At Last Night’s Golden Globes, Amy Poehler And Tina Fey Managed To Roast The HFPA Together From Separate Coasts

Long-time besties, comedic duo Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, hosted the 2021 Golden Globes last night and it was a different show than usual in the sense that they were hosting separately from different locations and their audience was filled with first responders instead of the Hollywood glitterati. But some things remained from your usual non-coronavirus awards show. Like roasting the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the nominees who may or may not have bought off their votes with fancy trips to Paris.

Tina performed her hosting duties live from the Rainbow Room in New York while Amy was at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. The audience was filled with well-dressed first-responders in masks while the celebrities came in mostly via video call. Do you know what really works great for live TV? Time-delays. Tina joked about the change of guestlist, via NBC News:

“Normally, this room is full of celebrities, but tonight our audience on both coasts is made up of smoking-hot first responders and essential workers. We are so grateful for the work that you do and that you’re here, so that the celebrities can stay safely at home.”

Amy also helpfully explained the difference between TV and movies since with coronavirus keeping us all home and movies released online, it can be hard to tell the difference:

“TV is the one that I watch five hours straight, but a movie is the one that I don’t turn on because it’s two hours. I don’t wanna be in front of my TV for two hours, I wanna be in front of the TV for one hour, five times.”

They also roasted the HFPA, who came under scrutiny yet again for not having one single Black person among its 90 members:

“The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is made up of around 90 international, no-Black journalists who attend movie junkets each year in search of a better life. We say around 90, because a couple of them might be ghosts, and it’s rumored that the German member is just a sausage that somebody drew a little face on.”

Of course, the HFPA wasn’t going to just let themselves get hit like that without coming back with a placating response! So later on in the show, three members of the association (Helen Hoehne of Germany, Meher Tatna of India, and Ali Sar of Turkey)  trotted out to give the briefest of statements about the lack of diversity in their organization:

“We recognize we have our own work to do. Just like in film and television, Black representation is vital. We must have Black journalists in our organization,” said Helen Hoehne, the association’s vice president.

Meher Tatna, the chairman of the board, added: “We must also ensure everyone from all underrepresented communities gets a seat at our table, and we are going to make that happen.”

Back to Tina and Amy’s opening, my favorite lines were the ones that shit on some of the shows and movies that were nominated and shouldn’t have been:

“Emily In Paris is nominated for Best TV Series Musical or Comedy, and I for one can’t wait to find out which it is. French Exit is what I did after watching the first episode of Emily In Paris.”

“Sia’s controversial film Music is nominated for Best International Flopperooni! I don’t wanna get into it guys but it’s real problematic and Twitter is saying it’s the most offensive casting since Kate Hudson was the Weight Watchers spokesperson.”

“The Queen’s Gambit is whatever James Corden was up to in The Prom, I guess.”

Tina and Amy then pointed out how a lot of “flashy garbage” (see: the shows and movies above) got nominated and called on the HFPA to make changes:

“Look, a lot of flashy garbage got nominated but that happens, okay? That’s like their thing,” she continued. “But a number of Black actors and Black-led projects were overlooked.”

Tina added, “Look, we all know award shows are stupid… The point is, even with stupid things, inclusivity is important and there are no Black members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. I realize, HFPA you many not have gotten the memo because your workplace is the back booth of a French McDonald’s, but you have to change that.”

Emily In Paris deservingly won no awards last night so I guess they wasted all that money on the HFPA’s Parisian excursion for nothing. Hopefully next season they’ll put the cash to better use and finally teach that bitch French!

Here’s their full opening monologue:

Pic: YouTube