Jimmy Kimmel recapped his favorite 2024 Oscars moments during his Tonight Show monologue on Monday, including John Cena‘s nudity gag and Donald Trump‘s angry tweet.
“We had John Cena onstage naked, and somehow Trump still managed to be the biggest dick of the night,” Kimmel told the crowd.
At the ceremony the night before, which Kimmel hosted for the fourth time, Cena took the stage seemingly nude, covering himself with a winner’s envelope to present the award for best costume design. The gag was a nod to streaker Robert Opel at the 1974 Academy Awards, Kimmel reiterated on Monday, saying he wanted to pay tribute to the incident on its 50th anniversary.
Kimmel also spoke on Monday about how difficult it was to convince the network to greenlight Cena’s joke, saying he kept being told the envelope held in front of Cena’s body needed to be bigger.
“They kept demanding that we make the envelope bigger and bigger, but first of all I have to say congratulations, John Cena,” Kimmel quipped. “Very rarely does an idea literally push the envelope.”
Later in the ceremony on Sunday, Kimmel also took a chance to read a message from Trump, posted to the former President’s social media platform, Truth Social.
“Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars,” Trump wrote and Kimmel later read to the crowd. “His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be. Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed up, but cheap, ABC ‘talent,’ George Slopanopoulos. He would make everybody on stage look bigger, stronger, and more glamorous.”
On Monday, Kimmel joked to the crowd that Trump’s message was “also his wedding toast to his son, Eric,” and that “he wrote this because he was upset I didn’t mention him on the show, and no one mentioned him on the show. He wasn’t getting any attention.”
Elsewhere in his Tonight Show monologue, Kimmel told the crowd that his favorite moment of the evening was listening to Arnold Schwarzenegger pronounce the world “Godzilla” when presenting the award for best visual effects, and that the fan-favorite moments featuring Messi the dog were pre-taped because during rehearsals, the pup had barked all the way through his monologue.
Kimmel also addressed backlash he received for joking about the Transformers franchise — “Could AI have written Transformers: Rise of the Beasts?” he asked at one point on Sunday, then saying, “yes, the answer is yes.” On Monday, he told the crowd, “I guess I assumed [the Transformers fans] would be too busy masturbating to watch the Oscars.”
Justin Timberlake, the Tonight Show musical guest for the night, opened the show’s monologue and told the crowd he would cover hosting duties as Kimmel was at home recovering from his busy night. A few moments into Timberlake’s monologue, though, Kimmel appeared and told him to leave.
“Since the beginning, you’ve always been my favorite Justin,” Kimmel told Timberlake before he left the stage, to which the pop star responded: “Thank you, you’ve always been my second favorite Jimmy.”
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