Nikki Glaser is ready to take on the biggest night of her career.
After a breakout 2024 — one that saw her earning awards attention for her HBO comedy special “Someday You’ll Die” and dominating the discourse for her excoriating performance on Netflix’s “The Roast of Tom Brady” — the stand-up has been tapped to host the 2025 Golden Globes. Glaser had been in the comedy trenches before May’s Brady roast, in which she took the football legend to task for his failed relationships and for delaying his retirement, all with a smirkingly abashed delivery.
Now, she’s emceeing in awards season’s most raucous room. The potential upside is huge, but the risks are real: Ricky Gervais and then the hosting pair of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler became iconically associated with the Globes over multiple appearances, while last year, Jo Koy tanked with a crude joke about Barbie’s breasts. Speaking in New York some three weeks out from the Jan. 5 ceremony, Glaser says, “I feel really ready. I just know it’ll be killer.”
So what is the Nikki Glaser take on the Golden Globes? How is it different from what we might have seen before?
The way I feel about the Globes is like, What are we doing here? We’re treating this like you guys are all nominated for Nobel Prizes. I don’t think I can be as honest as I want to be, to communicate my feelings about some of these nominees that I don’t think deserve it. That’s the argument my writing team is getting into: Will this fly? Can we make fun of “The Bear,” or is “The Bear” going to take itself too seriously? It’s about figuring out where the line is.
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Is your critique that “The Bear” shouldn’t be considered a comedy, given that it’s not particularly jokey?
That’s something that’s been tackled by other shows; the Emmys had a couple really good jokes about that. It’s been done. I’m trying to approach from another angle — what else is there to say about “The Bear”? You don’t want to beat a dead bear with the same jokes.
Have you been watching this year’s movies?
Yes! I’ve watched “Conclave” twice. Ralph Fiennes is the greatest actor. I love the movie; I fell asleep a lot during the first watch — it’s a dark, slow movie — but it’s one of my favorite movies of all time. I saw “Emilia Pérez” — I don’t even know what I was watching. Then someone goes, it’s French. And I go, “Oh, OK. This reminds me of the Paris opening ceremony.”
That one’s fun because there’s a lot of fodder there. First of all, not many people have seen it. Then, because of the subject matter — there are certain things that culturally, we’ve all decided we don’t joke about. It’s sensitive. So that’s a difficult one to tackle, but not impossible: I welcome the challenge.
And then “Wicked” is the one that we’re really trying to nail. It has that “Eras Tour” energy — I want to respect the fandom and not trash it, because as a Swiftie, there is no joke you can make about Taylor Swift that is OK to me. I relate to people who love “Wicked” that much. But it’s so nice to have “Wicked,” because everyone’s seen it.
What else is there? I’ve been talking about “A Complete Unknown.” People are like, “Huh?” Or “Nightbitch.” People are like, “What’s that?” It’s kind of shocking. The people at home don’t know these films, so I have to give the plot a little bit.
Last year, Jo Koy was the host, and viewers could tell on TV he wasn’t a hit in the room. He made a joke about “Barbie,” if you remember —
Oh, I remember.
I’m curious if you took anything from watching that.
It taught me the importance of contextualizing yourself to the room as a comedian. Comedians, we would love to be thought of in the same light as these A-listers, but we just aren’t. His monologue would have gone a lot better had he acknowledged, “Who am I?” He’s a guy that kills harder than anyone I’ve seen kill before — to his audience. So I think he thought that would be the vibe there. And it was a little naive.
I’m going the other way and not assuming anyone knows who I am, and making sure they’re introduced to me before I start making jokes about them.
You’re also a nominee in a stand-up comedy category, which puts you in a funny position: You’re deflating the vanities of the evening, but it would probably feel like a big honor if you won, right?
Yes — you really like me. My Sally Field moment. But I just love being nominated. I was nominated for an Emmy; I’m nominated for a Grammy. I didn’t win an Emmy. Who knows if I’ll win. I just really like the nomination. I don’t like winning things. I like to be hungry and get close: It keeps me going.
Also, after my category, I’m going to talk about what just happened. And the funnier thing is to lose.
Just this past weekend, you were playing shows in New England. Does working your monologue out on the road give you an advantage?
It’s such an advantage! Ricky is a stand-up, so he knows the club circuit — he could have worked it out, and I’m sure he did. And Jo Koy also could have done that, and I don’t know that he did. I’m sure some people worry about the jokes getting out; I just know from doing roasts that this is part of my process.
The cool thing is that, because I know how the jokes do for normal people, I already know that I will be killing at home. Even if it doesn’t go in the room, there’s a part of me that will go, “Well, the people in Burlington, Vermont, are losing their minds.”
Is there a notoriously difficult celebrity whom you want to needle, just for the challenge of it?
There’s certain people we all know who don’t have a sense of humor about themselves, and if I were to make that person laugh, it shows the people in the room, “OK, it’s safe to laugh.”
I had a joke that I don’t think is going to make the final monologue: “The camera is going to be on you. Pro tip: Just laugh. It’s a really good way for the audience at home to like you.” I don’t understand why publicists haven’t told them this. When you laugh at a joke about yourself, it makes you look so friendly, so cool, so personable. I’m trying to help you out. This way you don’t have to play Hip-Hop Hopscotch with Jimmy Fallon to look relatable.
You are a huge Taylor Swift fan. Is there a world in which she would come up in your monologue?
Not unless it’s a very favorable way. She was at the Golden Globes last year — I would have loved for her to be in the audience this year. I’m hoping this turns into a gig that I can do multiple times, and I can perform for her, because I’ve watched her so many times.
How many times did you see “The Eras Tour”?
Twenty-two.
Big number in Swiftie numerology.
It was supposed to be 24, but the Vienna shows were canceled. So it ended up being good that I got that number — 22.
Do you have a relationship with Swift?
I met her after “The Red Tour,” but I was not a Swiftie yet. I met her backstage, and she was so normal and nice. It wasn’t just like, pose next to her and don’t make eye contact — we had a moment.
But I am very happy just staying a fan. I probably like her too much — it would be kind of weird to be friends with me. For the time being, there’s been no attempt for me to meet her. I want it to happen naturally.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler did this show four times; Ricky Gervais did it five times. So would you like to come back?
I want this. So much of being a stand-up comedian is moving from town to town. I really like the idea of having a gig every year for a while, and I love live, high-pressure TV. So it’s a gig that no one’s going to have to convince me to do year after year.
The Oscars have announced Conan O’Brien as their host this year; it feels like these shows are so different, but both are really leaning into pure comedy.
The Globes takes itself way less seriously; I mean, the Oscars is the Oscars. There’s more money behind it and more star power. Hopefully, that’s a gig for me down the road too. A lot of people watch the Golden Globes, but the Oscars warrants a musical number, a dance sequence. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Conan does with it. He’s at a place in his career where we’re seeing him take these risks, like his “Hot Ones” performance — the most beautiful, chaotic thing I’ve ever seen.
How will you know if your hosting gig is a success? What will be your metric?
I’m doing Howard [Stern] the next day — he’ll absolutely be honest. But really, I don’t read anything. I will know based on the way I knew from the Tom Brady roast. The stage manager, after I’d gone on, goes, “You killed.” And when I walked by the stage, the crew was like, “Oh my God.” When you get the sound guys and the camera guys mouthing “You killed” — that’s how I knew.