There's no bad blood between Nikki Glaser and Benny Blanco following a "mean" joke she made at his expense during the 2025 Golden Globes.
Glaser made an impression during her first time hosting the Globes in January, so much so that she's even hosting the show in 2026, bringing her signature banter during her opening monologue. A joke she made that garnered attention was one aimed at Blanco and his I Said I Love You First collaborator and fiancée Selena Gomez.
"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 quipped during the ceremony.
During an appearance at the TIME100 Summit on Wednesday (April 23), Glaser admitted that "looking back ... that was pretty mean," per People. While the joke may have seemed like a dig at the record producer, Glaser revealed that she actually asked him for permission to use the punchline.
"Because everyone's like he's not attractive enough for her and for me, I never looked at them and actually thought that," she said. "I feel like she won too with it, like I think he's really cool."
Though she thought the joke would be okay to say because it didn't come from "a mean place," she still got his number and sent him a message asking for his opinion and he was on board.
"He was like, 'That's hilarious, let me run it by Selena,' and I was like 'Hell yeah,' and then we were all waiting in the writer's room like, 'When is he going to write?' and he wrote back and was like, 'Selena thinks it's great,'" she said. "So they gave me permission."
The host of the Nikki Glaser Podcast said that while she may have a "reputation of being mean" from her lauded appearance on The Roast of Tom Brady in 2024 because that is what she was hired for, she understands that hosting an awards show is a different environment because "it's not my job to ruin the night."