Greta Gerwig Responds With Grace To Golden Globes Host Jo Koy’s Groanworthy “Big Boobies” ‘Barbie’ Joke: “Well, He’s Not Wrong’

Barbie director Greta Gerwig responded to the controversial jokes Jo Koy made about the blockbuster at the recent Golden Globe Awards with more grace than the comedian probably deserved.

At the awards ceremony, the comedian compared Barbie to Oppenheimer, saying the Christopher Nolan film “is based on a 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project, and Barbie is based on a plastic doll with big boobies.” Gerwig and Barbie stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling did not appear too thrilled at the joke.

Gerwig didn’t have much to say regarding Koy’s diss during a recent interview with Deadline, but she did explain why Barbie’s legacy made for an interesting premise for the film.

“Well, he’s not wrong,” Gerwig said. “She’s the first doll that was mass produced with breasts, so he was right on. And you know, I think that so much of the project of the movie was unlikely because it is about a plastic doll… Barbie by her very construction has no character, no story, she’s there to be projected upon.”

She continued, “Barbie has been around since 1959… she’s been a villain and she’s been a hero, but it felt like in a way even though it’s so seemingly superficial that it was such a rich place to start.”

The blockbuster film received the first-ever Golden Globe Award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement for its remarkable box office performance, garnering $1.4 billion in 2023 after its July premiere.

Koy’s monologue was seriously panned at the ceremony, earning half-hearted laughs and many groans from the audience of celebs. He even threw the writers under the bus when another Barbie joke failed to get a laugh.

“The key moment in Barbie is when she goes from perfect beauty to cellulite and flat feet—or what casting directors call ‘character acting,'” he said. He paused for laughter but only earned a few polite laughs.

When it failed to land, Koy said, “Some I wrote, some other people wrote. Yo, I got the gig ten days ago! You want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up! You’re kidding me, right? Slow down! I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”

Barbie is now streaming on Max.