On Thursday night’s episode of Watch What Happens Live!, blockbuster comic Kevin Hart came to the defense of comedian Jo Koy, whose hosting work at the Golden Globes ceremony last week was not well received—either by the celebrity audience he was performing to in the room or by commentators on social media, who found his digs at Barbie in particular unbecoming.
“It seems like comedians, more than anyone, are under such a microscope” when it comes to performing on live TV, Bravo host Andy Cohen put to Hart, asking him if he had any reaction to Koy throwing his hands up mid-ceremony and saying to the audience, “Hey, I just got this gig 10 days ago.”
“Jo’s fine.” Hart insisted to Cohen. “Jo Koy is a phenomenal comedian; he sells out arenas everywhere.”
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“If I’m Jo, I don’t let it get to me,” Hart added. “Let it slide off your back. You’re fine. You’ll be fine. You’re a talented and successful comic.”
“It’s a tough room,” he added, “where the expectation is one of consequence and everyone is on edge.”
“I think I did well given the circumstances,” Koy himself told the LA Times this week, when asked to grade his own performance. “I don’t want to give myself a rating because that’s subjective, you can give me whatever rating you want. I’m gonna give myself an A-plus just based on the courage [to do it].”
Cohen and Hart agreed on Thursday that, at the very least, everyone was now talking about Jo Koy, and is aware of his name.
Hart also shot down Cohen’s proposal that he should host the Oscars after famously losing the gig ahead of the 2019 ceremony when he refused to apologize for past homophobic jokes.
“In this case, even with Jo, there is no return of good,” Hart said.
“Some might call it a thankless job,” Cohen replied.
“Some would,” Hart said, “but you can’t discredit the stage that the Oscars presents. It’s a phenomenal stage, millions of views attached to it, and I think, and a point and time in my career, it was something that acted as a bump and want. But I’m far beyond and past that, so I don’t need that at this point.”