Joy Behar has some bold advice for Taylor Swift after she became the butt of a savage joke at the Golden Globes this year.
Now, it all kicked off when Jo Koy, the host of the 81st Golden Globe Awards, which took place at the Beverly Hilton in California, decided to make sure his opening monologue really got people talking. And what better way to do that than to make a joke at the expense of the most talked-about woman of 2023, Taylor Swift?
From her devastating break-up with her former boyfriend of six years to her all-star Eras concert all the way to her highly-publicized romance with NFL star Travis Kelce, Swift has been the "person of the year" - hey, those are Time Magazine's words, not mine, though I couldn't agree more.
So of course, in a room where you have the 34-year-old's undivided attention, you'd try and do what Koy attempted to do and make a witty joke successful enough to make her giggle.
"The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? On the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift... there’s just more to go to here," Koy joked on stage.
The camera then panned to the pop star, who could be seen with an unimpressed expression before taking a sip from her drink.
An iconic way to shut down that type of behavior.
What followed his Swift dig were a series of other "jokes" with a slightly misogynistic tone to them including an awkward one aimed at Greta Gerwig's Barbie.
"Oppenheimer is based on a 721-page, Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project," he said, before adding: "And Barbie is based on a plastic doll with big boobies."
The camera then cut to the director of the award-winning film, who looked particularly uninterested with the quip.
"I don’t want you guys to think that I’m a creep," Koy continued, after the awkward silence, "but it was kind of weird being attracted to a plastic doll."
And that was enough to make the internet go wild.
"I have never in my life heard of a jo koy, but suddenly I am ready to campaign for him to never work in hollywood again. I'm so sick of the misogyny in 2024 when 2023 was literally the year of Barbie + Taylor Swift, the year it felt like womanhood was finally being celebrated..." wrote one user on X, formerly Twitter.
"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," added another.
"All i’m gonna say is taylor swift and barbie will go down in history and jo koy or whatever his name is will fade into obscurity... #GoldenGlobes," a third savagely hit back.
While the internet might be on Swift's side, there's one person who seemingly isn't and it's none other than Joy Behar.
On an episode of the Behind the Table podcast with Brian Teta she said: "When Jo Koy made a joke about Taylor Swift, that was a mistake, because no one laughed, and Taylor took a sip, I noticed, in the moment, which indicated she was not happy with that.
"Meanwhile, she needs to get over it, also. It's like, come on, it's just a joke about how many times we see you on awards shows. It wasn't that funny, but you need to play along with the comedian," the 81-year-old added.
Behar also went on to slam the culture surrounding comedians taking on hosting gigs at major awards shows, especially with movements like cancel culture being so hot on people's backs.
"Ricky Gervais is the only one — maybe Steve Martin could do it, because he's part of the community — but, I believe that if you're going to have a stand-up comedian, they have to be outside the big people, the adults. We have to be the ones who will take no prisoners and say what everyone else is thinking, and they don't care if you don't laugh," Behar stated.
The talk-show host also added that Koy's biggest fault was that he "cared" about the reaction to his material.
"At one point, I think he even blamed his writers," she said during the interview. "You never do that. Johnny Carson never did that. When his jokes bombed, he never said, 'Thanks, writers!' He never did that. He took full responsibility when they got a laugh, and he took it when they bombed."