Taylor Swift fans were so mad at Jo Koy for Golden Globes joke. Now he’s coming to KC

Wild guess here, but we bet comedian Jo Koy never thought he would be forever linked to Taylor Swift.

But then he told that joke at the Golden Globes in January, launching a thousand discussions about what’s funny and what’s not — and whether the most popular pop singer on the planet can take a joke.

Remember?

”The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift,” Koy said in his opening monologue, with Swift in the audience.

She didn’t smile, just sipped her champagne.

We wondered whether Koy would bring it up in Kansas City — the epicenter of Swift’s romance with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — when he brings his “Jo Koy World Tour” to The Midland on Thursday. But his rep said he didn’t have time to talk because of his busy schedule.

People are still talking about that joke.

Last week before hosting the Oscars on Sunday, Jimmy Kimmel said Koy deserves a do-over.

The Hollywood Reporter brought up the Swift joke when it interviewed Kimmel about prepping for the show, noting how Koy “caught flak” because “he went after folks in the room. And he isn’t a part of Hollywood in the way that you are.”

“It’s a lot easier for me than it is for Jo Koy,” Kimmel said. “It’s like if a stranger walks up to you and goes, “Nice shirt, Tom Selleck.” If it’s one of your friends, you don’t take offense to it, but if it’s somebody you don’t know, you might smack him one.

“And not that I have any business programming the Golden Globes, but I think they should let Jo Koy host the show next year and give him a shot at doing it over. It would be very smart.

“I think he learned all the lessons, and he’s a funny guy. I think it would be nice for everyone.”

(In an ironic twist, social media name-checked Koy in criticizing Kimmel’s hosting performance Sunday.)

It was the first emcee job for Koy, 52, a veteran comedian who some might recognize from dozens of appearances as a roundtable guest on comedian Chelsea Handler’s former late-night show, “Chelsea Lately.”

He can boast of sold-out comedy shows all over the world, much of his material based on his own experiences growing up half-white, half-Filipino. (He named his 2021 autobiography “Mixed Plate.”) His current tour has had to add shows in sold-out locations.

His comedy specials are popular on Netflix, which last summer signed him up to film two more specials, his fifth and sixth. His latest one, “Jo Koy: Live At The Los Angeles Forum,” debuted in September 2022.

And here we are, two months later and people are still talking about what happened at the Golden Globes.

His monologue was universally panned. His joke about director Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster “Barbie” movie being based on a “doll with big boobies” fell flat.

“Yo, I got this gig 10 days ago. You want a perfect monologue? Shut up,” Koy said after the “Barbie” bomb. “You’re kidding me, right? I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”

He later apologized for blaming the writers, telling The Los Angeles Times that comment was “a rookie move.” In that same interview he said the joke about Swift was not a shot at the singer.

“The whole intention of that joke was to make fun of the NFL,” he said. “It’s like, the cool thing about the Globes is we don’t need to do cutaways for ratings.

“What hurts the most is me just supporting Taylor, I support her (and) I love her work. I got nieces that I bought (concert) tickets for. There’s no ill intent in that joke.”

Miserably for him, that’s not how her fans took it. Swifties immediately brought up Kelce as they led the Koy roast on social media.

“Jo Koy you know Travis Kelce can fight right?” tweeted one fan.

Fellow comics got the joke.

Comedian David Spade thought Swift looked “pre-offended” at the jab. He and fellow comedian Dana Carvey, “Saturday Night Live” verans who host the popular “Fly on the Wall” podcast, wondered why she didn’t just roll with with the joke. Instead, she shot Koy a death stare that launched a thousand memes.

Pointing out Koy’s success as a stand-up comedian, they suggested his narrative style of comedy was a mismatch for a hosting gig that called for poking fun at the celebrities in the audience.

Spade suggested that Swift was prepared to be offended and that the joke “wasn’t a burn or anything.” He said she could have simply made a face that said “look at me, I’m so cute, they keep showing me,” to go along with the joke.

And people still talk about it.

Koy got a “lesson handed to him,” comedian and actor Amy Schumer said on a recent episode of the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast.

“If (the audience doesn’t) laugh, then it’s a problem,” said Schumer, who hosted the Oscars in 2022. “The thing with Jo … he threw his writers under the bus and that was not a good look.

“If I’m going to say a joke about anyone … I’m going to clear it. Like, I cleared (my jokes) to Leonardo DiCaprio. I cleared it with these people. Because I don’t want to make that mistake.”

(She joked about DiCaprio, known for dating younger women: “He’s done so much to fight climate change and leave behind a cleaner, greener planet for his girlfriends. Because he’s older, and they’re younger. OK, you get it.”)

She empathized with Koy, though, on having to deal with the fallout, saying it “does not feel good when the whole internet is mad at you.”

Jo Koy will bring his stand-up act to the Midland at 8 p.m. March 14. Tickets are $39-$69.50. See midlandkc.com.