Golden Globes Emcee Jo Koy Reflects on His Widely-Panned Hosting Turn: ‘I’d Be Lying’ If I Said It ‘Doesn’t Hurt’

Comedian Jo Koy is well aware that Oppenheimer was not the only bomb in the room at this year’s Golden Globes, and he said as much during a post-mortem interview on ABC’s GMA3: What You Need to Know.

Koy, who was announced as the host of the 81st Annual Golden Globes ceremony on CBS in late December, was not well-received after several awkward, stale, or just plain bad jokes and bits that left the audience less than amused. And during one tense moment during the opening monologue, Koy threw his writing team under the bus, saying, “Yo, I got the gig ten 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.”

Not his finest hour(s), and Koy was not about to deny it while he talked to GMA3 anchors DeMarco Morgan and Eva Pilgrim:

Pilgrim: So I guess the first question is, how was it?

Koy: Well, I mean, I had fun, you know. It was a moment that I’ll always remember. And, you know, that’s a tough room. And it was a hard job. I’m not going to lie. That was, uh, getting that gig and then, uh, having the amount of time that, you know, we had to prepare was, uh, that was that was a crash course, you know?

Morgan: But I got to be honest with you, I was very proud. I was sitting on my sofa in my room, and I was very proud of you and thought you did really good. Uh, off the top, what do you say to the critics who, you know, felt like some of the jokes fell flat? I mean, that is a lot of pressure in that room.

Koy: I, you know, I’d be lying if it doesn’t hurt. You know, uh, you know, I hit, like, a little, uh, uh, moment there where I was just like, “Agh.” You know, hosting is just, uh, it’s a tough gig, you know? And, yes, I am a stand-up comic but that hosting position is, uh, it’s a different style, you know, it’s not the same style.

So, you know, I kind of went in and, did the whole, uh, the writers thing, and it’s just like — no, we were all in that room together. We just had ten days of trying to write something for this monologue. It was, it was a crash course. And, you know. I feel bad, but, uh. Hey, I gotta still say that I loved what I did…

As the interview went on, Koy seemed to become more downtrodden about his own work, admitting that the attempted joke about Taylor Swift was “weird” and meant to be a jab at the NFL that just didn’t work. And after blaming his writers on live TV, Koy once again discussed the pressure of having less than two weeks to write the show and working in a different kind of venue:

Pilgrim: So would you agree to it if you were asked again?

Koy: That’s, that’s a tough gig. I’m not going to lie. Like, I really, I really love the art of stand-up. You know, it was, it was cool that the opportunity came to me. And hosting is just, it is a beast. And, uh, that’s about it. And, you know, the crash course was really hard to, you know, months to prepare… I literally got the call and haven’t slept since. Just trying to write, you know, something, you know, just to write what we had to write. And, uh, and, you know, the guys were great. Everyone was great. You know, it’s just that, you know, that was that night. That was my, you know, me. I had the off night.

Pilgrim: You sound a little deflated.

Koy: Yeah. You know, I wanted to give a little bit more, uh, of me, and, uh, and I just felt, uh, I felt a little short, and that’s all.

Watch the video above via ABC.