Nikki Glaser Admits There’s a Golden Globes Joke About a Celebrity She’s Fighting

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Golden Globes are fast approaching and Nikki Glaser is struggling to find a Julia Roberts joke.

“She’s been the hardest nut to crack,” Glaser, who will host Sunday’s Globes, said Tuesday with a determined laugh. “But I’m going to figure it out.”

The comedian landed the hosting job last year after showing off her ability to mercilessly roast celebrities. He received praise for his monologue. He took out the knives, but they were not very sharp. They immediately asked him to come back.

Sunday’s monologue will be a shape-shifting monster until the moment the News broadcast begins and she takes the stage at the Beverly Hilton, ideally with a bit ready for Roberts, who is nominated for best actress in a drama for “After the Hunt.” She will be sitting opposite Glaser with her star charm.

via News

“I just want to make the perfect joke, but it’s like people don’t have a sense of humor about Julia Roberts,” Glaser said in an interview with The News. “She’ll be fine; other people aren’t fine with her. Like the most innocent joke about her that I made a couple of times when I tried it, they booed, they made fun of it.”

Which stars does Glaser plan to joke with during the Globes?

To others, Glaser is confident in his material and his ability to take it, including the men in the absurdly star-studded best actor categories:

— He will have another chance with Timothée Chalamet, nominated last year for playing Bob Dylan and this year for “Marty Supreme”: “Timothée, he’s great. He knows how to handle it,” he said. Last year, he told the mustachioed Chalamet: “You have the most beautiful eyelashes, on your upper lip.”

— He will have his first opportunity to attack George Clooney, nominated for “Jay Kelly”: “It’s going to be exciting to have any type of interaction with George Clooney. I think he’s a good sport,” he said. “He is willing to do it.”

Taking the monologue to the clubs

Glaser spoke to the AP while wearing a dress and a fur coat on a simulated New York street in a News studio where she is preparing.

But the real preparation has occurred in the comedy clubs of Southern California.

“I’ve been telling jokes constantly,” he said. “I live and die among those crowds. They really tell me what to keep and what not to keep. The things that I think will kill will be nothing and the things that I think are just disposable are like the best joke.”

She shares one she left behind.

“I was going to make a joke about ‘Pluribus’ where I said, ‘Have you seen it? Not Pluribus,'” he said. “But we couldn’t find a place for ‘plurably not’ and that’s in the cemetery. Probably with good reason.”

Because the monologue is aimed, barbecue-style, at people in the Globes audience, the comedy club audience has to play celebrity roles.

She’ll ask them, ‘Do you want to play Julia Roberts for me?’ You know, it’s weird, but I just put it together. Like I’m hosting the Golden Globes. They’re usually very excited about it.”

The Venezuelan question

Like every awards show presenter, he fears that some major current event will upset everything. Last weekend he thought that he would surely have to talk about Venezuela on stage. Now he thinks maybe not.

“You can’t even anticipate that things a week from now will be relevant enough,” he said. “You’d be surprised to know that half the room had no idea why I was saying ‘Venezuela’. People don’t get the news like we all do.”

Last year’s take on the Julia Roberts problem was “Wicked,” and it found a joke that walked the line between meanness and affection. It took a long time, but she and the two friends she writes with found it.

“It ended up being perfect. I loved it,” he said, repeating the phrase. “‘My boyfriend loved it, my boyfriend’s boyfriend loved it’. Perfect ‘evil’ joke. It wasn’t too bad, it just celebrated homosexuality.”