Paramount Pictures/ABC
Add Transformers fans to the list of people who weren’t happy with Jimmy Kimmel’s performance as host of the Oscars alongside Robert Downey Jr., Emma Stone, Donald Trump, and fans of Killers of the Flower Moon.
During his opening monologue at the 96th Academy Awards, Kimmel made a crack about Transformers: Rise of the Beasts seeming like it was written by artificial intelligence.
“And writers, could AI have written Transformers: Rise of the Beasts? Yes, the answer is yes,” Kimmel joked during his opening monologue.
After some backlash from movie fans on Oscars night, Kimmel doubled down on his comments the following night on his late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
“I made a joke about the Transformers movie, and apparently, this was very upseting to a sub-group of people, who wrote things like, ‘Jimmy Kimmel just made an enemy of every Transformer fan.’ I guess I assumed you guys would be too busy masturbating to watch the Oscars,” he then said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the following night.
Kimmel’s cracks have clearly struck a cord with Transformers fans, as some on social media have spoken out against him — “Jimmy Kimmel just made an enemy of every Transformer fan,” said one Twitter user — with one person even putting together a thread of all his Oscars-night screw-ups.
The thread included Kimmel’s ill-received joke about Killers of the Flower Moon, Emma Stone seeming to take offense to his Poor Things joke, Robert Downey Jr. looking annoyed at his comments about his past drug use, and making a tired joke about animated movies.
criticism of the way you made "jokes" about movie runtimes as well as your tasteless "jokes" regarding the Osage murders:https://t.co/seW0fYDusw
— crazy ass moments in Transformers history🏳️🌈 (@TF_Moments) March 12, 2024
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which was directed by Steven Caple Jr., was released by Paramount Pictures in June 2023 and made $439 million at the global box office. The film was the seventh installment in the Transformers franchise and the first since 2018’s Bumblebee.
The next entry in the series will be the animated film Transformers One, which will hit theaters in September 2024 and features Chris Hemsworth as Optimus Prime, Brian Tyree Henry as Megatron, Keegan-Michael Key as Bumblebee, Scarlett Johansson as Elita, Jon Hamm as Sentinel Prime, and Laurence Fishburne as Alpha Trion.