Nikki Glaser didn’t want to “roast” celebrities at the 2025 Golden Globes — so she cleared her Benny Blanco and Selena Gomez joke with the couple before trolling their romance.
“I don’t burn people unless I’m hired to do it,” Glaser, 40, explained during the Monday, February 24, episode of the “Armchair Expert” podcast. “Even the Golden Globes wasn’t, like, a burn fest.”
The comedian, who hosted the January awards show noted, “Those people weren’t signing up for a roast. So, it was very gentle.”
Glaser confessed that the “worst thing” she said was to Blanco, 36, revealing, “But, I got his permission.” (Blanco was in attendance on January 5 to support Gomez, 32, who was nominated for two categories.)
Nikki Glaser Jokes About Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco Engagement
During her opening monologue, Glaser said, “Selena Gomez is here with Benny Blanco, her new fiancé, and Benny Blanco is here because of the genie who granted him that wish.” She proceeded to call Blanco a “lucky guy.”
Glaser explained on Monday that she was a little nervous about how the quip would be received so she reached out to Eric Andre, who “put us on a text chat together.”
She recalled sending Blanco a “voice memo of the joke” to make sure he was on board. According to Glaser, the music producer said he was “cool with it,” but wanted to “run it by Selena” first. (Gomez and Blanco announced their engagement in December 2024 after dating more than one year.)
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“So I got permission. I would have never had done that joke [otherwise],” Glaser shared, noting that Jimmy Kimmel was the one who gave her that advice.
She remembered Kimmel — who has hosted both the Emmy Awards and the Academy Awards — telling her, “‘Hey, reach out to people if you have a joke that you’re a little bit worried about.’ Because I just wouldn’t have done it otherwise.”
Blanco and Gomez weren’t the only ones who had a positive reaction to Glaser’s Golden Globes jokes. Glen Powell revealed he was cool with being sexualized for the awards show one day after she made a joke about him.
“Glen Powell, what a year you’ve had. Oh my God. Glen, you were in everything,” Glaser said during her speech. “Twisters, Hitman, my head when I’m having sex with my boyfriend. Thank you so much for the assist. I’ll see you tonight.”
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Powell, 36, was spotted smiling in the audience and later gave Glaser his stamp of approval via his Instagram Story. “@nikkiglaser CRUSHED,” he captioned a screenshot on January 6 of him laughing, adding a laughing face, flexed biceps and eggplant emoji.
Glaser later revealed that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson made a point to stop by her dressing room to congratulate her on the show.
“I hugged him before [my monologue] and then after [the show] — which he did not need to do,” Glaser shared during the January 7 episode of her “The Nikki Glaser” podcast. “[He] came by after everyone was in the room. We were all kind of celebrating. It was probably, like, 10 minutes after the end of the show, and he came back.”
