Marlon Wayans criticised for “butchering” names during Golden Globes nominations

    Marlon Wayans announces nominees for 2026 Golden Globes.

    Marlon Wayans has been criticised for “butchering” the names of those nominated for 2026 Golden Globes – majorly mispronouncing names including Ludwig Göransson and Elle Fanning.

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    The actor, comedian and producer was enlisted to announce the nominations for the 2026 awards, and took part in a livestream that was broadcast by CBS today (Monday December 8).

    Joined by Skye P. Marshall, the two of them took it in turns to read out the list of nominees for categories including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Female and Best Male actors, and more.

    During the segment, however, the White Chicks star noticeably found it difficult to pronounce many of the names, and some viewers took to social media to criticise him for seemingly not practising beforehand.

    Among the names he mispronounced were Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, and others who are nominated for writing the hit KPop Demon Hunters song ‘Golden’, and Swedish musician composer Ludwig Göransson, who is nominated for his work on the song ‘I Lied To You’, which featured in Sinners.

    Other names he tripped over included Jafar Panahi, who is nominated for Best Screenplay, Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director for his film It Was Just An Accident, as well as Best Male Actor nominee Joel Edgerton and Best Supporting Female Actor nominee Elle Fanning.

    Wayans also went on to make multiple nods to his difficulty getting the names right during the livestream. “Lets hope all names are like that one,” he quipped after sharing that Stephen Schwartz was nominated for his Wicked: For Good songs. He also joked that his co-host put him to shame after “perfectly reading all” the names on her list.

    “Marlon Wayans butchering every single name like no matter what language,” said one viewer on X/Twitter during the livestream, while another added it was “wild that Marlon Wayans was reading even the American names wrong.”

    “He somehow even managed to fuck up ‘Elle Fanning’, so at a certain point he can’t just blame the ‘foreign-ness’ of the names,” wrote a third, while another said that he “made a mockery” of the nominees by not taking the care to get the names correct.

    “Sorry to all the hard working artists and film industry people who made dreams come true today just for Marlon Wayans to slaughter and butcher all your names,” another agreed, while someone else said that his “inability to get a single name right should be studied”.

    Others were more sympathetic, however, and suggested that him stumbling over so many names may be down to lack of time to prepare, or the wider team letting him down. “They seriously couldn’t give Marlon Wayans the phonetic spelling of these names,” one person highlighted, while someone else speculated: “Not to justify him but I’m pretty sure he had trouble SEEING the names, not just pronouncing them.”

    Find more fan reactions below.