The Night Taylor Swift 'Killed' a Man

“Josel, you know a lot about being a stand-up comedian, and even more about bombing, what can you say about Jo Koy?” 

Or that’s how I imagined this article came to be over a phone call. “I didn’t watch the clip…” I watched maybe one clip and decided that was enough snuff videos for one day. One person says someone bombed, maybe they’re exaggerating. A lot of people say it then it’s probably true. And then I saw the Taylor Swift face and I heard in my head, “I am become death, destroyer of worlds.”

Scientists make bombs, presidents drop them. Sometimes writers write jokes and other comedians tell them. Maybe blaming your writers isn't the best look in the eyes of a post-strike Hollywood audience. Are there bad crowds? Sure, but it’s very discouraged in stand-up circles to blame anyone but yourself, and that is one of the main points of contention of a lot of people chiming in on what happened. But that’s to be expected; whenever a bomb goes off someone somewhere has to have their two cents.

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Did I tell you that I was literally maybe third or fourth in line asked to write this opinion piece? Two other much better comedians were asked. They both passed. They really didn’t have much to offer other than it felt rushed. “It’s basically like a corporate gig, dude.” My roommate is one of the more qualified comedians that can answer with greater authority as to what went down, and he elected to sit this one out.

From my experience, dinner engagements and events with people basically expecting stand up and jokes to be secondary, have always produced lackluster comedy sets. You shouldn’t blame the crowd, but you should also understand that comedy works better in a closed safe space, removed from the greater world, where the audience isn’t just a passive watcher, but participating in creating an encouraging safe environment to laugh at anything the comedian is allowed to say.

And that’s why events and corporate gigs end up with tepid jokes and tepid laughs, because the comedian isn't the center of attention. As host, the comedian’s responsibility is to facilitate the movement of the event from one point to another, and with the current political climate of multiple wars and controversies mired in not only workers’ rights, but basic human dignity, let’s just say it was hard telling a good joke before, it’s even harder telling a bad joke now. Jokes land better with stakes, and I feel that is at odds at an awards event, where people just want to have a good time, that largely being the biggest sin of the thing. We’re talking about a vanilla set that didn’t do well at a dinner event for Hollywood.

Should there be this much conversation about jokes that didn’t land? Is there really one opinion over the other that would make sense of this horrible tragedy of an unpleasant hosting? I haven't even brought up the racial angle, which I don't know if it’s even pertinent, but here we are!

There is nothing special about seeing a comedian bomb. Failure is built into the fabric of the craft. You get up on stage and you die several times over to build your set. But what is interesting is to see an established comedian do poorly in a room of Hollywood stars. And then there’s Pinoy Pride rearing its head into the conversation just to add in two cents from either heavily polarized spectrums, from “This is good!” to “This is bad!”

Does this represent me or my country? Some comedians go from broad to specific. I’ve noticed us Pinoys tend to focus on just similarities, and not discrepancies with the people we believe would mirror our best intentions on the world stage. We overlook the bad when it's easy, and then turn when it doesn’t suit us anymore, and this has always skewed our priorities and politics into mere “he’s so me.” That’s just the opinion of a minor comic book artist who also does stand up. And I don’t think my view represents a whole lot of people, and when you think about it, neither does Jo Koy’s. I'm not every comedian, clearly, and neither is Jo Koy every Filipino.  

And in terms of priorities, the simple fact is, I haven't even talked about the Golden Globes itself! Talk about misplaced. It seems that, today, we’ve prioritized our attention on this one specific bomb in Hollywood, even though there’s plenty of those going around elsewhere on our globe. That’s the weird thing: that it would be this controversial.

What do I think of his monologue? Just like his race, it’s mixed and partly vanilla. 

See, it’s really hard making jokes without making someone uncomfortable; imagine having to do it for a room full of the best entertainers in the Western world! Not to mention taking on the weight of a whole country's insecurity with you on a Hollywood stage for the first time.

So if you can't blame the writers, can't blame the crowd, can't blame the comedian, who can you blame?

“On Friday night, a comedian died……Are they right? Is it futile? Soon there will be war. Millions will burn. Millions will perish in sickness and misery. Why does one death matter against so many?”

Alan Moore, Watchmen

Josel Nicolas is a National Book Award-winning komix inker (Death Be Damned) who recently had his long-running auto bio komiks Windmills Bearings released by UST Publishing House. He also co-hosts  the Galingan Mo Naman podcast with fellow Comedy Manila stand-up comedians River Cruz and Steven Sagad. Check out his books here and here.