Topics: Barbie, Golden Globes, Film and TV, Greta Gerwig
Greta Gerwig has finally addressed comedian Jo Koy’s jokes about her award-winning Barbie movie in a new interview.
Jo Koy hosted the 81st Golden Globes earlier this week and he still can’t quite escape the bad press he has gotten since then.
Koy's hosting has been one of the main talking points about this year's prestigious ceremony and sadly, it's not in a good way, with many expressing their annoyance over his 'tasteless' jokes.
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At best, some have said he had an off night and that the jokes just didn’t land, while at worst some have called for him to never host anything ever again.
And one joke he made during the award show was at the expense of Barbie, which went on to win the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award.
In his monologue, Koy said: "Oppenheimer is based on a 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project, and Barbie is on a plastic doll with big boobies."
And as anyone who's seen Barbie will know, that certainly isn't the case.
But speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme on January 11, Gerwig responded that Koy isn’t exactly wrong in his assessment, before going on to explain why the film was important.
“She's the first doll that was mass-produced with breasts, so he was right on," Gerwig said. "And you know, I think that so much of the project, of the movie, was unlikely because it is about a plastic doll.
"Barbie, by her very construction, has no character, no story. She's there to be projected upon.”
Gerwig also admitted she was happy that her film had sparked such a vigorous debate from those who supported it and those who opposed.
“There has never been a time when I wasn’t familiar with the ire that Barbie inspired and also the arguments against Barbie,” she continued.
“So the fact that the film has inspired such a range of reactions seems fitting.”
Users on X were less kind in their response to the criticism Barbie received, most notably from Koy.
Following Koy’s tough set at the awards, one user wrote on social media: ‘Jo Koy's 'joke' about the barbie movie is exactly why the barbie movie was made, infuriating,
“Jo Koy reducing the Barbie movie to a movie about 'big boobs' when the entire plot of Barbie is how difficult it is to be a woman in a men's world. It's giving 'I didn't do the readings for class, but also talking during 85% of the class discussion',” added another.
Regardless of where you fall in the debate, I'd say it's an honest and well-thought out response from Gerwig on some of the criticism.
