Even After Its Huge Success Barbie Was Still Mocked At The Golden Globes

The Barbie movie took 2023 by storm. The film was a cultural phenomenon, breaking box office records and leaving a lasting mark on generations of women who grew up feeling less than. Barbie worked to break down patriarchal notions while being funny, clever, and sweet. Barbie is quite literally one of those movies where you laugh and cry and want to call your mom.

Despite the lasting impact of the critically acclaimed film, Barbie was still the butt of so many unfunny jokes at the 2024 Golden Globes.

Golden Globes host and comedian Jo Koy opened with a monologue that bombed pretty hard after he went in on Barbie. First, Koy reduced Barbie to a film adaptation of “a plastic doll with big boobies,” while comparing the film to its box office buddy Oppenheimer.

“Oppenheimer is based on a 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project, and Barbie is on a plastic doll with big boobies,” he said.

Wow — hilarious! This joke sucks even more because the Barbie cast and the Oppenheimer cast have been so complimentary and friendly with one another about their respective movies, getting in on the “Barbieheimer” jokes and applauding one another’s work.

But no, we need to uplift the men and trash the women. It’s only natural!

Koy continued, “I watched Barbie, I really did love it. I don’t want you guys to think that I’m a creep, but it’s kind of weird being attracted to a plastic doll. It’s just something about your eyes, Ryan [Gosling] — and Margot [Robbie] not always about you.”

The camera cut to Gosling, Robbie, and the director and co-writer of Barbie, Greta Gerwig, who looked less than thrilled with the “jokes” at the film’s expense.

After that joke bombed, the rest of Koy’s monologue went downhill pretty quickly.

Koy took a swing at the acting industry amid another joke about the Barbie movie, saying, “The key moment in Barbie is when she goes from perfect beauty to bad breath, cellulite, and flat feet... or what casting directors call ‘character actor.’”

Once Koy realized the crowd was not having it, he quickly improvised.

“Some [jokes] I wrote, some other people wrote... yo, I got the gig 10 days ago, you want a perfect monologue?” he asked. “Shut up! You’re kidding me, right? Slow down. I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”

Only a film written, directed, and produced by and for women would get this kind of mocking and ridicule, reducing the film to a story about a woman’s anatomy.

Meanwhile, Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon also got poked fun at during Koy’s monologue. However, those jokes were about the length of the films and applauding Killers star Robert DeNiro for impregnating his wife at 80 years old. Gross.

Koy’s sexist Barbie jokes and weird off-script explosion led several viewers to defend the film, noting that Koy’s monologue is quite literally proving the point of the entire Barbie movie.

“Jo Koy reducing the Barbie movie to a movie about ‘big boobs’ when the entire plot of Barbie is how difficult it is to be a woman in a men’s world. It’s giving ‘I didn’t do the readings for class, but also talking during 85% of the class discussion,’” one X user said.

Another wrote, “So far Jo Koy has insulted Taylor Swift, the woman responsible for the highest-grossing music tour EVER, and the women responsible for the highest grossing film in Warner Bros history — Barbie. This year, of all the years. Reductive, sexist, and cheap. Hate it. #GoldenGlobes.”

One user pointed out, “jo koy’s ‘joke’ about the barbie movie is exactly why the barbie movie was made ... infuriating.” Exactly!

America Ferrera’s infamous monologue in Barbie lambasts the unfair world women live in and the impossible standards women are held to in a patriarchal society.

“It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we’re always doing it wrong,” Ferrera’s character, Gloria, says to Barbie.

The monologue continues, “You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line. It’s too hard! It’s too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault.”

So, you remember that moment when Koy was ripping on the film, directing some shots at Margot Robbie, and she just sat there and smiled? Life imitating art.

Koy also made headlines for his jab at Taylor Swift during the program. He acknowledged that Swift was in attendance at the star-studded event before referring to the attention she receives when she attends Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs games.

“The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL — on the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift,” Koy joked. “I swear, there’s just more to go to.”

After the joke received very few laughs, the camera cut to Swift who sipped her drink and remained straight-faced.

While it sucks that there are people (men) in these writer’s rooms thinking that sexist jokes are going to land, I guess it’s nice to know that the general public doesn’t seem to agree. Going so hard after Barbie and Taylor Swift in this day and age is a bold choice, and it blew up in Koy’s face.