14 Cringe-Worthy Moments That Took Place At The 81st Golden Globe Awards

An excited interviewer asked the cast of Poor Things, Willem Dafoe, Emma Stone, and Mark Ruffalo, along with its director Yorgos Lanthimos, to give an improvisation of Poor Things.

“I just want you to all just improv poor things. GO,” the interviewer commanded. He was subsequently met with a perplexed team, as the actors and the filmmaker all awkwardly stared at each other.

“You know what I want you to do,” the interviewer excitedly told Willem, who promptly replied: “I don’t,” before adding: “There’s a time and a place for everything.”

The interviewer went on to ask: “What part of the script was there where you were like ‘really, we’re gonna do that?’” To which Mark answered: “Page 1 to page 127.”

Taylor Swift, who sat at the Golden Globes event with actress Keleigh Sperry, was amongst Jo Koy’s multiple victims of the night, as he joked about her NFL game-day appearances. 

“The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift,” the 52-year-old comedian quipped.

According to the broadcasted shots of the singer, Taylor looked rather unperturbed by the joke and was spotted nonchalantly taking a sip of her drink.

An infamous part of Jo’s opening monologue was his seemingly misogynistic Barbie joke, which did not earn a single laugh from the crowd. 

The comedian teased: “Oppenheimer and Barbie are competing for cinematic box office achievement; Oppenheimer is based on a 724-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project, and Barbie is based on a plastic doll with big boobies.”

He continued: “The key moment in Barbie is when she goes from perfect beauty to bad breath, cellulite, and flat feet—or what casting directors call ‘character actor.’” 

During the segment, the camera cut to Selena Gomez, who was seen putting her head down and resting it on her hands, as Harrison Ford looked displeased with the set.

Kevin Costner made an awkward appearance with Barbie‘s America Ferrera, with whom he had teamed up to announce the winner of the Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy category. 

Kevin and America announced the nominees and winner, after performing some of the actress’ monologues about womanhood in the Barbie movie. 

The Yellowstone actor went on to quote some of the lines from the scene, stating: “I think a lot of people really love that scene … the Barbie movie. 

“You know, ‘it’s literally impossible to be a woman.’ You know that? ‘You’re so beautiful, you’re so smart. It kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough.’ That was pretty good.”

American appeared surprised as she asked: “Did you, Kevin Costner, memorize my monologue about womanhood from Barbie?” 

Kevin dryly replied: “No”, leaving the audience breaking up in laughter. “But it’s an important message,” he added. “And it always serves to remind me what’s possible in film.”

Things turned awkward very quickly when Jim Gaffigan presented an award at the Golden Globes, seemingly referencing Jeffrey Epstein-esque material.

The standup star was handing out the award for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television. 

While acknowledging the development of the new award category, Jim made a jaw-dropping joke, talking about how crazy it is he's even in showbiz.

He quipped: "I'm from a small town in Indiana, I'm not a pedophile," as some people laughed, while a good portion of the crowd remained silent.

The comedian went on to rhetorically ask if "pedophile" was a new category there but noted he was happy to be presenting an award for comics with big specials, arguing it was overdue, TMZ reported.

Not all of Jo’s jokes were met with awkward silence, as the comedian joked about Barry Keoghan’s lengthy nude dancing scene in Saltburn.

Dropping multiple references to the impressive size of Barry's character, Oliver Quick’s genitals in the film, Jo asked Keoghan from the stage: “Where is your penis seated? Down front?” making the actor explode in laughter.

Jo decided to answer his own query and turned to Bradley Cooper, taking a jab at the actor's prosthetic nose in Maestro and said he "found it".

The Golden Globes host further quipped: “That thing was dancing."

Charles Melton, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor — Comedy or Musical for his performance in Todd Haynes's critically acclaimed May December, was accompanied by his adorable mother, Sukyong Melton, to the ceremony.

However, upon being interviewed on the red carpet, viewers quickly took notice that the interviewer mispronounced the actor’s mom’s name, calling her “suit” instead of Sukyong.

One of Jo’s flopped jokes saw Robert De Niro laugh awkwardly, as it involved his family.

The 80-year-old movie star welcomed his seventh child, daughter Gia, with his 45-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, back in April.

During the ceremony, Jo, who claimed to be a massive fan of Robert, looked his idol’s way and said: “This guy’s amazing decade after decade. He just kills it every single time. I don’t know how you do it.

“Man. I swear to God, your last performance is going to be your greatest performance ever. How’d you get her pregnant at 80? CGI?” 

The Goodfellas star was seen chuckling a little from his seat.

Robert was up for one nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Killers of the Flower Moon, losing to Robert Downey Jr. for Oppenheimer, The New York Post reported.

Jo made a quip about Meryl Streep winning all the time before asking her to do the Wakanda Forever pose from the Black Panther Marvel movie.

Turning to Meryl, whom he had flattered at the beginning of his monologue with the classic “she always wins the awards,” the comedian went on to praise her for another nomination.

The stand-up artist went on to joke that his favorite line out of her whole career was “Wakanda Forever.” 

Jo further requested that the Hollywood legend do the “Wakanda Forever” cross-chest salute for the audience, which she playfully did despite the awkward nature of the demand.

Glen Powell was identified as the handsome man in the tan tuxedo in a viral post on X (formerly known as Twitter), featuring a photo from the Golden Globes.

However, the actual man in the suit was This Is Us star Justin Hartley, who was on hand to present the award for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television, as per Entertainment Weekly.

Glen went on to take the misidentification in stride, writing on social media, "I think this is the perfect time to announce that ⁦Justin Hartley⁩ and I will be starring in the most boring body-swap movie of all time."

Kieran Culkin told Variety that a Succession spinoff would be a “horrible idea” when asked about it on the Golden Globes red carpet.

Upon being asked to explain his reasoning, Kieran responded by saying, "Remember 'Frasier?' Yeah, we all loved 'Frasier,' but not every show can be 'Frasier.'" ("Frasier" was a spinoff of the hit series "Cheers.")

The actor further said a spinoff based on the Cousin Greg character (Nicholas Braun) would make a good show and that Roman could make occasional appearances: “For like — entrance applause? Would that work in a show like this? That’s why I would do it.”

Jo appeared to struggle to make the masses laugh during his monologue opening the 2024 Golden Globes Awards ceremony.

He exclaimed: “I got the gig 10 days ago! You want a perfect monologue?”

The comedian further stated: “Some I wrote. Some, other people wrote. I wrote some of these, and those are the ones you’re laughing at.” 

Upon failing to make the crowd laugh after one of his jokes, Jo affirmed: “That’s hilarious, I don’t care.”

Moments after Julia Garner and Jonathan Bailey took the stage to present the award for the category with the longest title of the night (Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Series, Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television), The Crown's Elizabeth Debicki was completely taken aback as, in the middle of Julia's sentence, a Golden Globes announcer's voice cut much louder over the Ozark actress'.

Elizabeth was subsequently filmed jumping in her seat before the announcement finished, and the announcer moved on to speak The Bear nominee Abby Elliot's name.

Nevertheless, the apparent glitch worked in Elizabeth's favor, as the 33-year-old performer won the Golden Globe in the category for her work as Princess Diana in the popular Netflix drama, as per Entertainment Weekly.

Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet stole the spotlight at the Golden Globes, as they couldn’t stop kissing at their table while on camera.

The lovebirds were first linked back in April of 2023 and have since gotten very close. Back in December, a source told People that Kylie is “incredibly happy” with Timothée, while the actor is “in awe of everything [Kylie] is accomplishing” and “especially thinks she is an amazing mom.”