Oscars co-host Amy Schumer has been met with criticism after revealing a joke she was made to cut from this year’s ceremony.
Last month, Amy fronted the Academy Awards alongside Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall, with the trio coming for Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet and various other stars over the course of the evening.
However, during a recent show, the Trainwreck star admitted there were jokes that bosses requested she leave out of the show.
According to Variety, she told an audience in Las Vegas that she was made to cut jibes about Joe Rogan and James Franco, as well as one relating to Alec Baldwin.
“Don’t Look Up is the name of a movie? More like don’t look down the barrel of Alec Baldwin’s shotgun,” the comic told the audience, referring to the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins last year.
Halyna died in October 2021 after a prop gun Alec had been holding went off on the set of the film Rust, fatally shooting her.
Referring to the infamous Will Smith incident during the ceremony, Amy then added: “I wasn’t allowed to say any of that, but you can just come up and [slap] someone.”
Last week, Amy spoke out about the moment Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock during the ceremony, claiming it was something she was “still triggered and traumatised” by.
Elaborating further during her comedy set, Amy recalled the incident, while referring to Will as “Ali” (the actor was nominated for his first Oscar for portraying Muhammad Ali in a 2001 biopic).
“I don’t even know what to say about the Oscars,” she told the audience. “Like, I really don’t know what to say. I have no jokes about it. All I can say is that I don’t know if you saw this, but Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. Did you read that in your newsfeed?
“I was kind of feeling myself… and then all of a sudden, Ali was making his way up. And it was just a fucking bummer.”
After Amy’s joke and accompanying comments about Will Smith made their way online, she was met with a backlash:
While presenting at this year’s Oscars, comedian Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair, after which Will came on stage.
After slapping the comic, he returned to his seat, urging Chris to “keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth”.
In the past, Jada has spoken candidly about her experiences of alopecia, and how her hair loss inspired her to shave her hair last year.
Shortly after the incident, Will Smith was announced as the recipient of the Best Actor prize for his performance in the film King Richard.
He took the opportunity to apologise to the Academy and his fellow nominees during his acceptance speech, later saying sorry to Chris Rock in a statement shared on his Instagram page.
Since then, it was announced that Will had resigned as a member of the Academy, who have said they are investigating the incident.