Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue for the 2024 Oscars started out pretty mundane. Jokes were made about how Killers of the Flower Moon was long enough to “drive to Oklahoma and solve the murders myself,” a Mrs. Web shoutout, and a pretty good topical joke about the viral Republican rebuttal to last week’s State of the Union address. But then Kimmel ended his monologue with something remarkable: a funny, yet heartfelt and heartfelt speech in support of Hollywood unions.
After the late-night host took some flak last year for the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes with both corny laugh lines (“When a movie premieres at The Grove and there are no actors to support it, Mario Lopez than sound?”) and shocking barbed wire (making it clear he wasn’t shouting at the Director’s Guild of America, which “immediately folded”), Kimmel turned to sincerity. Hollywood, Kimmel said, “is a union town at its core,” and then went on to express gratitude to the unions below the line: the truck drivers, Teamsters and IATSE union members who supported notable Hollywood talent and called on attendees to support the IATSE in their ongoing negotiations with the studios).
Kimmel then called many of those union workers on stage in a truly moving display of solidarity, closing with a final joke: “I’m going to make this show long so you get a lot of overtime.”
