Unfortunately, every awards show host can't be Trevor Noah. It seems like, increasingly lately, hosts have failed to be funny or entertaining and just ended up crossing the line.
Here are 17 times awards show hosts made rude or inappropriate jokes:
This post contains mentions of eating disorders, addiction, and more.
1. Jimmy Kimmel opened the 2024 Academy Awards with an eating disorder joke.
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2. In his 2024 Oscars opening monologue, Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at Best Supporting Actor winner Robert Downey Jr.'s history with drug addiction.
At first, Robert played along, but when Jimmy brought up his past again, the levity seemingly disappeared from his face.
Here's the full opening monologue, with this part starting at the 4:25 mark:
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3. Also during the 2024 Oscars, Jimmy Kimmel followed up a Best Picture nominees montage with a joke about the sex scenes in Poor Things. He said, "Those were all the parts of Poor Things that we’re allowed to show on TV."
In response, Poor Things lead actor Emma Stone seemingly called him a "prick."
4. At the 2024 Golden Globes, Jo Koy referenced criticism of the NFL showing Taylor Swift in attendance at her boyfriend Travis Kelce's games. He said, "The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift."
The camera then cut to Taylor, who didn't seem amused.
In response to criticism of his joke, Jo told GMA3: What You Need to Know, "I think [a joke that fell flat] was when the Taylor one was just a little flat... It was a weird joke, I guess... It was more on the NFL... I was trying to make fun of the NFL using cutaways and how the Globes didn’t have to do that. So it was more of a jab toward the NFL. But it just didn’t come out that way."
5. Jo Koy also poked fun at the Barbie movie, comparing it to Oppenheimer.
Barbie director Greta Gerwig and actors Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling didn't seem impressed.
On BBC Radio, Greta said, "Well, he’s not wrong. She’s the first doll that was mass-produced with breasts, so he was right on. I think that so much of the project of the movie was unlikely because it is about a plastic doll. The insight that [Barbie’s creator] Ruth Handler had when she was watching her daughter play with baby dolls is she realized, 'My daughter doesn’t want to pretend to be a mother. She wants to pretend to be a grown woman.'"
Here's the full clip, with this part starting at the 2:37 mark:
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6. At the 2024 Critics' Choice Awards, Chelsea Handler joked about Barry Keoghan's nude scene in Saltburn.
Then, the camera cut to Barry, who looked away.
Here's the full video, with this part starting at the 8:40 mark:
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7. At the 2023 Golden Globes, Jerrod Carmichael joked about Whitney Houston's 2012 death, saying, "So, we are here, live, from the hotel that killed Whitney Houston, the Beverly Hilton."
He was called out by the late singer's estate, who told TMZ, "The Whitney Houston Estate is disappointed in the joke and felt it was in poor taste."
8. At the 2014 Oscars, Ellen DeGeneres made fun of attendee Liza Minnelli, calling her an "impersonator" and "sir."
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Liza told TMZ, "I think [Ellen] thought it would be funny. But she never stopped after she said it and said, 'my friend, Liza Minnelli.' I think it went a little astray on her, and I don't think she meant any harm at all, and she's a wonderful lady."
9. During the 2022 Oscars, Chris Rock poked fun at attendee Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head.
In response, Jada's husband, Will Smith, infamously slapped the host.
Here's the full clip, with this part starting at the 1:05 mark:
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10. In his opening monologue at the 2023 Academy Awards, Jimmy Kimmel referenced the slap from the previous year and invoked a stereotype about Irish people.
Here's the full video, with this part starting at the 8:15 mark:
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11. However, the Irish jokes didn't stop there. During a "fan questions" segment, Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at Best Actor nominee Colin Farrell's accent.
In response, the actor called out a recent Saturday Night Live sketch, which portrayed him and costar Brendan Gleeson as unintelligible due to their Irish accents and made jokes about the "drunken Irish" stereotype, despite Colin's outspokenness about his past issues with alcohol abuse and his sobriety.
Here's the full clip, with this part starting at the 0:57 mark:
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12. At the 2017 Oscars, Mahershala Ali thanked his wife and their 4-day-old daughter in his Best Supporting Actor speech. Afterwards, Jimmy Kimmel joked about the kind of name someone called Mahershala should've chosen for his baby. He said, "You can’t name her Amy."
13. At the 2013 Golden Globes, cohost Tina Fey poked fun at attendee Taylor Swift's dating life. She said, "You know what, Taylor Swift? You stay away from Michael J. Fox’s son."
Her cohost Amy Poehler added, "Or go for it."
"No, she needs some me-time to learn about herself," Tina said.
In response, Taylor told Vanity Fair, "You know, Katie Couric is one of my favorite people. Because she said to me she had heard a quote that she loved, that said, 'There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.'"
She continued, "If you want some big revelation, since 2010, I have dated exactly two people... [The] fact that there are slide shows of a dozen guys that I either hugged on a red carpet or met for lunch or wrote a song with...it’s just kind of ridiculous."
14. At the 2022 Oscars, Amy Schumer referred to Best Supporting Actress nominee Kirsten Dunst as a "seat filler" and asked her to get up. Then, she fangirled over Kirsten's husband, Jesse Plemons.
The moment was staged, but it didn't land well. However, some people took the criticism way too far, sending Amy death threats.
On The Howard Stern Show, she said, "I did a bit with Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons. That was completely orchestrated. We talked beforehand. The joke was that I was pretending I thought she was a seat filler. And we all worked that out together. I got death threats. The Secret Service reached out to me. They were so bad that the Secret Service reached out to me. I was like, 'Oh, I think you have the wrong number. This is Amy, not Will.' Not that I want Will to get death threats, but the misogyny is unbelievable... They were like, 'Who do you think are you to disrespect Kirsten Dunst like that?' The Secret Service, the LAPD — the [death threats] were that serious and that many."
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15. In 1995, David Letterman opened the Oscars by making fun of celebs with "unusual" names.
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16. After the 2019 BAFTAs, Joanna Lumley was branded the "worst BAFTAs host" ever. Several of her jokes were reportedly edited out of the YouTube uploads, such as when she told The Wife lead actor Glenn Close, "A lot of men here have already moved on to the sequel, The Second Wife."
She also reportedly told BlacKkKlansman director Spike Lee, "I’m surprised that it did so well at the Klan film festival."
17. And finally, at the 2013 Academy Awards, Seth MacFarlane performed an entire song and dance number calling out women who'd done nude scenes. He titled it "We Saw Your Boobs."
The camera cut to a few of the women he mentioned by name.
He also made light of Scarlett Johansson's nude photo leak.
Here's the full clip:
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The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-888-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.