Dana Carvey and David Spade this week joined other comedians in offering a defense of Jo Koy’s much-maligned hosting performance at the Golden Globes, questioning why Taylor Swift put on a show of being offended when she became the target of Koy’s “innocuous” joke about her romance with NFL star Travis Kelce.
Carvey and Spade riffed on Swift being “pre-offended” on their popular “Fly on the Wall” podcast Wednesday. This week’s episode incidentally marked Carvey’s return to the show, two months after his 32-year-old son Dex died of a drug overdose.
The “Saturday Night Live” alums opened the episode with Carvey briefly addressing his personal tragedy, saying, “If you’re listening to our podcast right now, you probably know about my family’s loss.” Carvey then thanked fans for the enormous “outpouring” of support he received after the news broke and spoke about the healing power of work, staying busy and keeping a sense of humor.
“It’s a long day when you’re not working and you get in your head,” he said. “And I think it’s really cool to laugh.”
With that, he and Spade switched gears to offer gentle, laughing commentary on the recent travails of another comedian. That would be Koy, who faced a torrent of criticism for his hosting performance at the Golden Globes on Jan. 7.
For the most part, Carvey and Spade defended Koy, essentially saying his performance wasn’t that bad. They pointed out that he’s a successful stand-up comic who sells out arenas, but who still lacks the name recognition of Steve Martin or Chris Rock, which made him something of an unknown quantity to the crowd at the Golden Globes. They also surmised that Koy’s narrative style of comedy wouldn’t translate well to an awards show monologue, where he has to rattle off quick jokes aimed at celebrities in the audience.
That’s when they brought up Swift, who was a notable presence at the ceremony. They were both puzzled over why Swift would feel insulted by the joke told at her expense, and why her fans would be so angry on her behalf.
“It’s almost like she was pre-offended,” Spade said, suggesting that the pop mega-star had somehow planned to be unhappy about anything Koy might say about her. Koy’s joke about Swift centered on how often the cameras cut to reaction shots of the singer when she attended Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs games this season. Sports analysts have said that her romance with Kelce probably helped boost the league’s ratings.
“The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift,” Koy joked as the cameras, of course, cut to Swift. The “Bad Blood” singer reacted with pursed lips and a stony expression before taking a determined sip from her champagne flute. Viewers immediately made note of Swift’s reaction and pounced on Koy for his “low-blow joke.”
Spade said the joke “wasn’t a burn or anything.” He and Carvey noted that celebrities targeted by Koy’s humor, such as Meryl Streep and Martin Short, “went along with the joke and just goofed around and people laughed.”
Spade said that Swift could have “made a face” as if to say, “Look at me! I’m so cute. They keep showing me.” Instead, she “kind of iced it,” which meant that the audience turned against Koy.
Actually, to be fair to Swift, viewers thought that Koy’s monologue was off-putting from the star. He didn’t help himself when he delivered what was believed to be a sexist joke in which he unfavorably compared “Oppenheimer” to “Barbie” by saying that the latter is a movie about a doll with big “boobies.”
Swift, arguably the most famous celebrity in the world right now, attended the Golden Globes because her “Eras Tour” concert film was nominated for cinematic and box office achievement. But Swift’s film didn’t win, and she couldn’t really have expected to take home the trophy that night. “Barbie” was the top-grossing film at the box office in 2023, earning $1.44 billion globally, compared to Swift’s film, which earned a still very respectable $261 million.
Observers said that Swift appeared to leave the ceremony soon after her movie lost to “Barbie.” She made waves in other ways at then ceremony, when a viral internet rumor spread about an intense conversation she had with Selena Gomez and model Keleigh Sperry during a commercial break.
One of the truly entertaining moments in the otherwise shaky show was when Gomez was caught on video, rushing to Swift’s table to share what appeared to be some hot gossip. Lip-reading internet sleuths put forward the theory that Gomez was whispering to her gal pals about how she had approached hot new couple Timotheé Chalamet and Kylie Jenner to ask Chalamet for a photo with them — and that Jenner waved her off.
Both Chalamet and Gomez subsequently denied the rumor that there were tensions between him, Jenner and Gomez, or that Gomez was talking to Swift about Jenner. But that didn’t stop people from continuing to push “Whisper Gate” over the next few days.
