Critics’ Choice Awards: Chelsea Handler praised for “smoking” Jo Koy

Chelsea Handler has been praised for her turn hosting the 2024 Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, including the moment she “smoked” her ex Jo Koy for his shocking Golden Globes monologue. 

The 2024 awards season is in full swing, meaning there have been plenty of celebrity moments to unpack. Last week, the Golden Globes were under the microscope – notably, host Jo Koy bombing on stage. 

The comedian made jokes about everything from Barbie and Oppenheimer to Taylor Swift and Robert De Niro. When many of them failed to land, he said: “Some I wrote, some other people wrote. Yo, I got the gig ten days ago! You want a perfect monologue? Shut up!”

Last night (January 14), the 29th annual Critics’ Choice Awards took place in Santa Monica, where returning host Chelsea Handler took to the stage to take a jab at Koy – and he just so happens to be her ex. 

Chelsea Handler roasts Jo Koy in Critics’ Choice Awards monologue 

In her Critics’ Choice Awards 2024 monologue, Handler joked, “Unfortunately, Martin Scorsese isn’t here tonight, but that’s not going to stop me from letting everyone in this room know that I would toss him around like a little Italian meatball.”

As the crowd chuckled away, she said, “Thank you for laughing at that, my writers wrote it,” taking a jab at Koy’s excuse for his jokes failing to land. 

The comedian – who dated Koy in 2021 before they split a year later – has received widespread praise for her quip, with one writing on X: “Lol Chelsea Handler just smoked Jo Ko.” 

“Chelsea Handler roasting Jo Koy is 10x funnier when you remember they literally dated for almost a year,” said another, while a third added: “Chelsea Handler with the dig to Jo Koy lmao.”

Movie critic Peter Howell added to the conversation: “Comedy ace Chelsea Handler hosted #CriticsChoiceAwards for second year, showing how to get the crowd laughing with you instead of at you.”

Chelsea Handler gives Barbie its moment on stage

Handler has also received praise for several other moments hosting the 2024 Critics’ Choice Awards, including when she went “rogue” and gave Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie the chance to give an acceptance speech for Barbie. 

Barbie won big at the ceremony, but since many of the awards were presented during the ad breaks, Handler said on stage: “I’m gonna go rogue because Greta and Margot deserve the opportunity to make an acceptance speech. Would you mind coming up and accepting the award?”

Viewers noted the stark contrast to Koy’s Barbie joke, in which he said Oppenheimer is “based on a 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project,” while Barbie was inspired by “a plastic doll with big boobies.”

“Chelsea Handler giving Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie the chance to give their thank you speech for best comedy on screen has me,” said one viewer. “Women supporting women!” Another commented: “Chelsea Handler letting them have their moment and give an acceptance speech – real hosts are back.”