“You know you’ve got representation problems when the Proud Boys have more Black members than you,” Trevor Noah said on Monday night.
Late-night hosts weighed in on 2021’s controversy-filled Golden Globes Awards on their shows on Monday night, with Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel all pointing to the recent Los Angeles Times investigation that reported the ceremony’s voting body had no Black members.
During his Daily Show opening monologue, Noah remarked of the report, “You know you’ve got representation problems when the Proud Boys have more Black members than you.” He added, “The good news is, you know they’re going to fix the problem. because can you imagine them coming back next year and being like, ‘We are still working on finding a single Black person, if anyone out there knows a single Black person, give us their number,’ ” the latter part in a French accent.
Noah noted that “aside from the no-Black-person controversy, I’m not going to lie, I did enjoy getting to see inside all these celebrity homes” during the virtual ceremony. He particularly pointed to Jeff Daniels’ Zoom background: “Because I don’t know if you noticed this, but there are like five doors in that room. And, think about this, we’re only seeing one and a half walls. There could easily be 10 to 20 more doors.”
On CBS, The Late Show‘s Stephen Colbert said of the Hollywood Foreign Press’ lack of Black members, “That explains why in past years they’ve given Globes to Green Book and Hellmann’s” (as in, the mayonnaise brand). He then compared the volume of Black presenters at Monday’s ceremony to an all-white high school trying to show it’s diverse by spotlighting a Black student in the student yearbook.
Colbert pointed out that The Late Show‘s bandleader and musical director Jon Batiste received a Globe for Best Original Score, Motion Picture for his work on Soul. “I’m so happy for Jon, I’m so grateful to work with him every day because a man with his talent can work anywhere except for, evidently, the Hollywood Foreign Press,” he joked.
During Jimmy Kimmel Live! the namesake host contrasted another televised event that same weekend, CPAC, with the Globes: “The Golden Globes are the opposite of CPAC in every way, except that they don’t have any Black people on the board. That’s the only thing they have in common. Otherwise, they are very different,” he joked.
Kimmel also poked fun at the gaffe during the broadcast when presenter Tracy Morgan pronounced Pixar’s Soul as “Sal.” He said, “The most unexpected triumph of the night was when Tracy Morgan gave the award for best original school to My Cousin Sal instead of the movie Soul.”
One week prior to this year’s Globes, the Los Angeles Times published an investigation into the ceremony’s voting body, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, that reported on ethical issues as well as the fact that the 87-member international organization has zero black members. In addition to some statements issued to the Times, the HFPA responded to the report with a brief onstage statement at the Globes on Sunday night, with member Helen Hoehne saying “We recognize we have our own work to do” and former HFPA president Meher Tatna adding, “We must ensure everyone gets a seat at our table.”
Time’s Up, the workplace equity organization launched during the #MeToo movement, took issue with the Globes’ response to the report. On Sunday night after the ceremony, the group sent two letters, one to the HFPA and one to network sponsor NBC, saying, “Your stated version of change is cosmetic—find Black people. That is not a solution” and calling for greater measures to be taken.
Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon, however, steered clear of the controversy in their coverage and instead pointed out the awkward dynamics of the virtual ceremony. On Conan, host Conan O’Brien and announcer Andy Richter pointed out Al Pacino’s particular appearance at the ceremony. As the pair mused about the state of awards ceremonies during the pandemic, Pacino “Zoomed” into the late-night show, which aired footage of Pacino from the NBC broadcast. “What’s he doing?” O’Brien asked.
“Um, it looks like he’s being observed on one of those bald eagle live-cams,” Richter replied.
After O’Brien attempted to tell Pacino the ceremony was over, the actor disappeared, only to Zoom back in to the late-night show seconds later. A voice actor playing Pacino then asked, “What, is the show over yet?”
The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon underscored the discrepancy between the appearance of some male and female stars during the cereomony: “It was interesting over Zoom: The women looked beautiful while the guys looked like they threw on whatever was at the top of the hamper… it didn’t look like an awards show, it looked like an emergency room after the Governors Ball,” he said during his monologue.
Remarking upon stars’ various Zoom setups, Fallon also highlighted Jeff Daniels’ arrangement: “Jeff Daniels was in the doors section of Home Depot, apparently. Looks like an escape room or something.”