It wasn’t up for any awards, but there was an unlikely scene-stealer in the audience of the 2024 Golden Globe Awards: the

sushi.

After several years marked by controversy and the disbanding of the all-white Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Golden Globe Awards are attempting (“attempting” being the operative word here) to make the awards more inclusive. The newest additions? A newly formed voting body, Filipino-American host Jo Koy, and its menu (sushi from Japanese Chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s restaurant, Nobu).

The Golden Globe Awards started on an incredibly awkward foot, something even perfectly good sushi can’t salvage. In case you missed it, which I don’t blame you because it was three hours long, host Jo Koy began the show with a monologue that quickly alienated not only audience members, but also the Golden Globes’ writing staff, a big faux pas considering the very recent end of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Koy then couldn’t resist calling out the attempt at diversity with the celebrity-approved Nobu sushi, noting that the Globes’ couldn’t get geographically closer to serving food that honored his own Filipino heritage, instead stopping at a dish from a country nearly 2,000 miles away: Japanese sushi.

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That is, until the quiet praise turned into a punchline again. As the awards slogged into hour three, sushi once again stole the scene. What was arguably the funniest part of the entire show, for Best Male Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy). In true Will Ferrell fashion, the actor went off-script to call attention to a smelly development in the ballroom: “It smells like hot sushi in here,” which arguably got the biggest laugh of the entire show.

The sushi service itself was a hit amongst the attendees, many of which are already famous regulars of Nobu (or partners with Chef Nobu, like Robert De Niro).
Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig took to the stage to present the award

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As the awards finally turned their corner into the end of hour three, the show finally got into a stride of sorts, although not without one more joke about fish. As he accepted his award for his award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical), Paul Giamatti remarked that,”Certainly this is the first time this award has been given to an actor who played a character…that smelled like a fish.” However I’d say he’s underselling that count by about a few dozen.

Giamatti’s character in The Holdovers is supposed to smell like fish (he has a rare disorder called Fish Odor Disorder), and it’s an experience that went from screen to real life since, after a five-course sushi meal, one could say that he (and dozens of other winners) also received a Golden Globe smelling of fish, as well.