Oscars host Conan O’Brien wasted no time in addressing the elephant in the room as he kicked off Sunday night’s ceremony.

During his opening monologue, the US comedian made reference to some of the biggest talking points of this year’s awards season, from The Brutalist’s epic runtime and The Substance’s graphic content to Wicked’s unusual premise.

Conan then took a moment to send up the controversy surrounding Emilia Pérez, and its leading star Karla Sofía Gascón.

Shortly after Karla Sofía was announced to be in the running for Best Actress at the Oscars (one of a record-breaking 13 nods for Emilia Pérez), a number of years-old offensive social media posts were unearthed, in which she criticised subjects like Islam, the Black Lives Matter movement (including, specifically, George Floyd, a Black man murdered by a white police officer in 2020) and diversity at the Academy Awards ceremony in 2021.

The Spanish performer initially issued an apology, and subsequently deleted her X account, but later gave an interview to CNN in which she said she had been a victim of “cancel culture”.

Subsequently, she was a no-show at several more awards shows where she had been nominated, including the Baftas and SAG Awards, but did attend the Oscars.

During his introductory monologue, Conan said: “Anora uses the F-word 479 times. That’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofía Gascón’s publicist.”

He then quipped: “Karla, if you are going to tweet about the Oscars, remember, my name is Jimmy Kimmel.”

Karla Sofía had previously made history as the first openly trans performer to be nominated for an Oscar in an acting category.

Despite mixed reviews, Emilia Pérez was the most-nominated film at the 2025 Academy Awards, securing more nods than any non-English-language film in history.

Click here for the full list of winners from this year’s Oscars.