Everything Jo Koy Said About Taylor Swift Golden Globes Joke

Jo Koy made waves at the 2024 Golden Globes when he poked fun at Taylor Swift and her connection to the NFL — but he insists he wasn't trying to be mean.

“The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? We have less camera footage of Taylor Swift at the Golden Globes. I swear,” Koy, 52, said during the Sunday, January 7, broadcast, referring to Swift, 34, who was constantly seen on TV during her boyfriend Travis Kelce's football matches. “Sorry about that,” he added quickly after silence fell over the audience.

The first-time Golden Globes host dropped several jokes during his opening monologue, but when Koy's name came up on Swift, 34, her response immediately went viral. When the camera panned to the musician, she seemed unamused and took a sip of her champagne while keeping a straight face.

Swift previously addressed the NFL's choice to consistently feature her on TV when she attends Kelce's Kansas City Chiefs games. TIME in December 2023: “There's a camera about half a mile away, and you don't know where it is, and you have no idea when the camera puts you on the air, so I don't know if I'll be 17 times or one shown once.”

The “Bad Blood” singer added, “I'm just here to support Travis. I have no idea if too much of me is being shown and I'm going to piss off some dads, Brads and Chads.”

Scroll down to see what Koy said about the now-viral misstep:

He was just 'cute'

Koy claimed that Entertainment tonight Sunday that the joke was made in jest. “Aw man, it was cute. I just said it was cute,” he insisted when told about Swift's reaction. “I just said it's less cutaways, that's all.”

Was it a form of flattery?

“It was a compliment,” Koy said Additional after the awards ceremony, explaining that he meant Swift “could be more intimate tonight, that's all.”

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Does he feel bad about it?

During his appearance on Monday, January 8, episode of GMA3: What You Need to Know, Koy pointed to his Swift joke as the Globes moment he felt bad about. “I think it was when the Taylor version was still a bit flat,” he recalls. “It was a weird joke, I think.”

Koy argued, “It was more about 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 joke towards the NFL. But it just didn't work out that way.”

He's actually a Swiftie

A few days later, Koy admitted that he still didn't understand why his joke about Swift caused so much controversy. He admitted this in a January 11 interview with the Los Angeles Times that he considers himself a big fan of the Grammy winner.

“What hurts the most is that I just support Taylor, I support her, I love her work. I have nieces that I bought tickets for. There is no malicious intent in that joke,” he explained to the outlet. “The joke is about the NFL and how they keep using cutaways [her]. And it's a clear reason why. I'm not saying anything that no one is saying, and it's obvious what that joke was. It's about the NFL. It's like out of everything that's happened, this is the one you choose to go after.