Jimmy Kimmel started the 2023 Oscars not by acknowledging last year’s slap-induced elephant in the room, but by poking fun at Nicole Kidman’s viral AMC Theatres ads: “I am happy to see that Nicole Kidman has finally been released from that abandoned AMC where she has been held captive for almost two full years now,” he began, adding, “and thank you for encouraging people who are already at the movie theater to go to the movie theater.”
But after parachuting onstage Top Gun: Maverick-style, referring to The Fabelmans collaborators Steven Spielberg and Seth Rogen as “the Joe and Hunter Biden of Hollywood,” and dinging an absent Tom Cruise with the line “L. Ron Hubba Hubba,” Kimmel got into the Slap, first by noting the nominees “from every corner of Dublin” including five Oscar-nominated Irish actors. “The odds of another fight onstage just went up,” Kimmel quipped. But “we have strict policies in place,” the late-night host added of the Academy’s decision to enlist a “crisis team” to combat any slap-like threats during the telecast. Kimmel continued, “If anyone in this auditorium commits an act of violence…you will be given the best actor Oscar and allowed to make a 19-minute speech.”
He then encouraged audience members to “just do what you did last year, nothing,” adding, “Maybe even give the assailant a hug. And if you get mad at a joke and decide that you want to get up here and get jiggy with it, you’re gonna have to get through the heavyweight champ, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan)”—as well as Michelle Yeoh, The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal, Spider-Man’s Andrew Garfield, The Fabelmans’ Steven Spielberg, and Kimmel’s sidekick, Guillermo (not the Oscar-nominated filmmaker del Toro, FYI).
The late-night host, who has returned to the Academy Awards stage for a third time after emceeing back-to-back ceremonies in 2017 and 2018, said that he planned to speak about the slap. “Well, whatever I say about it, it’s going to have to be great, right?” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “Because so much has been said and there’s so much focus on it. I obviously don’t want to make the whole monologue about that, but it would be ridiculous not to mention it.”
Kimmel is no stranger to hosting in a contentious climate. In 2017, he shepherded the first Oscars of the Trump presidency, and in 2018, he had to perform some damage control a year after the best-picture mix-up involving rightful winner Moonlight and the initially announced La La Land. That scandal “got knocked down the list” in the slap’s wake, Kimmel said to The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s disappointing in a lot of ways,” he joked. “If you’re gonna be part of a fuckup, it might as well be the biggest fuckup ever. Being part of the second-biggest fuckup doesn’t carry as much cachet.”
In all, the monologue showcased just how much practice Kimmel has gotten at making fun of—while hobnobbing with—celebrities on Jimmy Kimmel Live! since 2003. As he told THR ahead of the telecast, “The Oscars is something that is very meaningful to people in the movie industry, and for many of them, this will be the biggest professional night of their lives. The last thing I want to do is ruin it for anyone.”
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