Timothee Chalamet ‘embarrassed’ by Oscars host’s brutal joke minutes into ceremony

Just ten minutes into the Academy Awards host Conan O’Brien has fired a brutal joke at Timothee Chalamet during his opening monologue.

O’Brien is hosting the Oscars for the second successive year, and didn’t shy away from making some feisty jokes in his monologue.

This included a joke in which he said that 'at least England arrests their paedophiles' in a shot at the United States response to the Epstein files.

In addition to this he made jokes at the expense of Amazon, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, and had an opening skit inspired by Amy Madigan's Weapons character Aunt Gladys.

Unsurprisingly though O'Brien could not avoid making a shot at Chalamet for the ongoing controversy following his comments about the ballet and opera.

The comedian hosting the show first referenced the ongoing heightened state of security at the Oscars, with major increases being made to security following reports of a planned attack by Iran on California.

O'Brien said: "I'm told there's concern about attacks... from both the opera and ballet communities."

With the camera panning to Chalamet after this joke the comedian proceeded to add: "They're just mad you left out jazz."

Fans took to social media almost immediately to talk about the joke, with one tweet saying: "Embarrassing Timothee Chalamet in the first 15 was necessary."

Another fan said: "ALREADY TIMOTHEE CHALAMET SHADE", and a third posting: "NOT CONAN ROASTING TIMOTHEE CHALAMET AT THE OSCARS."

The camera panned over to Chalamet and his longtime partner Kylie Jenner, with the pair laughing through the jokes.

Speaking exclusively to Covers, body language expert Darren Stanton claimed however that whilst Chalamet looked fine with the joke, Kylie Jenner wasn't a massive fan. He said: “Timothée seemed pretty relaxed with it, there was no lip suppression. He tilted his head slightly, which showed that he was taking it on the chin. He displayed a genuine smile of amusement, recognising that it’s all part of the game. He took it in good spirits.

“Kylie, on the other hand, didn’t like it. She tilted her head downwards, which is almost like a defensive gesture. She looked at Timothée to see how he reacted. Although he seemed to take it well, if you notice Kylie's hands, she started playing with her fingers ever so slightly, which signals irritation. Her smile was also a lot more minimal, almost like a masking smile. She didn’t seem too happy that Conan, no matter how it was meant, had a bit of a shot at her partner, despite it being in the context of humour.

“Overall, Timothée seemed okay with it. He didn’t show any microexpressions of disappointment or anger. His hand position and shoulders didn’t move, which meant he hadn’t had a dramatic or effective inner emotional shift. He accepted it in a good way. Meanwhile, Kylie wasn’t furious at all, but she did seem protective over him and didn’t take it as well.”

The backlash came after a clip went viral of a discussion between Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey about the arts. Chalamet expressed his inner conflict about encouraging people to come out and support movie theatres.

He explained he was ‘right in the middle’, adding: “I admire people and I've done it myself to go on a talk show and go, ‘Hey, we gotta keep movie theaters alive. You know, we gotta keep this genre alive.

"Another part of me feels like, if people wanna see it like Barbie, like Oppenheimer, they're gonna go see it and go outta their way to be loud and proud about it.”

Though this seems pretty uncontroversial, it's what Chalamet said next which caused an issue.

Chalamet went on to add: "I don't wanna be working in ballet or opera, or things where it's like,’ hey, keep this thing alive’. Even though it's like… no one cares about this anymore."

Celebrities began queuing up to hit out at of Chalamet over the comments, with Jamie Lee Curtis having said: "His comments are silly, and I’m sorry that they’re going to be a bit of his legacy now.

"I’m sure he regrets the comment because you can’t throw those art forms under a bus. You can’t do it. They’re too important."

It appears, as JLC warned - the comments will continue to follow the Marty Supreme star.

Most awkward celebrity interactions at the Oscars

Angelina Jolie kissing her brother on the red carpet (2001)

I hate to be the person to bring this up again because I know we're all trying to forget it but, at the 2001 Oscars red carpet, Jolie rather intimately kissed her brother, James, on the lips... in front of actual people.

The moment makes it onto all the awkward, gag-inducing, Oscar round ups and although since, people have come to their defence, saying how, at the time, they'd found out their mum was sick with cancer, sadly, that's not he part people remember.

Adrien Brody kissing Halle Berry without her consent (2003)

Yes, another kissing one - sorry. The Monster's Ball Oscar winner had a very awkward moment at the ceremony in 2003, when The Pianist star Adrien Brody received his first ever Oscar win and decided to celebrate by planting one on Berry without her consent.

As if it wasn't awkward enough the first time, she got her payback at the 2025 ceremony, but there's no doubt that now infamous moment takes the crown as one of the cringiest things to happen at the Oscars.

Jennifer Aniston coming face to face with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (2009)

The split heard around the world was that of Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, after he cheated on her with Angelina Jolie and the whole world wouldn't let Aniston forget it.

To add insult to injury, in 2009 - five years on from the fiasco - Aniston took to the stage with Jack Black to present an award and who was sat right there, up, close and personal in the audience you ask? Take a wild guess...

The camera person even had the audacity to pan to the pair during her bit with Black, and showed the pair laughing and smiling. Whether you think she looked uncomfortable or not, she handled it like a pro just by showing up because I know a few people would have called in sick to work that day.

Sacha Baron throws ashes at Ryan Seacrest (2012)

Who doesn't love an Oscar's red carpet stunt? I mean, Bjork dressed up as a swan and laid an egg on the red carpet, and it's safe to say, without these moments it's just a parade of good look people smiling and wearing pretty dresses - boring. One person who probably shouldn't be allowed to do anything on the red carpet except walk, is Sacha Baron Cohen, as evidenced by the fact he showed up to the 2012 Oscars dressed as Admiral General Aladeen, to promote The Dictator. Obviously, it didn't end there, as he 'accidentally' dropped an urn of Kim Jong Il's ashes on Ryan Seacrest, ashes that were intended to be 'sprinkled all over Halle Berry's chest', as it was Jong Il's dying wish. It' safe to say E!'s most popular host was not a happy bunny.

Seth McFarlane and his song about boobs (2013)

Another inadvertent interaction it may be, but that sea of celebrity faces were less than happy when Family Guy creator, Seth McFarlane, hosted the Oscars in 2013 and thought it would be a good idea to remind Hollywood's female elite that he (and the world) had seen their boobs. Naomi Watson's face was a picture...

John Travolta makes up a new name for Idina Menzel (2014)

And the award goes to... Adele Dazeem... whoever that is. In a moment that will not be forgotten anytime soon, even though it's been over 10 years since it happened in the first place, John Travolta introduced Idina Menzel onto the stage for a performance of 'Let It Go'. After preambling about the 'wickedly talented' Broadway star, he proceeded to list off her accolades and then call her the wrong name, Adele Dazeem. Not only did he hilariously get her name wrong, but he said it in a really weird accent. People were confused, to say the least.

Melanie Griffith and Dakota Johnson's really awkward red carpet moment (2015)

Mother and daughter relationships are complex at the best of times but when you're both actors it can add another complications. Us normies would be devastated if our mom said she didn't want to watch a film we'd been in or come to a school play, but when that film her daughter starred in is Fifty Shades of Grey, it makes some sense why she snubbed her own daughter during a red carpet interview and put her foot down when asked if she was ever going to watch the saucy flick. Her answer was a rather awkward repeated 'no', visibly upsetting Johnson who seemed genuinely offended. Yikes.

Taraji P. Henson allegedly shades Ryan Seacrest during a red carpet interview (2018)

Another one for Seacrest....

Presenting an award at the 2018 Oscars, Henson ran into Seacrest on the red carpet, who at the time had sexual assault allegations made against him by his former personal stylist, Suzie Hardy.

Seacrest was never charged and vehemently denied allegations. As Seacrest wanted to talk about Mary J Blige's nominations, it seems Henson had something else on her mind as she said to the E! host: "You know what, the universe has a way of taking care of the good people, you know what I mean?" She then touched him on his chin and gave him a long, knowing look and laughed a laugh that looked forced.

When she moved on and spoke to another presenter who asked her how her night had been, she said: "I’m having a great time now that I’m in your company." Damn.

Kobe Bryant slam dunks Laura Ingraham (2018)

Metaphorically, of course, but during the late NBA great's acceptance speech for Best Animated Short for Dear Basketball, he used his time to call out Fox News' Laura Ingraham. For what this time I hear you ask? Well, she said NBA icons LeBron James and Kevin Durant should 'shut up and dribble' in defence of President Trump, who the two had called out for his politics. Not letting that slide, Bryant gracefully retorted: "I mean, as basketball players, we're really just supposed to 'shut up and dribble'. I'm glad we do a little more than that. Thank you, Academy, for this amazing honor.

Lily Rose Depp confronted by a massive version of her ex (2025)

One of the worst things about a break up is bumping into your ex afterwards. But, what might be even worse than that is bumping into them, their new girlfriend and then presenting an award in front of a giant screen with their face on while they sit in the audience. Awkward, right? Well, that's what happened to Johnny Depp's mini me at last year's Oscars, with the ex in question being none other than Oscar favourite, Timothée Chalamet, and his partner of three years, Kylie Jenner. She handled it better than I ever would have.

Benny Blanco and Bad Bunny being the same person according The Academy (2025)

I'm not sure if you can call this one an interaction considering Bad Bunny wasn't there at the time, but we're going to talk about it anyway. The Academy's twitter account posted a picture of newly-married Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco, but the caption referred to Blanco as Grammy winner and Super Bowl halftime show extraordinaire, Bad Bunny. I get both their names start with B but come on, Blanco isn't even Puerto Rican. They corrected their mistake but people have long memories for things like this...