The Most Viral Moments in Oscar History

At the 2024 Oscar Awards, Ryan Gosling performed the beloved song "I'm Just Ken" from the Oscar-nominated film Barbie. The performance was a nod to Marilyn Monroe's performance of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Gosling fashioned a head-to-toe fuchsia ensemble while performing the number along with his fellow Barbie co-stars Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ryan Gosling, and Simu Liu. The performance was even referenced by Emma Stone as she accepted her award for Best Actress. "Oh boy, my dress is broken. I think it happened during 'I'm Just Ken.' " Stone humorously said. 

In 1974, a man named Robert Opal streaked across the stage as the late actor David Niven was about to introduce Elizabeth Taylor to the stage to present the Best Picture winner. As he was doing so, Opal decided to steal the spotlight, so much so that one could say that The Sting's win was overshadowed. Now, 50 years later, Jimmy Kimmel referenced the moment during the 96th Annual Academy Awards as he introduced a naked John Cena to announce the award for costume design.

It was the slap heard around the world. When Chris Rock took the stage to deliver his opening monologue, he made a rather unflattering joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, in which he compared Pinkett Smith to the popular protagonist of the American action drama G.I. Jane. This came in the months after Pinkett Smith shaved her head amid her struggle with alopecia. In defense of his wife, Will Smith got up on stage, slapped Chris Rock, and proceeded to yell, "Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth." This shocking moment is still talked about two years later. 

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced La La Land as the Best Picture winner for the night. No one could have expected what was to come as La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz then brought forth the actual ballot that contained the winner of the Best Picture award. That night, Moonlight won Best Picture; unfortunately, that moment will always be remembered along with this shocking mix-up. It was later revealed that the envelope Beatty and Dunaway possessed was the spare Best Actress ballot, as Emma Stone won the Best Actress trophy for her role in La La Land. "I opened the envelope, and it said, 'Emma Stone, La La Land.' That's why I took such a long look at Faye and at you. I wasn't trying to be funny," Beatty said into the mic after the incident. When Emma Stone won Best Actress again at the 2024 Oscar Awards, Kimmel jokingly referred to the unfortunate moment, noting that he hopes history won't repeat itself.

Billy Porter, known for his lead role in the hit show Pose, turned heads on 2019's Oscar red carpet by wearing a fabulous tuxedo gown. The actor said that the choice to wear the gown instead of a traditional tuxedo was personal, as fashion has been a big part of his journey to come to terms with his queer identity. They wanted to push fashion binaries with this red carpet look and wear something that equally plays on masculine and feminine design.

John Travolta was due to introduce Idina Menzel before she took the stage to sing the hit song from Frozen, "Let It Go." However, Menzel's name proved to be a tongue-twister for Travolta, as he referred to the actress and singer as "the wickedly talented, one and only, Adele Dazeem.” Menzel would later reveal that Travolta apologized for the butchered pronunciation of her name, but Menzel expressed that there were no hard feelings and even poked fun at Travolta's mistake at the next year's awards by calling him her “very dear friend Glom Gazingo.” 

It's the selfie that broke the internet. When Ellen DeGeneres hosted the 86th Academy Awards in 2014, she took what seemed to be an impromptu selfie with some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and Julia Roberts. The selfie was then posted to X (formerly Twitter) and remains one of the top 5 most retweeted posts of all time. 

In 2013, when the then 22-year-old Jennifer Lawrence went to accept her Best Actress trophy for her performance in Silver Lining's Playbook, she tripped over her Dior gown, causing a whirlwind of pop culture conversation to come out of it. After Lawrence got up on stage and proceeded with her speech, she humorously began with, “You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell."