James Corden was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance in 'The Prom' and people have questions

• The 78th annual Golden Globes nominations were announced Wednesday.

• James Corden picked up a nomination for his performance in Ryan Murphy's "The Prom."

• People on social media were surprised as Corden's performance was widely panned by critics.

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James Corden picked up a surprise Golden Globes nomination on Wednesday for his role in Ryan Murphy's critically panned movie "The Prom," and people are confused.

"The Late Late Show" host was nominated for best actor in a musical or comedy alongside Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat Subsequent Moviefilm"), Lin-Manuel Miranda ("Hamilton"), Dev Patel ("The Personal History of David Copperfield"), and Andy Samberg ("Palm Springs").

Corden's nomination comes despite the heavy backlash against what critics and fans have described as his "stereotypical" and "offensive" portrayal of a gay character in the film.

In the movie, which is based on Matthew Sklar's play of the same name, Corden plays Barry Glickman, a gay theatre actor who travels to a small town in the mid-west to aid a student who has been banned from attending her highschool prom with her girlfriend.

In his review of the film, Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson wrote: "Corden, who is straight, is so bad in 'The Prom'-somehow both appalling and terminally bland-that it had me thinking maybe the hardliners were right along. Forget the whole case-by-case thing: No more straight actors playing gay men until the sins of 'The Prom' are properly atoned for."

After his surprise nomination was announced, people on social media shared similar critical observations. Jesse McAnally tweeted: "James Corden.... got nominated for a Golden Globe... for "The Prom"... despite being the worst part of it."

Others noted that Corden managed to pick up a nomination over his co-star Meryl Streep who has often been a Golden Globes favorite.

The rest of the Golden Globes nominations have also proved controversial with fans surprised by many of the nominations including multiple nods for Netflix's "Emily in Paris." As well as Isaac lee Chung's film "Minari," a film about an Asian-American family that stars Steven Yeun, being placed in the best foreign-language film when it was produced by two American companies.

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