Nikki Glaser Turns the Golden Globes Into a Sharp, Political Roast

With a grin and a loaded punchline, Nikki Glaser wasted no time setting the tone at the Golden Globe Awards. Her opening joke landed like a gavel: the “Golden Globe for best editing,” she quipped, went to the Justice Department—while “most editing” belonged to CBS News, which she dubbed “America’s newest place to see B.S. News.”

It was a blunt, unmistakably political start. Glaser skewered the Trump administration’s slow, heavily redacted release of Epstein documents and took aim at the newsroom shakeup under Bari Weiss, now editor-in-chief at CBS News. The laughs came fast, but the message was clear: this year’s Globes would not shy away from controversy.

From there, Glaser turned her fire outward—and inward. She ribbed Hollywood royalty, joking about Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating history and Sean Penn’s on-screen aging. Both star in One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. She also needled the industry’s corporate anxieties, opening with, “We set the bidding for Warner Bros. at $5,” then praising Sinners as the movie that “single-handedly saved Warner Bros.—for about a month,” as Netflix and Paramount circle the storied studio.

Glaser saved plenty of barbs for herself, too. Referencing Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, she joked that she, like the monster, was “pieced together by an unlicensed European surgeon.” It was self-deprecation with teeth—classic Glaser.

Sunday marked Glaser’s second turn as host, and the room rewarded her with a warm reception. If last year proved she could handle the job, this year showed she could steer it—with edge.

The politics, however, weren’t confined to the stage. On the red carpet, stars including Mark Ruffalo, Wanda Sykes, and Natasha Lyonne wore black-and-white pins reading “BE GOOD” and “ICE OUT.” The pins protested U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and memorialized Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman fatally shot by an ICE agent earlier in the week.

Protests across the country echoed the same demand for accountability. The Trump administration has said Good attempted to run over an agent—an account contested by demonstrators and the victim’s supporters. CNN reported that at least 1,000 demonstrations were planned nationwide.

Ruffalo spoke candidly on the carpet, telling USA Today he wore the pin “for Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered,” and unleashing harsh criticism of Donald Trump. Trump has not been convicted of rape; a civil jury found he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll, a finding he denies. He has also not been convicted of, or charged with, crimes involving minors.

Taken together, the night felt different. Between Glaser’s razor-sharp monologue and the quiet statements on the carpet, the Golden Globes signaled a ceremony willing to blend Hollywood glitz with pointed political speech—and to do so loudly.