The Oscars 2024 winners featured some surprises, but so did some of the intro segments to individual awards. I’ll go ahead and shoutout the Twins and Batman reunion with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, John Mulaney hilariously popping off about Field of Dreams and Emily Blunt riffing with Ryan Gosling as highlights. Meanwhile, naked John Cena wasn’t on our bingo card, but that moment played off humorously and flawlessly too, though as it turns out there was never really any danger of anyone seeing more than they wanted of the actor and former WWE star.
Thank goodness that photographers are allowed backstage at the Oscars event, because as it turns out John Cena was pretty brazen during his allegedly “naked” bit, but he was never in any danger of causing a brouhaha during the live broadcast, or upsetting the Oscars censors in any way, shape, or form. In fact, he had fabric protecting his modesty at all times, even when he was attempting to streak on the stage while Jimmy Kimmel was presenting. Take a look, and please note the sandals.
In short, you can’t see him. Not really.
This is the same sort of practice used when celebrities are filming a nude scene for movies. In fact, Jamie Dornan in particular has been candid about it, memorably calling the modesty cloth he wore for Fifty Shades of Grey and its sequels a “wee bag,” though he also noted they’d been used in another movie before!
This time, the actor was covered front and back so it doesn’t sound like exactly the same thing, but it did have the same purpose, so that when he went onstage he didn’t accidentally show off more than the audience bargained for while just holding an award envelope in front of his junk. It also led to one of the funniest one-liners of the night, when Kimmel declared, ‘Jorts are worse than naked,’ in regards to the wrestler’s previous WWE career and look.
Fun fact: Cena actually wore jorts following a wardrobe malfunction, so this whole sketch is really kind of a full-circle moment for him. If you somehow missed the moment and all the subsequent tweets about it, ABC, which aired the Oscars on the 2024 TV schedule, has made it available for our viewing pleasure.
Of course, by the end of the viral bit, he’d actually donned what seemed to be curtain fabric, creating a sort of makeshift toga before he announced the winner in the Best Costume Design category. The whole thing was pretty much hijinks, and I honestly kind of feel a little bad for Poor Things, which had to follow a 'naked' a-lister up with a speech. Still, I’m guessing no matter the context it’s pretty cool to win.
