'The View' Hosts Defend Comedian Jo Koy After The Golden Globes Backlash: "It Was A Rough Room"

Owing to some of his offensive roasting of a few stars at the 81st Golden Globes on Sunday, stand-up comedian Jo Koy has been facing harsh criticism. The popular daytime talk show The View featured a heated debate, with the panelists attempting to defend Koy's comic timing. “For the first time, stand-up comedian Jo Koy took on the hosting duties, and it was a rough room for him,” moderator Whoopi Goldberg said. “These gigs, these hosting gigs are brutal. They’re just brutal,” the EGOT winner shared in support. “If you don’t know the room, if you’ve not been in these rooms before and you’re thrust out there, it’s hit or miss … I don’t know whether it was the room or the jokes, I didn’t get to see it, but I do know that [Jo is] as good as it gets when it comes to stand-ups.” 

As per Page Six, co-host Sara Haines went on to call the seasoned comedian "kind", “I love Jo Koy and the whole time I was nervous for him because I think he’s so funny. He’s kind, he’s good, all the things,” Haines said. “What bothers me more in watching this is, get a sense of humor, because we need to protect these national treasures called our comedians because life needs them.”

As per NYPost, Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin also spoke in high regard and called Koy “one of my favorite guests we’ve had on the show.” However, co-host Sunny Hostin then questioned Griffin, who is a self-proclaimed Swiftie, if she agreed that Koy's joke was "that bad" and deserved Swift's 'death-stare' response. “I was a little surprised,” Griffin said. “I thought that was kind of a lay-up. I thought [Jo] got very good as the night went on.”

Koy declared on Monday that he has no regrets about the live joke, despite the Lover hitmaker's callous response. “We didn’t understand why they were upset and we were just like, ‘Okay, the joke was NFL.’ (The) NFL is using that for cutaways, which is great, bringing a lot of publicity to the NFL. The joke was like, ‘It’s fewer cutaways to her,’” he exclusively told Los Angeles news station KTLA. “I’m a comic,” he explained further. “A host is different. It’s like those are two different things. It’s not the same element. That’s what people don’t understand in this industry.”

 “No one’s listening to me on stage! Unless I directly talk to them. Like, if I wasn’t saying ‘Hey Robert De Niro’ and he’s like ‘Oh yes,'” the comedian said. “Taylor was probably talking about something else, so I don’t know.” “I love Taylor,” he said. “It was just a joke about the NFL using cutaways to always going to Taylor when people are trying to watch the Chiefs play. That’s all.”