Karla Sofía Gascón Definitely Didn’t Get Conan’s Joke About Her
Conan O’Brien stuck the landing when he mocked the biggest controversy of this year's Academy Awards in his opening monologue. Jimmy Kimmel who???
After much speculation about how this year’s Oscars host would thread the prickliest needle of this awards season, O’Brien and his writers found the perfect way to call out Karla Sofía Gascón’s history of public Hitler-loving without denigrating her accomplishments as the first openly transgender woman to ever earn a nomination for Best Actress at the Academy Awards. Gascón’s very presence at the ceremony was a point of contention after Emilia Pérez distributor Netflix temporarily dropped her from its awards campaign, but O'Brien honored and mocked her with tremendous grace — not that she understood how he did it.
In his opening monologue, O’Brien remarked, “Anora uses the f-word 479 times. That’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofía Gascón’s publicist,” then addressing the controversial nominee, “Karla if you’re gonna tweet about the Oscars, remember, my name is Jimmy Kimmel.”
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With the camera on her and the world watching, Gascón leaned over to whisper to the person next to her — and although Gascón wasn’t mic’d up, we can safely assume it was to ask, “¿Quién carajo es Jimmy Kimmel?”
Apparently, not only does tonight mark the first time that an openly transgender artist competes in the venerated acting category, but it's also the first time that such an opinionated pioneer ever watched the Oscars. I mean, it seems like Kimmel hosts the show every time the Academy needs their safest closer to navigate troubled waters. And, once Gascón’s anti-Black, anti-Muslim, pro-Hitler Twitter feed became public knowledge, you have to think that the organizers of Hollywood’s biggest night must have at least had a conversation about bumping a potentially boundary-pushing O’Brien to next year’s ceremony.
Nevertheless, Gascón seemed to take the part of the bit that didn’t go over her head on the chin, and the nominee embraced her brief time onscreen amidst applause. After all, it’s probably the last time that happens tonight.
