Last night, Robert Downey Jr. won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer–but not before late-night host Jimmy Kimmel laid it on thick with several pointed insults in his opening monologue.
“This is the highest point of Robert Down Jr.’s long and illustrious career—well, one of the highest points,” Kimmel said with a mocking pause. RDJ then tapped on his nose several times. Kimmel replied, “Too on the nose? Or is that a drug motion you made?”
A qualified dirtbag joke that wasn’t even funny.
Jimmy Kimmel does this on the night Downey wins his first Academy?
It’s people like @jimmykimmel that turn people off from watching this garbage.
It’s as if Kimmel is envious of how much RDJ is loved.
— Patrick Bet-David (@patrickbetdavid) March 11, 2024
Downey then motioned for Kimmel to speed up the joke. “Well look at him, I mean, look at this guy,” Kimmel continued. “He’s so handsome, so talented, he’s won every award there is to win. Is that an acceptance speech in your pocket, or do you just have a very rectangular p*nis?” RDJ could not bring himself to laugh, shrugging sarcastically with a faux-grin.
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Downey suffered from a drug problem throughout the 1990s and was arrested on drug-related charges multiple times. In 1999, he served 12 months in prison for missing court-ordered drug tests.
“I would like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order,” Downey said in his acceptance speech. It was his first Oscar and his third nomination. A writer for Vox said that the sub-category of “supporting actor” is a strange award to win, and said Downey’s role was “arguably the least essential part of the film.”
Kimmel also mocked the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strike, saying, “It’s not just a bunch of heavily Botoxed, Hailey Bieber smoothie-drinking, diabetes prescription-abusing, gluten-sensitive nepo babies with perpetually shivering Chihuahuas … This is a coalition of strong, hardworking, mentally tough American laborers. Women and men who would 100 percent die if we even had to touch the handle of a shovel.”
Ahead of the show, Kimmel said he did not think he would ever host it again, complaining that the job is “a f—king nightmare.”
Kimmel mocked himself for this in a comedic short with the help of actress America Ferrara, who parodied her own speech from the 2023 film Barbie to feign sympathy for the aging comedian: “It’s literally impossible to host the Oscars … You have to be extraordinary, but somehow you’re always doing it wrong. You have to make fun of people, but you can’t make too much fun of people. You have to give everybody enough time, but you can’t go long. And you are the center of attention, but no one cares you’re there.”
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics, economics, and culture for Valuetainment. Follow Shane on X (Twitter).
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