. Biden\u2019s not acting but deserves a Golden Globe. The situation is for real.

In 2024, if you make every day a commemoration of Jan. 6, you\u2019ll never forget the importance of your vote this coming November.

No shortage of freedom and diversity at the Globes and Jo Koy led the way<\/strong>
I\u2019ve been covering representation issues for years in my \u201cAmok\u201d columns. This was one of the few awards shows where diversity was on full display from start to finish.

Perhaps the most historical award went to Lily Gladstone, the female lead actress in Martin Scorsese\u2019s \u201cKillers of the Flower Moon.\u201d ICT-Indian Country Today called Gladstone the first Native woman to win the Golden Globe award for best actress in a dramatic film.

Latinx? Barbie\u2019s America Ferrara was in our faces as nominee and presenter.

African Americans? From Da\u2019Vine Joy Randolph in \u201cThe Holdovers\u201d to Ayo Edebiri in \u201cThe Bear,\u201d new emerging talent was honored that night.

And then there was \u201cBeef.\u201d

To Biden\u2019s earlier point about democracy and dictatorship, would a \u201cBeef\u201d be even possible in, say, North Korea?

Nope. But look what happens when South Korean director\/writer\/ executive producer Lee Sung Jin collaborated with Asian Americans like Ali Wong and Steven Yeun.

It was historic with Golden Globes for all.

The only thing I didn\u2019t like about \u201cBeef\u201d was its repeated references to \u201cthe Filipinos.\u201d But that\u2019s OK. David Choe was fearful of them. It was a joke. About Filipinos. I get it.

Which brings us to the night\u2019s host, Jo Koy.

Never met him. But I\u2019m defending the brother, the first Filipino Asian American ever to host the Golden Globes. That\u2019s not insignificant in show business.

As a fellow firster too (I was the first Filipino Asian American to host a national news show), I was cheering him on.

The dude was funnier than people give him credit for being. Review the video. He got laughs. And he got under the thin skin of many an Ozempic-addled starlet in the audience when he poked fun at Taylor Swift.

\u201cWe came on after a football double-header,\u201d joked Koy. \u201cThe big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? On the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift.\u201d

It was a current barb worthy of satire and would have been a solid 3- or 5-second laugh, if Koy hadn\u2019t out of nervousness cut the bit short and started apologizing for the joke.

He did that for a few of his jokes. But that one hit hard. Proof? Off stage, reports say Emma Stone, a Globe winner, felt compelled to rally to the defense of her sister Swift, calling Koy an \u201ca-hole.\u201d Stone should know better. It\u2019s a joke.

Other journalists and writers are out there piling on, one says Koy was the wrong host for the show.

Caribou manure.

They don\u2019t understand comedy.

After Ricky Gervais hosted the Globes, the celebrities should know, when you go to the Globes, you\u2019re fair game, Hollywood elites lined up as ducks in a row for the host\u2019s monologue.

The only thing that would have made Koy\u2019s appearance perfect was if Swift\u2019s suitor, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce were actually there to do a Will Smith number.

He could have said, \u201cGet my Pop Star\u2019s name out your mouth,\u201d or some such. Then he punched him out.

Now that would have blown up the internet.

I don\u2019t condone it. I just mean to point out that Koy didn\u2019t really bomb as much as some are saying.

A Vanity Fair headline, \u201cJo Koy\u2019s Jokes Draw Stony Silence at the Golden Globes 2024,\u201d doesn’t apply to his whole ten-minute set. Some received less than enthusiastically, but having been in standup situations myself, you just keep throwing punches.

He even landed a few.

I guess it’s all about taste. It\u2019s why you say “Oppenheimer” and I say “Barbie.”

If you analyze that monologue, Koy did an admirable job given he was just announced in December as the host.

He wasn\u2019t as controversial or insulting as Ricky Gervais in the past.

Koy\u2019s nerves did seem to get the better of him, as he went on playing up how he\u2019d watched the Globes growing up, and gee, look at all the stars in the room.

Instantly, he became an uncomfortable gawker. He acted like he didn\u2019t belong.

But he did. It was almost like a case of comedian imposter syndrome.

Koy scored when he was edgier.

When he joked about \u201cKillers of the Flower Moon,\u201d director Martin Scorsese\u2019s Native American drama, Koy praised the cast, including Gladstone, who would by night\u2019s end become the first Native American to win best actress in a motion picture. A big deal.

\u201cThe one thing I learned about that movie is that white people stole everything,\u201d said Koy to more laughs. \u201c100 percent of everything. You took the land. You took the oil. You took the premise of the movie.\u201d

That was a solid 4-second laugh, which ended abruptly when someone in the crowd, maybe Scorsese sitting in the front, said it was his premise.

\u201cThat was your premise?\u201d Koy asked aloud. \u201cIt\u2019s just that the room is really white.\u201d

But Koy struck a nerve. That used to be known as a comedian\u2019s job. But apparently, not in the age of cancel culture.

So Koy may not have been as great as he\u2019s been as when he\u2019s sold-out theaters in Hawaii and around the country. But Koy just wasn\u2019t as terrible as some reports are saying the morning after.

He did get in a Filipino accented joke talking about his mother\u2019s love for Meryl Streep. He proclaimed his Filipino-ness in a joke about how \u201cthe Golden Globes wanted to honor my culture, so for the very first time they served sushi.\u201d

Then the punch. \u201cBut I\u2019m Filipino. We cook our fish.\u201d

He even got a solid laugh when he went back to Streep mimicking a comical what-if scene where she proclaims, \u201cWakanda Forever.\u201d That visual got a big laugh.

Jo Koy acknowledges it was a rough night, in an interview with the LA Times. He still would give himself an A+ for courage. No loss of self-esteem there.

But I agree. He even closed the show the way I close every one of my Emil Amok\u2019s Takeouts. (You can listen at YouTube.com\/@emilamok1) It\u2019s a Filipino thing?

There really are too many positives about the night that drew a record 9.4 million viewers on CBS. That was several times more than last year.

The Globe\u2019s diverse winners had that look of our American democracy. That\u2019s what we should be talking about, how the show represented the diverse voices in showbiz.

Not about whether Jo Koy was the right choice to host the show. Or whether he was funny.

Of course, he was. The Filipino guy.

It\u2019s just a new era of comedy, where people\u2014if they don\u2019t agree with your premise\u2014are quicker to debate than laugh.

EMIL GUILLERMO<\/strong> is a journalist, commentator, as well as a monologue artist who performs at theater festivals around the country. I<\/em>\u2019<\/em>ll talk about this column on my microtalk show, <\/em>\u201c<\/em>Emil Amok<\/em>\u2019<\/em>s Takeout,<\/em>\u201d<\/em> on <\/em>YouTube.com\/@emilamok1<\/em><\/a>. Contact: <\/em>emilamok@gmail.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emil Guillermo Social media was brutal. Even among Filipinos. Media commentators were no better….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[29,20,12],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?fit=468%2C604",468,604,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?resize=150%2C150",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?fit=232%2C300",232,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?fit=468%2C604",468,604,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?fit=468%2C604",468,604,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?fit=468%2C604",468,604,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?fit=468%2C604",468,604,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?resize=468%2C604",468,604,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?resize=468%2C570",468,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?resize=468%2C604",468,604,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?resize=468%2C600",468,600,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?resize=468%2C604",468,604,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?resize=468%2C500",468,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?fit=468%2C604",468,604,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?resize=419%2C340",419,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?resize=260%2C250",260,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Candid Perspectives<\/a> Featured<\/a> Mainland<\/a>","tag_info":"Mainland","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CP-JoKoy-color_01202024.jpg?fit=468%2C604","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21449"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21450,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21449\/revisions\/21450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}