Nikki Glaser may have gotten herself the Golden Globes hosting gig by being a take-no-prisoners, no-target-off-limits roaster, but she will be steering well clear of the biggest current Hollywood drama. "I think the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni thing is such a hot-button thing right now that even a mere mention of it will seem like I could be on the wrong side of things, even though I would never be," Glaser told Yahoo Entertainment in a new interview. "I also don’t want to give his name any—I'm mad I even know his name, to be honest with you, so I don’t need to say it anymore."
It Ends With Us jokes have already made headlines in the wake of Lively and Baldoni's competing legal filings. Comic and podcaster Hannah Berner had to walk back a quip in Netflix's Torching 2024: The Roast Of The Year where she said, "The word 'cunt' was trending this year. I don’t think Blake Lively was that bad." After the special aired, she posted to social media (via The Hollywood Reporter), "My joke in the Netflix roast was filmed before news of the [complaint]. To be 100 percent clear, I support Blake xoxo."
Being able to read the temperature of the room on a given topic is an important skill for any comedian, but particularly on the Golden Globes stage. Jo Koy learned that the hard way last year with his poorly received monologue where took aim at the lengthy runtime of some of the nominees and made a crack about Taylor Swift. "It taught me the importance of contextualizing yourself to the room as a comedian," Glaser said of Koy's turn as host in an interview with Variety. "Comedians, we would love to be thought of in the same light as these A-listers, but we just aren’t. His monologue would have gone a lot better had he acknowledged, 'Who am I?' He’s a guy that kills harder than anyone I’ve seen kill before—to his audience. So I think he thought that would be the vibe there. And it was a little naive." She added, "I’m going the other way and not assuming anyone knows who I am, and making sure they’re introduced to me before I start making jokes about them."
Glaser told The Hollywood Reporter she's been testing some of her Globes jokes during stand-up sets, so she has some idea of what works and what doesn't. For instance, she shared with Yahoo that another topic she doesn't want to touch is once and future president Donald Trump. "People are just tired of hearing about it, even though it's looming and it’s in the air," she observed.
In general, it sounds like Glaser is carefully treading the line between sharp and ingratiating, because she'd like to be invited back. "I’m not gonna go so hard that anyone’s gonna be offended. I've made a point not to, and that’s not to disappoint anyone who’s hoping I’m going to pull a Ricky Gervais. I’m not Ricky Gervais. This isn’t my last Golden Globes, this is my first one. He really went hard on his last one. He was ready to burn some bridges [because] it didn’t matter anymore," she explained to Yahoo. She encouraged celebs in the audience to laugh at jokes about themselves: "It's a really easy way to look likable to the public and actually it's a great PR move. Everyone in your camp should encourage you to laugh at jokes. It doesn't make you cooler to not laugh. ... I'm trying to make you look good. I really am not out to hurt anyone's career."
