Why Donald Trump’s name wasn’t mentioned at Oscars despite targeted jokes

Donald Trump's name wasn't mentioned during the Oscars but viewers wouldn't have had to think very hard to understand he was joked about several times.

Oscars host Conan O'Brien had a number of jokes which were very definitely about Trump but didn't actually speak the guy's name, as though doing so may cause an orange apparition in the awards ceremony.

O'Brien had joked: "We're coming to you live from the small penis theatre. Let's see him put his name in front of that."

No prizes for guessing who that was supposed to be about.

Meanwhile, the host also had a joke about the Epstein Files as he joked how for the first time in 14 years there were no Brits up for the Best Actor and Best Actress awards, quipping that a spokesperson for the UK had said 'at least we arrest our paedophiles'.

Conan O'Brien did jokes about Donald Trump, he just didn't mention his name (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)

Even if the host was willing to go there, he had previously explained why he wouldn't be mentioning Trump by name during the Oscars.

At a press conference ahead of the awards ceremony he had said it was a 'very thin line' you could walk when it came to hosting duties as there was the challenge of being able to make fun of things without going too far.

O'Brien had said: "We’re celebrating movies and the amazing people behind them, but it has to be funny without tipping into anger or politics."

He also appeared on The New Yorker Radio Hour to discuss why the current occupant of the White House has become he who must not be named, explaining that Trump had become 'bad for comedy' as reality was going further than satire.

"Years ago, when I was at Harvard and working on the Lampoon, we would try and think of magazines we could do a parody of," O'Brien explained.

"And there was one magazine we always knew we couldn’t parody, which was the National Enquirer.

O'Brien explained it's hard to do jokes about someone doing crazier things than you'd think to joke about (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)

"If a magazine has, as its cover, 'Elvis Still Alive, Marries Alien and They Have a Baby That’s a Three-Speed Blender' - if that’s what the real magazine’s coming out with, you can’t do a comedic take on that.

"It’s very difficult, or I think impossible, to do. And I think Trump - if he were a magazine, it’s the National Enquirer. There’s a lot that’s so bombastic and so outrageous and so unprecedented that how do you - 'Oh, I’ve got a great Trump impression, and I have him saying this.' Well, that’s not crazier than what really happened yesterday.

"So I don’t know how this is funny. Does that make sense?"

O'Brien said he reckons that 'when comedians get angry instead of clever, it doesn’t land', and that before hosting the Oscars he was testing the material to figure out what worked and what didn't.

This is common practice among comedians who have a big show, they don't just stride onto the stage and assume all of their jokes will land even if some of them act like it, the jokes and quips are all tested beforehand to be sure they work.