The 96th Academy Awards are well underway tonight with four-time host Jimmy Kimmel shelling out a fair share of zingers at the expense of members of the star-studded audience.
Kimmel’s opening monologue included cracks at film legend Robert De Niro—“In 1976, Jodie Foster was young enough to play Robert De Niro’s daughter. Now she’s 20 years too old to be his girlfriend”— and a maybe too drawn-out dig at Robert Downey Jr.’s past drug use (to the point that the actor mouthed through a tight smile for the comedian to “move on”).
But it was “Poor Things” starlet and Oscar nominee Emma Stone who seemed particularly perturbed by Kimmel’s tongue-in-cheek sarcasm.
After the ceremony returned from a commercial break with a small montage of clips from “Poor Things,” which received an impressive 11 Oscar nominations, Jimmy Kimmel quipped, “Those were all the parts of Poor Things we’re allowed to show on TV.”
The joke got a halfhearted laugh from Stone’s “Poor Things” co-star Mark Ruffalo and husband, SNL segment director Dave McCary, but the actress didn’t crack a smile as she turned to McCary and seemed to mouth, “He’s a prick.”
It didn’t take long for the internet to weigh in on Stone’s reaction, and the takes are more than entertaining.
“He’s a prick” she’s the realest person in that theater https://t.co/MVIANZBHbT
— rev (@whyrev) March 11, 2024
One X user wrote, “Emma Stone calling Jimmy Kimmel a prick, oh clock that tea queen.” Another user responded, “Saying what we all think.”
“He’s on a quest to make as many enemies as possible tonight,” came another X user’s comment.
Other users criticized Kimmel’s joke as a cheap misreading of the film’s meaning and message.
Emma Stone calling Jimmy Kimmel a ‘prick’ after he insinuated that Poor Things was only about sex….#Oscars #Oscars2024 pic.twitter.com/OXE2vEHx2e
— Caolán Mc Aree (@Caolanmcaree) March 10, 2024
“F*ck the Oscars, f*ck Jimmy Kimmel…thank you so much for your insinuation that ‘Poor Things’ is all about sex and not the entire story of a woman rejecting societal onuses and standing for justice and equality. Emma Stone, you deserve so much better,” one person wrote.
While the implications of Kimmel’s joke struck many online users as offensive, with three Oscar wins already under their belt tonight, Stone and the “Poor Things” cast certainly have a lot to celebrate and nothing to prove. Especially after Stone took home the win for Best Actress at the end of the night.
