Jimmy Kimmel mocks Robert Downey Jr.’s former drug problem at Oscars 2024
Host Jimmy Kimmel took aim at the A-list crowd at Sunday night’s Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, starting with the old drug problems of a star of “Oppenheimer.”
“This is the highest point of Robert Downey Jr.’s long and illustrious career,” the funny Kimmel, 56, said. “Well, one of the highest points.”
The 58-year-old Marvel Cinematic Universe actor was arrested several times throughout the 1990s on drug-related charges.
Downey Jr. didn’t chuckle at the bit, but the host kept on giving the un-laughing actor grief anyway.
“Is that an acceptance speech in your pocket, or do you just have a very rectangular penis?” he asked.
Then Kimmel set his sights on “Killers of the Flower Moon” star Robert De Niro.
“In 1976, Jodie Foster was young enough to be Robert De Niro’s daughter,” Kimmel said, referring to her role in the film “Taxi Driver.”
“Now, she’s 20 years too old to be his girlfriend.”
The 80-year-old actor welcomed his seventh child last year. He shares the baby girl with his partner, Tiffany Chen.
The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” star also mocked “Maestro” actor-director Bradley Cooper’s habit of bringing his mother as his guest to award shows.
“How many times can a man bring his mom as his date before he is actually dating his mom?” he cracked.
While acknowledging the actors’ and writers’ strikes that ground Hollywood to a halt for months last year, the jokester sent up the whole town.
“It’s not just a bunch of heavily Botoxed, Hailey Bieber smoothie-drinking, diabetes prescription-abusing, gluten-sensitive nepo babies with perpetually shivering Chihuahuas,” he began. “This is a coalition of strong, hardworking, mentally tough American laborers. Women and men who would 100% die if we even had to touch the handle of a shovel.”
Kimmel was back to emcee at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the fourth time, after previously tackling the notoriously tough gig in 2017, 2019 and 2023.
He almost didn’t come back.
After his second go-round, the late-night vet candidly said during a Television Critics Association panel that the job is “a f—ing nightmare.”
“I did not think I would ever do it again,” Kimmel told the Los Angeles Times after he agreed to take the reins for the 2024 ceremony, adding that “Barbie” changed his mind.
“I am sitting in a movie theater watching ‘Barbie’ and thinking, ‘Well, maybe I’ll do this again because at least I have a point of reference with everyone,'” he said.
All eyes were on Kimmel’s hosting prowess this year after comedian Jo Koy memorably bombed at January’s Golden Globe Awards.
Koy’s jabs about “Barbie,” Taylor Swift and Barry Keoghan’s manhood all fell flat, and were ripped apart in the press. But Kimmel told the Hollywood Reporter the comic deserves another shot.
A month before the Oscars, Kimmel mocked the difficulties of hosting, with the help of the “Barbie” cast, in a video short. Supporting actress nominee America Ferrera parodied her big speech from the film to make it instead about Academy Awards hosts.
“It’s literally impossible to host the Oscars,” Ferrera told Kimmel.
“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.”
As for the nominees, Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” leads the pack with 13 nominations, and is favored to win Best Picture.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” follows close behind with 11. And the other half of the #Barbenheimer phenomenon, “Barbie,” has eight nods, including two for Best Song.
