Jimmy Kimmel kicked off the ceremony for the 96th Oscars, taking up hosting duties for the third time and within his opening speech has poked fun at both Ireland and Will Smith.
The award show opened with a montage of films from 2022, as well as the host cut into a Tom Cruise scene.
In his opening speech, Kimmel congratulated the first-time nominees at the award show, including Brendan Fraser.
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However, Ireland was also the butt of another joke at this year’s ceremony as Kimmel, pointing to the fact that there is a large number of Irish nominations, said that it was likely that another fight is likely to break out onstage.
“Five Irish actors are nominated tonight, which means the chances of a fight just went way up,” host Kimmel said.
It comes as the sketch show Saturday Night Live came under fire earlier in the day for making fun of nominees Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.
He also said that "We have nominees from every corner of Dublin".
Fans of the show flocked to Twitter to share their distaste at the joke. With one posting: “Somebody needs to tell Jimmy Kimmel that Ireland isn’t Dublin as Paul Mescal is from Kildare and Kerry Condon is from Tipperary.”
Another added: “‘It was some year for diversity and inclusion. We have nominees from every corner of Dublin.’ - Jimmy Kimmel”.
As well as poking fun at Ireland, Kimmel also broached the topic of the slap which occurred at last year’s ceremony joking that if anyone attempts to replicate Will Smith's slap, then they will have the chance to give a 19-minute speech.
Host Kimmel said: "We want you to have fun, we want you to be safe and we want me to be safe.
“If anyone in this theatre commits an act of violence during this show, you will be awarded the Oscars for Best Actor and be permitted to give a 19-minute speech.”
He added: "If anything unpredictable or violent happens at this year's show, just do what you did last year - nothing."
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