Comedian Jerrod Carmichael gave perhaps the perfect monologue for the 2022 Gloden Globes Awards. The show returned to television after not airing in 2021.
Carmichael left no confusion on why he was selected to host the show this year.
“Let me tell you why I’m here,” Carmichael said. “I’m here ’cause I’m Black.”
The room erupted in applause and laughter, but the laughter and applause tapered off to a deafening silence.
“This show, the Golden Globe Awards, did not air last year because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which I won’t say they were a racist organization, but they didn’t have a single Black member until George Floyd died,” he said. “So do with that information what you will.”
He then went into a joke about the show’s producer, Stephen Hill, calling Carmichael to host the show. The reasons Hill cited included Carmichael being talented, charming and one of the greatest comedians of his time.
“But Stephen’s Black, so what does he know?” Carmichael said. “He’s only producing the show because he’s Black, so what does he know? They’re not going to tell him why he’s here either.”
Carmichael closed the opening monologue by explaining why he accepted the offer — the $500,000 compensation.
“I kind of forget that, where I’m from, we all [operate] by a strict ‘take the money’ mentality,” Carmichael said.
Jerrod Carmichael is kicking off the #GoldenGlobes. pic.twitter.com/Y0WL46sRig
— NBC Entertainment (@nbc) January 11, 2023
Carmichael also told other edgy jokes throughout the night, including a dig at Scientology. He held three Golden Globe trophies and said they were the trophies Tom Cruise returned. Cruise returned awards in 1997, 1990 and 2000, citing the HFPA’s lack of diversity and ethical questions related to financial benefits to some of the 87 members. Cruise is a member of the Church of Scientology.
“I have a pitch, we take these three things and exchange them for the safe return of Shelly Miscavige,” Carmichael said.
Shelly Miscavige is the wife of the Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige. She was last seen in public in 2007, and the last update provided about her was in 2013 when Los Angeles Police Department said detectives made contact with her and found her to be alive and safe, CNN reported.
Jerrod Carmichael’s Scientology joke sucked the air out of the room #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/S4bsijk0n8
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 11, 2023
When mentioning the hotel the awards were at to close the show, Carmichael brought up another conspiracy. He called it the hotel “that killed Whitney Houston.” Houston was found dead in a Beverly Hills, California hotel in 2012 on the weekend of the Grammy Awards. Her death was officially ruled an accidental drowning with contributing factors of heart disease and cocaine use.
https://twitter.com/amojmcd/status/1613017420607770625?s=20&t=lJae7pSlySsnIUr55ZPYyQ
In the past year, Carmichael released his latest stand-up special, Rothaniel, where he came out as gay and the film he directed and starred in, On The Count of Three.
