Jo Koy 'Hurt' by Golden Globes Backlash, Host Claims He Was 'Supporting' Taylor Swift With Controversial Joke

Jo Koy claimed he isn't a hater and didn't mean to hate, hate, hate with his joke about Taylor Swift.

Following his failed joke about the "Shake It Off" singer during the 2024 Golden Globe Awards, the comedian attempted to clear his name by insisting he was a fan of the pop star and had meant to lift up the 34-year-old — not bring her down.

"I didn’t understand the Taylor [Swift] tiff. Mind you, that one was just getting rewritten 50 million times, never ran it through, all the way up until we had to walk out. It’s just weird, where do you place it, and and we kept hammering it and cutting it down," Koy admitted in an interview with the Los Angeles Times published Thursday, January 11.

"But the whole intention of that joke was to make fun of the NFL. It’s like, the cool thing about the [Golden] Globes is we don’t need to do cutaways for ratings," Koy added of his jab at the "Love Story" singer, which was said during the opening monologue of the awards show.

In case you missed it — Koy was speaking to the crowd shortly after stepping out onto the stage when he quipped: "The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift."

The 12-time Grammy winner didn't seem to find the joke funny, as the camera panned to her sipping on a glass of champagne while keeping a completely straight face in an effort to not give the dig any recognition.

"What hurts the most is me just supporting Taylor, I support her, I love her work," Koy continued, noting he even bought his nieces tickets to her Eras Tour concert. "There’s no ill intent in that joke. The joke is about the NFL and how they keep using cutaways to [her]. And it’s an obvious reason why."

The 52-year-old added: "I’m not saying anything that no one’s saying, and it’s obvious what that joke was. It’s about the NFL. It’s like out of everything that has happened this is the one you choose to go after."

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"I didn’t understand why because it was fun when I walked out. Robert De Niro was dying, like, and I’m looking at him and his wife was smacking his back and smiling and laughing and he was laughing. And when I did the whole thing about him being 80, he loved it," Koy explained, referencing a comedic comment he made about the award-winning actor welcoming a newborn with his girlfriend Tiffany Chen, 45, last year.

"And that was fun. I was like, man, this guy’s so much fun. And then I did that [Swift] joke and I’m like, what just happened?" he concluded.