Seth Meyers kicked off the 2018 Golden Globes by wading right into the controversies that have been swirling around the event for several weeks. After a red carpet hour (plus) in which supportive actors of both sexes explained why they were wearing black in solidarity with the Time’s Up initiative and the #MeToo movement, Meyers reminded the audience exactly why Hollywood has become ground zero for combatting workplace sexual harassment. At times eliciting uncomfortable groans, Meyers brought up Harvey Weinstein, Donald Trump, Kevin Spacey, and Woody Allen.
“In 2018, marijuana is finally allowed and sexual harassment isn’t. It’s gonna be a good year!” Meyers began. In terms of being the first out hosting an awards show in this climate—and a straight white male at that—Meyers compared himself to the first dog shot into outer space. “This is the first time in months it won’t be terrifying to hear your name read out loud,” he joked about male nominees. Meyers then remarked that the Golden Globes are Trump’s worst nightmare, combining his least favorite things on earth: the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Quoth Meyers: “The only name that could make him angrier is the Hillary Mexico Salad Association.”
Meyers then brought up the names of some of Hollywood’s most influential men, all of whom have been embroiled in allegations of sexual misconduct over the past few months. “Harvey Weinstein is not here tonight,” Meyers said, creating a palpable shift in the room. The audience audibly groaned when he predicted that Weinstein would be “the first person ever to be booed in the In Memoriam.” Moving on to Kevin Spacey, Meyers joked that actor Christopher Plummer (who jumped in to play Spacey’s part in All the Money in the World after allegations of sexual assault came to light about the actor) might be available to reshoot Spacey’s scenes from House of Cards.
The most surprising barb from Meyers was directed toward Woody Allen, whose past behavior Hollywood stars, even those vocal about believing women victims, are infamously reticent to comment on. Of The Shape of Water, “I have to admit, when I first heard it was a movie about a naive young woman falling in love with a disgusting sea creature,” Meyers said, “I thought, Man, not another Woody Allen movie. It’s like Manhattan, in water.”
Meyers ended the monologue with a bit from Late Night With Seth Meyers called “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell,” in which he set up a series of jokes for celebrities in the audience to deliver the punch lines. The playful format was helped by Issa Rae, Amy Poehler, Jessica Chastain, and Hong Chau, who used the opportunity to joke about not only serial predators in Hollywood but also racism and misogyny, with mixed results. (Rae, after Meyers said that “Insecure creator Issa Rae currently has three projects in development at HBO,” deadpanned that “Three projects is also where they think I’m from,” while Chau said that a statistic on the number of Asian actors in Hollywood “might be off since a white person did the math.”)
Overall, it was as successful an opening monologue as could be hoped for in an incredibly fraught broadcast; Meyers also became noticeably more comfortable alongside the audience. It helped that many of the jokes involved adoring Oprah Winfrey, who was sitting in the front row with Stedman Graham, and Oprah makes everyone feel better. Meyers even urged her to run for president, which was met with the biggest round of applause of the night so far.
See Every Look From the 2018 Golden Globe Awards Red Carpet
