John Mulaney Upstages Jo Koy as Surprise Host at Governors Awards

Comedian John Mulaney impressed guests when he hosted the 14th Governors Awards on Tuesday night—and people can't help but compare it to Jo Koy's poorly-received job of hosting the 81st Golden Globes.

Koy was panned by many watching the Hollywood awards ceremony at home on January 7, and his jokes also fell flat with the live audience of celebrities and nominees in attendance. As he playfully poked fun at a host of the night's attendees—including Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and Margot Robbie—the tepid reactions in the grand ballroom made some parts of the monologue painful to watch, according to viewers.

On January 9, the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' 14th Annual Governors Awards, which was delayed by two months due to the writers' and actors' strikes, kicked off with an opening monologue from Mulaney. It seems that his hosting job has been received a lot better by audiences than Koy's—and some are now saying he should host the Oscars.

Newsweek reached out to representatives for Koy and Mulaney for comment via email Wednesday.

On the night, Vanity Fair journalist David Canfield shared several jokes from Mulaney's monologue on X, formerly Twitter.

"John Mulaney swiftly washing out that bad Globes opening monologue taste at the #GovernorsAwards, whose starry crowd laughed rather loudly at this early joke to Bradley Cooper: 'Maestro, or as it was originally titled, Bye Felicia!'" he wrote, referring to Cooper's recent movie about the relationship between composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre.

According to Canfield, Mulaney's monologue also included a mention of Angela Bassett—who was receiving an honorary award—and her Oscar-nominated role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

"Another #GovernorsAwards smash from Mulaney, for tonight's honoree Angela Bassett: 'She got an Oscar nomination for a Marvel movie. That's like getting a Pulitzer Prize for a Reddit comment.' Howls in the room," he added.

Also posting to X about the night was Clayton Davis, the senior awards editor at Variety, who shared a video of Mulaney's monologue. He wrote: "John Mulaney KILLS as the surprise host at 14th annual Governors Awards. LET THIS MAN HOST THE OSCARS."

One person wrote in response: "Thank you for sharing this. He's one of my faves and I'm not surprised that he killed as host. That email was hilarious. I remember him doing an equally great job cohosting the Independent Spirit Awards with the equally funny Nick Kroll. Damn wish he did host the Oscars."

"This is the hardest I've laughed in a while," said another.

The Oscars YouTube account uploaded a video of Mulaney's monologue to the video-sharing platform on Wednesday. While he didn't mention the comedian by name, Mulaney seemingly aimed one of his jokes at Koy's Golden Globes hosting job.

"Ladies and gentlemen you're looking at me and you're thinking, 'Oh great another goddamn standup comedian here to make fun of us at our sacred rituals.' Well, I'll have you know I'm not such an outsider," he said.

He went on to explain that he had recently received an offer to "audition" for a role as "young cop" in a new Maggie Gyllenhaal movie. He explained that while he did send over a video audition, he didn't get the role. Mulaney's jokes landed well with the audience and regularly elicited laughs from the crowd, including when he recounted Al Pacino's story about attending his first Oscar show as a Best Actor nominee 50 years ago.

People have taken to X to share their love for Mulaney as well as echo the sentiment that he should host the Oscars.

"Some of you won't want to hear this but I do believe John Mulaney hosting the Oscars would be a great choice," one person wrote.

"One thing about john mulaney is that his jokes never miss," said another.

A third added: "John Mulaney would make a great Oscars host."

The Governors Awards took place just two days after the Golden Globes, where Koy stepped in as presenter just two weeks before the ceremony. His jokes didn't go down well with viewers at home and guests in the room.

"Watching this is like witnessing an accident in slow motion. This is truly awful," one X user wrote.

New York Times media reporter Nicole Sperling, who was seemingly in attendance at the show, added: "Wowee. Never seen an audience rebel against an emcee so quickly. One prominent director just couldn't keep his opinion quiet. 'They all showed up. They are all here and this is what they give us? This is a disaster'."

NPR media analyst Eric Deggans defended Koy on X, writing: "Jo Koy is a great comic, but I'm not sure he's used to working a showbiz crowd hosting the #GoldenGlobes. His monologue wasn't biting enough but also was a little too biting in the same moment. Tougher gig than it looks."

The morning after the Golden Globes, Koy admitted during an appearance on ABC's GMA3 that he regretted cracking a joke about Taylor Swift's romance with NFL star Travis Kelce.

"The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift," he said at the awards show.

He explained to the hosts of GMA3: "It was a weird joke, I guess. But it was more on the NFL. I was trying to make fun of the NFL using cutaways and how the Globes didn't have to do that. So it was more of a jab towards the NFL; it just didn't come out that way."

Update 01/11/24, 5:29 a.m. ET: This article was updated with further information about Mulaney's monologue, including a video of his performance.