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Executives at ABC were ‘terrified of’ and ‘sweating’ John Cena’s nude skit during the Academy Awards, according to host Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaking on the Monday episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! the day after the 96th Oscars, Kimmel detailed how the gag — which was an homage to the streaker who ran across the stage during the 1974 Oscars — came to life.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kimmel revealed that the suits at the network were “terrified”
“Getting this on the air . . . of all the times I’ve hosted the Oscars or the Emmys or anything, no comedy bit has ever received more scrutiny than this,” Kimmel, 56, said in his monologue.
“There were meetings and site meetings, emails, and texts, and phone calls and people sweating,” he continued. “Somebody was crying. Then once they realized we weren’t going to take no for an answer… there were intense discussions about the size of the envelope, whether we needed to Velcro it to John’s body and we had to fill his crack and have socks. Various testicalia was discussed.”
After Cena pulled the stunt, the moment did cause a bit of controversy, but perhaps not the kind that ABC big wigs were expecting, as conspiracy theorists latched onto the gag and declared it as being a “satanic humiliation ritual.”
As one viral tweet pointed out, 20 years ago, when the likes of blink-182 and the Jackass crew used to pull this sort of stuff, it was all in good fun, but now given the intellectual degradation of our society, it’s now part of some grand conspiracy to some.
Blink 182, the Jackass crew, and every other famous guy getting naked for comedic effect my entire childhood = good ol' raunchy dude comedy
John Cena doing it today = Illuminati humiliation ritual to feminize society
— Matt Saincome (@MattSaincome) March 11, 2024
Kimmel certainly had himself a busy night as host as he not only had to facilitate but the viral Cena moment but also made some jokes that seemingly bothered some of the A-list stars in the crowd, particularly Robert Downey Jr. and Emma Stone. He’s also received a bit of backlash for a joke he made about Killers of the Flower Moon.
The 2024 Oscars pulled in 19.5 million views, making it the most-watched ceremony since 2020, when Parasite won the Academy Award for Best Picture.