Anyone who saw Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh present an award at the Emmys knows they’re an unexpectedly solid comedy duo, so it was only moderately surprising when they were named as the hosts of the 76th annual Golden Globes. Of course, they’re both very talented so it shouldn’t have been that surprising, but the two of them landed a refreshingly fun and upbeat introduction at tonight’s ceremony that also included a handful of poignant notes about some overdue cultural shifts happening in Hollywood. For instance, they started the monologue (duologue?) by complaining about their least favorite race… the L.A. half-marathon!
After that they transitioned into the meat of the piece: A Ricky Gervais-style roast of the celebrities in attendance, including such brutal takedowns as telling people they’re very handsome, complimenting them on their hard work, and Samberg saying that he wishes Jeff Bridges were his dad. It hammered in why these two deserved this gig, with the joke playing on the fact that they’re both exceedingly likable and also have this very good and previously unknown comedic chemistry. Not every gag landed, like a line about the real-life Black Panthers who were framed and murdered by the government that Samberg rushed through a little too fast, but it was all worth it for the moment when Sandra Oh brought up how touched she was by A Star Is Born, going so far as to drop a totally off-the-cuff reference to Lady Gaga’s favorite off-the-cuff anecdote about having 100 people in a room where only one person believes in you. In fact, Samberg was also so touched that he dropped an off-the-cuff anecdote of his own, talking about how powerful it can be when you’re in a room with 100 people and only one of them believes in you.
The duologue (which you can see in full below) ended with Sandra Oh emotionally speaking to the camera about how important it is for the entertainment industry to be serious about opening itself up to other perspectives and experiences beyond those of straight, white men, and it was all very good.
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59 Comments
Most of the jokes felt a bit flat, but the last bit Oh delivered was genuinely heartfelt. Good for her and every other POC nominee in the audience.
lol. That was absolutely not heartfelt. Just stop. She spent the whole time trying to work up tears to create stronger optics. You can actually see her trying to work them up. That’s called a PR plan, not a heartfelt message.
Is it because she’s Asian? You seem to hate on Padma and Jameela in your other commenter names all the time. Don’t worry I have screen shots and you have history TwoTysons, WhoisKinja…
Also the only funny part of the whole damn pile of shit Andy and Sandra crapped out was when the lady laughed at her trying to be sincere. That’s the only time I laughed too. Otherwise, TV should be burnt to the ground for allowing these 2 to host. They were possibly the least funny people on the planet and I love Brooklyn 99.
“Most of the jokes felt a bit flat,”You’re being to kind ….
Fell flat? They were prostrate on the ground. Not one funny thing was said and that manufactured lecture by Ms. Oh at the end was everything I hate about award shows.
eh, they’re all millionaires. I’m not going to conflate a person in danger of being shot by the cops with anybody with a chance at trying a “don’t you know who i am” move.
Why does The Kominsky Method, a show I’ve barely heard of, keep beating the amazing The Good Place? That’s not a snide rhetorical question – there’s so much TV it’s hard to keep track. Is this a show I have to watch now? If it’s reallly that great, good. But if it’s just good, and upstaging better shows, not great.Thoughts? (relevant to the article because Good Place has a highly diverse cast and apparently Kominsky Method is geared to old white guys, which are the voters, but also maybe Kominsky deserves it, and I need to start watching. Sincere questions.)
The Hollywood Foreign Press (whateverthefuck THAT is) probably doesn’t watch much tv. They see Michael Douglas and figure it’s a safe bet.
My parents told me how much they like The Kominsky Method, which was enough to let me know I probably shouldn’t bother watching it.
I had the same thought; that’s also how I feel about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which is less of an unknown but I still never really hear about it outside of awards shows.
FWIW I love Maisel, and think Brosnahan + everyone else in it are fantastic
Fair enough, it does seem like something I might enjoy (women in stand-up; period piece), but I just get resentful that it keeps getting wins over GLOW and The Good Place.
I can second this opinion. Now you’ve heard about it twice outside of awards shows.
A relative of mine actually asked me what universe I was living in when I stated that I hadn’t seen any of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. I shrugged and asked why he was yelling.
My very Jewish family can’t shut up about Mrs. Maisel and indeed, though my tastes run more Star Trek and X-Files, Mrs. Maisel is my favorite show currently being made.
Shows and movies starring old hollywood stars tend to do well in award shows because people want to reward the actors.
I’ve had no interest in even starting it.
A la Grace And Frankie? It’s got a great cast and awful writers.
Maybe a little Pia Zadoraing ?
Ok, you asked for it:
J. Michael Straczynski, a guy I absolutely trust to know great writing, has been singing its praises for a while.
Because The Good Place is a show that AV Club has a hard-on for… and that’s it. Most objective people recognize that it has slowly declined.
Chuck Lorre?????????????????
I’m comfortable with skipping the hackiest showrunner taking on the hackiest subject matter for a show.
It’s not bad, and Alan Arkin and Michael Douglas do some good things, but it’s way longer than I thought they had material for. Then, it’s super-specifically about being old and marginal in Hollywood, so maybe there were incisive things I was missing that the voters caught.Maybe this is Michael Douglas’ year for his Elizabeth Taylor tracheotomy win?
Let us dissect and summarily judge the discrete bits of the blurb that pops up from the Google.
He may be in his twilight years, but aging acting coach [one more “Hollywood insider” story,-1] Sandy Kominsky isn’t ready to ride off into the sunset [one more “old guy still has some juice in the old lemon” story, -1] just yet. The once-famous Kominsky [one more “i’m famous, don’t act like you don’t know” story, -1] and his longtime agent, Norman Newlander [both character are the same ethnicity, +1 for avoiding one more story about “diversity and how we’re all the same” but -1 for one more “2 old Jews crack wise at each other” story], keep each other laughing as they tackle the curveballs that life throws at them while navigating their later years in Los Angeles [one more “LA story”, -1], a city that values youth and beauty. The Netflix original sitcom has a strong Hollywood pedigree; it was created by multiple Emmy winner Chuck Lorre [-1] and stars Oscar winners Michael Douglas [+1] and Alan Arkin [+1] as Kominsky and Newlander, respectively. So, like, -3 total, that’s a Hard Pass.
@brontosaurian: you mean “Pia Zadoration”
I appreciate your systematic breakdown, but only deducting one point for Chuck Lorre’s involvement is a major flaw in your math.
Not weighing relativity of virtues or sins, just the number of them. I figured, like this i can judge, yet still consider myself as dwelling within an objective-bound tangent.
It’s a Michael Douglas / Alan Arkin vehicle that I, after watching 2 episodes, can say is meh at best. It’s just two old white guys being old.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is really bizarre, and its membership is basically a tiny group of wannabe starf*ckers. They also want ratings, so they nominate people that they think will bring ratings to their show. All that said, The Good Place is amazing, brilliant and doesn’t insult its audience and Kristen Bell is a gorgeous and funny star. I will also add that Schitt’s Creek is amazing, brilliant and doesn’t insult its audience and stars Catherine O’Hara, who is criminally not ever nominated for her epic performance on that show.
Ha, I saw people making jokes about the Kominsky Record on Twitter. I did not know it was a show.
My theory is that the HFPA isn’t a good arbiter of comedic taste—see the former domination of Big Bang Theory and Modern Family. Veep I would call a fluke based on idolization of JLD. Of course that would mean I wouldn’t be surprised if The Good Place won at some point–zing!
It’s been done
Was it more entertaining than listening to Donald Trump complain about his least favorite race?
Does he have a least favorite I think he hates them all equally. Be it “Urban youth” or using “illegal immigrant” and muslim as if they’re races.
well yeah,now I’m sad
A monologue is not called a monologue because it opens an awards show. The comedy bit that often opens an award show is usually called a monologue because it’s usually one person doing it. Fortunately, there have previously been duos who have hosted the Golden Globes, so there is some precedence for calling it something other than a word that means one person is talking:Introduction. Opening speech. Welcome speech. Opening remarks. Pretty much “opening” or “welcome” followed by a bunch of different words like “bit”, “routine”, “comments”, “shtick”, “piece”… and so on.
Bilogue? Duologue? Cologue?
If only there was a common word used to describe two people talking, possibly one employing the Greek prefix for “two!”
But the word you’d normally use implies two people talking to each other, these people were talking at other people. The word you’re hinting at implies a sort of conversation between the two, not a presentation to a larger group that is only there to passively watch it.
This was just recycled from the James Franco roast. I’m being serious.
and that’s what makes you so much fun
To be fair, that was pretty much the only highlight of the James Franco roast.
Nah, Bill Hader as the President of Hollywood is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen at a roast.
Nah, Bill Hader as the President of Hollywood is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen at a roast.
Eh the non-roast bit was lifted directly from Samberg’s roast of James Franco
Eh… He definitely reused the premise, i’ll give you that.But if we’re prepared to accept reusing the premise of “roasting people”, i don’t know why we’d object to reusing the premise of “pretending to roast people but actually being nice”.
That Samberg is such a joke thief! He stole the idea from a funny bit!BOOM! Take your lumps Andrew.
Nothing about either times he did it was funny at all. I am a fan of Brooklyn 99 but not of this garbage.
I enjoyed it in the Franco roast, but it only worked because of the contrast with the vicious ball-busting that everyone else on the stage was engaging in. I guess they were still trying to make that contrast work in relation to Gervais’ previous hosting stints, but the distance between then and now just made this come off as a whole bunch of celebrity ego-stroking.
It wasn’t even tolerable then.
Did Sandra Oh get a nose job? She looks way different.
Oh no you di’int!
Not trying to be a jerk, just didn’t recognize her face from thumbnail.
I need to google things before asking most of the time it turns out.
I did not enjoy one minute of this. It absolutely reeks of forced wokeness and political correctness. I get what they were trying to do, but the “jokes” did not make me crack a smile once, much less laugh. Bring back Gervais to just roast everybody.
“forced wokeness and political correctness”What is… a phrase that rolls of the tongue of rightwing dumdums like drool from their Skoal stuffed faces, Alex?
Nothing screams funny like “safe” and “inoffensive”
The best part about Samberg’s Black Panther joke is the cutaway to Spike Lee’s warily bemused face. I think I also saw Ryan Coogler several times looking bored out of his mind during the whole show.