Jimmy Kimmel caused quite a stir with his opening monologue at the 96th Academy Awards.
His jokes about Robert Downey Jr's past as a drug addict incensed viewers, who took to X (formerly Twitter) to voice their displeasure. But his jabs at Bradley Cooper also raised eyebrows.
During his monologue, Kimmel joked about Bradley Cooper bringing his mother, Gloria Campano, to all of the award shows.
"Hi, Mrs. Cooper. How are you?" said Kimmel, who's hosting the ceremony for the fourth time. "Bradley brings his mother to every award show. Last year at the Oscars, and the Tonys, and the Soul Train Awards."
Kimmel continued, "It's very sweet but I guess the question is, how many times can one bring his mom as his date before he is actually dating his mom?"
"Are you working on a movie about Freud right now and not telling us?" he asked Cooper, referencing his all-in method acting style. (Kimmel's Freud joke was a reference to Sigmund Freud, the Austrian neurologist who postulated that boys develop an unconscious infatuation with their mothers.)
Cooper and his mother took it all in stride, however, laughing along with the crowd.
Cooper famously studied composing for six years to portray Leonard Bernstein in the biopic "Maestro," which he also directed. He's up for Best Actor, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for the film. At the time of writing, the Best Actor win went to Cillian Murphy for portraying the father of the atom bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, in the film "Oppenheimer."
Over his career, the 49-year-old Cooper has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay for " A Star is Born" (2019). But A win tonight would be his first-ever.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times last month, Kimmel admitted that he had expected to end his hosting career for good.
"I did not think I would ever do it again," Kimmel said. "I did two of them, and they went well—something crazy happened at one of them with a story I'll have for the rest of my life. I know how much work goes into them, so I thought, 'Yeah, I don't necessarily want to do this ever again.'"
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