Golden Globes host Jo Koy took aim at Taylor Swift along with Harry and Meghan in a string of “awkward” jokes, which were met with stony-faced silence from some stars during Sunday night’s awards ceremony.

The 52-year-old comic blamed his writers for the flops, saying on stage that he had taken the hosting job at the eleventh hour, but was panned by critics for a “disastrous” performance.

The jokes included one that poked fun at Taylor Swift’s relationship with NFL player Travis Kelce, much to the star’s apparent dismay.

“As you know, we came on after a football doubleheader,” Koy told the audience in Beverly Hills. 

“The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL - on the Golden Globes fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift,” he added.

Swift, who announced her relationship with the Kansas City Chiefs star last year and has since been pictured at his games, appeared distinctly unimpressed by the punchline as others around her laughed. 

The 34-year-old singer was nominated in the new category “Cinematic and Box Office Achievement” for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour on Sunday, but lost out to Barbie.

Her reaction to Koy’s remarks proved it was a difficult night for the host, with other attendees also seemingly irritated by his performance as several gags drew “groans” and “boos” from audience members.

Rolling Stone magazine reported Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan registering a disapproving look during the comedian’s opening monologue, in which he made several jokes about the three-hour-long epic biographical thriller.

“The minute I signed the contract… I locked myself in a room and started binge-watching everything. While my family was clinking champagne glasses and ringing in the New Year, I was watching Oppenheimer,” Koy said.

“I loved Oppenheimer. I just got one complaint: [It] needed another hour, because I felt like it needed some more backstory. My New Year’s resolution for 2024 is to finish Oppenheimer in 2025. I love Oppenheimer - especially the first season.”

He later made a joke about the film, which took home five awards on Sunday, being based on a “724-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project” while its box office rival was centred on “a plastic doll with big boobies”.

“The key moment in Barbie is when she goes from perfect beauty to bad breath, cellulite, and flat feet - or what casting directors call ‘character actor’,” Koy added.

When that joke failed to land, the stand-up comedian appeared to blame his speechwriters for his performance, suggesting he had little time to prepare for the event after accepting the hosting gig at short notice.

“Some I wrote, some other people wrote,” Koy said. “Yo, I got the gig ten days ago! You want a perfect monologue? Shut up! You’re kidding me, right? I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at,” he said.

Koy then turned his attention to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and joked that the Royal family were “rich, white, dysfunctional” in a quip about The Crown.

“Harry and Meghan Markle got paid millions for doing absolutely nothing - and that’s just by Netflix,” he said. The Duke and Duchess were not in attendance.

Speaking to US media, Koy admitted he was given just two weeks to prepare for the ceremony, his first major hosting gig. 

It came amid reports that some stars had avoided the job because of the award show’s links to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organisation behind the Globes which has faced accusations of corruption and a lack of diversity.

However, critics accused Koy of throwing his writers “under the bus”.

Chelsey Sanchez of Harper’s Bazaar described his hosting as “awkward” and “distasteful”, while Shirley Li of The Atlantic wrote that “practically every joke failed to land, mostly because the punchlines were dated or obvious”.

“Wowee. Never seen an audience rebel against an emcee so quickly,” Nicole Sperling, a New York Times’ media and entertainment reporter, said. “One prominent director just couldn’t keep his opinion quiet. ‘They all showed up. They are all here and this is what they give us? This is a disaster.’”