Chris Rock wasn't the only comedian to face some ugly blowback over an Oscars joke.
Amy Schumer revealed on The Howard Stern Show she received death threats over a joke she made while co-hosting this year's Academy Awards. The bit involved Schumer explaining to the audience what seat fillers are, jokingly pretending to think Kirsten Dunst was one and escorting her from her chair.
"They were like, 'Who do you think you are to disrespect Kirsten Dunst like that?'" Schumer said. "The Secret Service, the LAPD, [reached out] because [the death threats] were that serious and that many. They called me and they were like, 'Did you make fun of Kirsten Dunst at the Oscars?'"
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
After the joke sparked backlash online, Schumer previously explained this was a scripted bit that Dunst was in on. In fact, Schumer told Howard Stern she reached out to people she joked about to get their approval first, including having Leonardo DiCaprio sign off on a joke about him dating younger women. She also said she told Will Smith she would be making a joke about his movie King Richard.
Smith would later infamously slap comedian Chris Rock at the show over a joke about his wife, and Schumer told Stern that when she was contacted about the death threats, her reaction was, "Oh, I think you have the wrong number, this is Amy, not Will [Smith] … Not that I want Will to get death threats, but the misogyny is unbelievable."
-
Home Depots are the new epicenters of ICE raidsIn the Spotlight The chain has not provided many comments on the ongoing raids
-
Why does Trump keep interfering in the NYC mayoral race?Today's Big Question The president has seemingly taken an outsized interest in his hometown elections, but are his efforts to block Zohran Mamdani about political expediency or something deeper?
-
The pros and cons of banning cellphones in classroomsPros and cons The devices could be major distractions
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
And the Oscar goes to … no one in particular: Movies made with AI can now win awardsUnder the radar Generative AI is no longer a barrier to acclaim
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
