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4 of the Most Controversial Jokes in Oscars History

Revisiting a few of the more politically incorrect lines that have been singled out by critics over the years

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Comedians have hosted the Academy Awards since the early days of the ceremony. Will Rogers was the first to do so in 1934, and countless comics followed suit from there, including legends like Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal, Steve Martin, and this year’s host, Conan O’Brien. With that many comedians trying their best to make Hollywood’s elite laugh, it stands to reason that a few of them would stir up a little controversy with their material somewhere along the way—even if it was years after the fact. Here are a few jokes that didn’t go over as well as intended.

4. BOB HOPE’S DARK OPENER

While hosting the Oscars for a record eighth time in 1955, Bob Hope described how things would play out at the ceremony like so: “The winners will, of course, take home an Oscar. The losers will all be presented with monogrammed do-it-yourself suicide kits.”

3. ELLEN DEGENERES ON LIZA MINNELLI

At the 86th Annual Academy Awards in 2014, host Ellen DeGeneres pointed viewers in the direction of an audience member that she said was “one of the most amazing Liza Minnelli impersonators I have ever seen in my entire life.” The camera then cut to the real Minnelli, after which DeGeneres quipped, “Just, uh, really, seriously…good job, sir.”

2. SETH MACFARLANE ON CHRIS BROWN AND RIHANNA

During the 2013 Oscars ceremony, Seth MacFarlane broke down the plot of Django Unchained by telling the crowd, “This is the story of a man fighting to get back his woman, who’s been subjected to unthinkable violence, or as Chris Brown and Rihanna call it, a date movie.”

1. STEVE MARTIN ON CHRISTOPH WALTZ

When he opened up the show with co-host Alec Baldwin in 2010, Steve Martin set his sights on a Hollywood newcomer, saying, “In Inglourious Basterds, Christoph Waltz played a Nazi obsessed with finding Jews. Well, Cristoph…” The comedian then gestured to the audience and proclaimed, “The mother lode!”

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