Conan O’Brien briefly waded into political waters at the Oscars with an “Anora” joke aimed at President Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
With only a few more statues left to give out Sunday night, the host of the 97th Academy Awards took a moment to take stock of the night’s winners so far. He singled out “Anora,” which had at the time already taken home the night’s Best Editing and Best Original Screenplay awards.
“‘Anora’ is having a good night. Yeah, that’s great news. Two wins already,” O’Brien noted. “I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian.”
You can watch the clip below:
During the #Oscars, Conan O’Brien jokes about #Anora, saying, ‘I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian.’ pic.twitter.com/GXWx9VfOQn
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) March 3, 2025
The joke drew audible gasps from the audience in attendance at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, as well as a wave of applause. It is, of course, a reference to not only “Anora,” which follows its eponymous sex worker (Best Actress winner Mikey Madison) as she finds herself caught up in a demoralizing fight with her ice-cold Russian in-laws, but also to President Trump’s handling of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
On Friday, Trump and Vance drew widespread criticism for their argumentative meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, which ended with Zelensky’s White House visit being abruptly cut short. At the center of the conflict was Zelensky’s insistence that there can be no peace between Ukraine and Russia without security guarantees from Putin that he will cease his invasion and not attempt to encroach on any other Eastern European nations or regions.
Vance and Trump, for their parts, accused Zelensky of not showing enough gratitude or respect to the U.S. for the aid it has provided Ukraine.
The tumultuous meeting came the same week Trump had similarly scrutinized but far less contentious White House meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. An official date has not been set yet for a formal meeting between Trump and Putin, but the former has had almost nothing but good things to say about the latter in recent weeks.
The chances of Trump taking the same hardball approach with Putin that he did with Zelensky seem, as O’Brien indirectly joked Sunday, disappointingly slim.
You can watch the moment in the video above.
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