Critics Choice Awards: Chelsea Handler’s Monologue, The Winners So Far

The 29th annual are underway in Santa Monica, and opened the evening hosting the show for the second year in a row. Handler began her opening monologue by calling herself “microdose Barbie,” and made a dig at studio executives who were “forced to vacation” for six months due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes.

She also honored the huge year we just had for women. “Women were victorious in all venues,” Handler said. “ at the box office, Taylor Swift and Beyonce with their tours, Gwyneth Paltrow and her ski trial. Women show up and dominate our culture. You could almost say it was the year of women. … Women could say that.

Bill Maher would say, ‘Is she still talking?'” She then panned over to Oprah Winfrey, who was there to support the film she produced, “Oprah, I have no words to describe you,” Handler said. Then, Handler talked about some of the “horniest” movies and TV shows of the year: Ali Wong in , Cillian Murphy being horny for uranium, and 2023 being the year “everyone became horny for Pedro Pascal.” She also, of course, honored Barry Keoghan’s penis for its performance in .

host Jo Koy (with whom she was previously in a relationship). “Unfortunately, Martin Scorsese isn’t here tonight, but that’s not gonna stop me from letting everyone in this room know that I would toss him around like a little Italian meatball,” she said after a series of jokes noting that she was attracted to older men.

“Thank you for laughing at that. My writers wrote it.” That was a direct dig at something Koy said during his monologue that didn’t generate as many laughs as he had hoped. Kaley Cuoco and David Oyelowo were the first presenters of the evening, which was supporting actress in a movie. Da’Vine Joy Randolph won for her performance in .

Randolph has been sweeping pretty much every show so far, including last weekend’s Golden Globes. Angela Bassett presented the second award, best supporting actor. Robert Downey Jr. won the award for his performance in . Downey Jr. also won the award at the Globes. During his speech, he took a moment to honor critics that in the past have called his work “sloppy, messy and lazy,” “like Peewee Herman emerging from a coma,” “a puzzling waste of talent,” and “amusing as a bed locked fart.” Then he thanked his colleagues.

Best supporting actor and actress in a limited series or TV movie were the next categories, which went to Jonathan Bailey for and Maria Bello for . Bailey, during his acceptance speech, told the audience that this show is a “reminder that LGBTQ+ people have always existed, and have been fighting for an easier life, so I thank people who have come before me” so that he could stand up there to win an award to represent the community.” Best supporting actor and actress in a drama series went to Billy Crudup ( ) and Elizabeth Debicki ( ).

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