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A joke about Robert Downey Jr's past also fell flat during Kimmel's opening monologue
Jimmy Kimmel took to the stage for the fourth time as Oscars host for the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday night and didn't hold back with his monologue.
He set the tone right away by thanking the crowd for their "partial standing ovation,” and then turned on them when they gave a full and rapturous applause after he singled out Greta Gerwig and noted the controversy around her non-nomination as Best Director.
As the crowd roared, Kimmel turned on them, "I know you're clapping, but you're the ones who didn't vote for her, by the way. Don't act like you had nothing to do with this!"
He then pointed out that Margot Robbie was also snubbed in the best actress category before noting that she and Ryan Gosling have the best consolation prize even if they don’t get Oscar gold, "you've both already won something much more important, the genetic lottery." (Ryan, of course, was nominated for Barbie but lost to Robert Downey Jr. later in the night.)
The enthusiastic crowd was less certain what to do with Robert Downey, Jr. as Kimmel poked fun at his career lows, and his struggles with addiction. RDJ took it on the chin, hilariously clapping back a silent "Keep it going, keep it going," when Kimmel tried to linger.
The late-night host called out everyone involved in filmmaking for the growing length of their movies, pointing out that they are averaging 30 minutes longer than just three years ago." When I went to see Killers of the Flower Moon, I had my mail forwarded to the theater," he quipped of the 3 hour, 26 minute film.
"Killers of the Flower Moon is so long in the time it takes to watch it, you could drive to Oklahoma and solve the murders yourself."
He got another strong reaction from an individual in the audience when he noted the nearly half-century gap between the last time both Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster were both nominated on the same night."
Fourty-eight years ago, Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster were both nominated for Taxi Driver, and they're both nominated again tonight," he noted.
"In 1976, Jodie Foster was young enough to be Robert De Niro's daughter, now, she's 20 years too old to be his girlfriend."
At this, De Niro laughed vigorously and Foster nodded just as vigorously.
