Jimmy Kimmel Opens Up About Oscars Fiasco During Late Night Monologue: I Was 'Trying Really Hard Not To Laugh'
Jimmy Kimmel dedicated his monologue on Monday night to the Academy Awards Best Picture fiasco, and explained exactly what happened, and what it was like watching the snafu go down from his perspective.
"As I’m sure you’ve at least heard, La La Land was simultaneously the biggest winner and loser last night," Kimmel joked. "You know it’s a strange night when the word 'envelope' is trending on Twitter."
WATCH: Jimmy Kimmel Jokes That He's Behind the Oscars Best Picture Mix-Up
The host broke the moment down for those who didn't see it happen, explaining that Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty were selected to present the Best Picture category, because this year is the 50th anniversary of their iconic drama Bonnie and Clyde.
"See what Warren did there?" Kimmel said, after showing a clip of the pair reading from the wrong card. "He was confused, so he let Faye read the winner. In other words, Clyde threw Bonnie under the bus."
Kimmel was in the audience as the La La Land producers began giving their acceptance speeches, sitting next to Matt Damon, presumably for one last bit about their feud to close out the show.
"Make no mistake," Kimmel interjected in his own story, "whatever confusion there was about who won? Matt Damon lost. He was a loser."
WATCH: Matt Damon Blames Oscars Flub on Host Jimmy Kimmel: 'They Got What They Paid For'
But as they were sitting in the audience, Damon told Kimmel that he thought he heard a stage manager say that the wrong name had been called.
"[It] is unusual, but you figure, 'Well, the host will go onstage and clear this up,'" he recounted. "And then I remembered, 'Oh! I’m the host!'"
As the mistake was chaotically cleared up, Kimmel shared what it was like having all the cast and crew from both movies on stage trying to figure out how to proceed.
"I'm standing there like an idiot, feeling bad for these guys, but also trying really hard not to laugh, to be honest," Kimmel said.
WATCH: PricewaterhouseCoopers Apologizes to 'Moonlight' and 'La La Land' for Oscars Envelope Snafu
As the show came to a close and he walked off stage, Kimmel said he started to hear people speculating about whether or not the whole thing was some sort of prank he had orchestrated.
"If I had pulled a prank in that situation, I wouldn't have just had the wrong winner's name in the envelope," he said. "When they opened it, there would have been, like, a Bed Bath and Beyond coupon inside."
While everything seemed to go wrong toward the end of the otherwise smooth-running broadcast, Kimmel says the rehearsals were even more dramatic than the live show.
WATCH: 2017 Oscars: The Best, Worst and Weirdest Moments of the Night
"During our rehearsal the day of the show, about halfway through at about noon yesterday, a huge part of the set collapsed," he recounted. "I stepped off stage and about a minute later, [two giant structures] both came crashing down. It scared the crap out of everybody. A lot of people thought a bomb went off. My wife shoved our daughter under a table to protect her. Somehow – even though we had like five cameras going – no one got this on video."
"So the envelope thing was a distant second in the disaster category," he added. "Not too many people know this, but the Dolby Theater was built on an ancient Indian burial ground."
For more on the shocking twist ending to this year's Academy Awards, check out the video below
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