The 2024 Academy Awards marked a noted anniversary: It was a half century since a streaker crashed the Oscars stage. David Niven was in the midst of presenting one of the night’s awards when a nude man came running behind him. Niven even dreamt up a withering quip about his “shortcomings.” Fifty years later John Cena tried to top him.
A naked John Cena and Jimmy Kimmel bicker on stage at the 2024 #Oscars pic.twitter.com/1JYd5qth6F
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 11, 2024
Host Jimmy Kimmel brought up the moment while introducing the presenter for the Best Costume award. Who was the presenter? It was John Cena, and he was, of course, in his birthday suit. Alas, unlike the Niven streaker, he was a bit nervous.
“I changed my mind,” he pleaded with Kimmel from behind the set, which obscured most but not all of his nakedness. “I don’t want to do the streaker bit.” He said it didn’t feel right. “The male body is not a joke.”
Kimmel said he thought Cena wrestled in the buff. “I don’t wrestle naked,” Cena said. “I wrestle in jorts.”
So they worked out a compromise: Cena would present the award, naked, his naughty bits blocked by the giant award envelope. Sadly, that meant he couldn’t open the envelope, so while the show cut to a montage of the nominated films, they got him a curtain for a makeshift robe.
Was Cena really naked? He sure was.
The award went to Poor Things, by the way.