Golden Globes 2023: Jerrod Carmichael Roasts the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in Opening Monologue: ‘I’m Here Because I’m Black’

11.01.2023 - 05:13 / usmagazine.com

Put your hands together! 2023 Golden Globes host Jerrod Carmichael opened the awards show with a bang — and didn’t hesitate to roast the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in the process.

“I’ll tell you why I’m here. I’m here cause I’m Black,” Carmichael, 35, said in his monologue at the Tuesday, January 10, event. “I’ll catch everyone in the room up. … This show, the Golden Globe awards did not air last year because of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — which I won’t say they were a racist, but they didn’t have a second black member until George Floyd died, so do with that info what you will.”

The comedian explained that he was “at home making mint tea” when the producer of the event, Stephen Hill, called him up and invited him “to be the black face of a white organization.”

While Carmichael revealed that Hill insisted he was asked to host the show because he was “charming” and “talented,” it was his friend Avery — “Who, for the sake of this monologue, represents every Black person in America” — who told him to “put on a suit and take the white people’s money.”

The 8 producer ultimately said yes to the role, but hesitated when he was asked to participate in meetings that “educated” him on all the progressive changes they made after the show was canceled in 2022 for its lack of diversity.

Carmichael, however, still refused. “They’re going to fire me? They haven’t had a Black host in 79 years and they’re going to fire the first one? I’m unfirable,” he joked, before sharing that he assumed the HFPA “hadn’t changed at all” but decided to emcee the ceremony because of all the “incredible artists” he both “admires” and is “jealous of.”

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced that the comedian, who earned an Emmy