Jimmy Kimmel explains the 'mass confusion' during the biggest Oscars mistake in history

Advertisement

Advertisement
jimmy kimmel

ABC

Jimmy Kimmel didn't get much sleep after hosting the 2017 Oscars on Sunday night. He went right into taping his ABC late-night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" the next day and gave his audience a recap of what the awards experience was like, including the epic blunder in which the wrong best-picture winner, "La La Land," was called up before the honor was correctly given to "Moonlight."

"What a weird thing. Have any of you ever hosted the Oscars before?" Kimmel joked on Monday night's show. "Except for the end, it was a lot of fun."

Kimmel continued to poke fun at what's easily the biggest mistake in Oscar history, which left people onstage confused while the mix-up was sorted out.

"It was the weirdest TV finale since 'Lost,'" the host said. "I'm sure you've at least heard, 'La La Land' was simultaneously the biggest winner and loser last night. You know it's a strange night when the word 'envelope' is trending on Twitter."

He explained how such an error could have happened. Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, it turns out, received the wrong envelope - for Emma Stone's best-actress win for "La La Land," rather than for best picture.

Advertisement

"What we know is Warren was confused so he handed it to Faye and let her read the winner. In other words, Clyde threw Bonnie under the bus," Kimmel joked of the acting legends' 1967 film.

Some "La La Land" producers came up and gave speeches before word got around from the stage manager that the wrong winner was called.

"You kind of figure the host will go onstage and clear this up. And then I remember, 'Oh, I'm the host,'" Kimmel said.

He said he walked up to the stage only to find "La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz clearing up the error and asking the "Moonlight" team to come up and accept their rightful best-picture award. Horowitz was called a "gentleman" for what he did on Sunday.

"It was kind of scary in a way," Kimmel said. "That was the produycer of 'La La Land' who thought he won. He's standing there holding an Oscar that they're now going to take away from him. My first instinct was to tell him to run."

Advertisement

Kimmel said it was "mass confusion" for everyone at the awards (and for us at home), as producers and cast members for both movies were onstage together sorting things out.

"I'm standing there like an idiot feeling bad for these guys, but also trying really hard not to laugh," he added.

Apparently Denzel Washington called out "Barry," hinting for Kimmel to get Barry Jenkins, the director of "Moonlight," to finally make a speech for best picture, which he did, before the night finally ended. But Kimmel wants to make clear he had no hand in the best-picture mistake.

"People started speculating, people around me said, 'Did you pull a prank of some kind?'" Kimmel said. "I did not pull a prank. If I pulled a prank, by the way, I wouldn't have just had the wrong winner's name on the envelope. When they opened it, there would have been a Bed Bath & Beyond coupon."

Kimmel also provided an explanation for how the error happened. Though Emma Stone said she had her best-actress card, there are two cards made for each category, "just to make it more confusing," Kimmel joked.

Advertisement

"It wasn't Warren Beatty's fault. And Faye Dunaway made quite a getaway," he said. "She got the hell out of there. She read the wrong name and she split. She wanted no part of it. She was smart, too. And then I spent the whole rest of the night answering questions about it. It was quite an evening."

At least Kimmel has his wicked sense of humor about the whole thing.

Watch Jimmy Kimmel explain the "mass confusion" of Oscar night below:

 

NOW WATCH: Oscar nominees receive a $100,000+ swag bag - here's what's inside