No one was spared by Conan O’Brien’s jokes during Sunday’s Academy Awards.
Right off the bat, the veteran comedian and first-time Oscar host took aim at one of this awards’ seasons biggest dramas: “Emila Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón’s tweet controversy.
While riffing on all the Best Picture nominees during his opening monologue, O’Brien said, “I loved ‘Anora.’ I really did. Yeah. True story. Little fact for you, ‘Anora’ uses the f-word 479 times. That’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofía Gascón’s publicist.”
Not long after nailing a historic Best Actress nomination, a series of ugly old X posts by the Spanish star came to light. In them, she disparaged Muslims, knocked diversity at the Oscars and called George Floyd a “drug addict swindler.”
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O’Brien’s jokes about Gascón didn’t stop at just one.
After acknowledging the actor, who is the first transgender woman to earn a Best Actress nomination, he told the audience, “And Karla, if you’re going to tweet about the Oscars, remember, my name is Jimmy Kimmel.”
Elsewhere in the monologue, O’Brien ribbed everything from the Catholic church to artificial intelligence, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and folk legend Bob Dylan.
The energetic opener climaxed in a musical number titled “I Won’t Waste Time,” which featured a dancing Deadpool and the sandworm from “Dune 2” on stage.
O’Brien largely avoided politics during his opening bit.
Prior to the show, the comedian said he thought carefully about where he’d throw his punches on the night of his big gig.
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“It is all about threading the needle. I’m there, really, to talk about these films, to talk about the industry,” he told The New York Times in an interview published on Thursday.
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“And yes, there’s going to be political jokes here and there; there have to be,” the comic added. “But if it’s a screed, I’m doing a disservice to everybody. I’m actually doing a disservice to the people who might agree with the screed, in my opinion.”
“However anyone voted should not be a prerequisite for whether you enjoy the show,” he continued. “I feel very strongly about that.”
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