The Oscars are in full swing and after a strong start with performances from Wicked favorites Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, Conan O’Brien took to the stage for his introduction as host.
And as expected he delivered some big swings with his jokes, most notably calling out Emilia Perez star Karla Sofía Gascón to her face during the monologue. For those less aware, Gascón came under fire recently after social media posts with racist remarks resurfaced.
During the monologue, O’Brien noted how much swearing occurred in the film Anora, saying the Best Picture nominee had only three more expletives delivered than Gascón’s publicist upon learning about the social media posts.
“Little fact for you, “Anora” uses the F word 479 times. That’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofia Gascon’s publicist” – Conan at the #Oscars2025 pic.twitter.com/YBYnDGI3UE
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 3, 2025
“She tweeted what?!” O’Brien exclaimed, acting how he imagined Gascón’s rep must have.
“Well, I’m having fun…” O’Brien continued, adding, “Karla Sofia Gascón is here tonight and, Karla, if you are gonna tweet about the Oscars, remember, my name is Jimmy Kimmel,” O’Brien.
The camera panned over to Gascón amid the discussion, during which she smiled and laughed along with the joke, but seemed to need clarification surrounding O’Brien’s Kimmel mention. Kimmel previously hosted the Oscars in recent years.
Karla Sofia Gascón made a splash this awards season in Netflix’s highly buzzed-about film Emilia Perez which costars Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana. But Gascón’s old social media posts, found on X (formerly known as Twitter) have put into question the film’s potential for success at the ceremony.
Stay tuned to see how things will turn out for Emilia Perez, Gascón, and more as the evening unfolds, and let us know what you think of O’Brien’s bold joke in the comments section, below.
