The Academy Awards are often seen as superficial, self-indulgent and a bit boring to say the very least. It can therefore be quite the guilty pleasure for viewers when something doesn’t quite go according to plan or creates unintended consequences. Here’s our list of the top five awkward moments of The Academy Awards.

#5- A Breast-tacular Opening Number 

In a bid to make the ceremony a little less pompous, Seth McFarlane was chosen by the Academy to host the 2013 Academy Awards. Famous for his crude and, in some cases, offensive humour, the creator of Family Guy didn’t pull any punches in his opening number for the awards show. Titled ‘We Saw Your Boobs’, McFarlane recounted in song the various actresses who exposed themselves for the big screen whilst The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles pranced in the background. Although he certainly changed the mood for the Oscars, he also managed to piss of many feminists and a few unhappy film stars. This would probably be lower on the list if the song wasn’t so damn catchy…

#4- An Award Winning Kiss

Adrian Brody was overwhelmed when it was announced that he won Best Actor for his role in The Pianist. But not as overwhelmed as Halle Berry, who unexpectedly received an intimate and painfully long kiss from Brody in exchange for the Oscar she presented.  Brody’s attempt at making light of the subject by saying to Berry ‘I bet they didn’t tell you that was in the gift bag’ may have been charming, but it certainly didn’t excuse him from trying to eat Berry’s face without her consent. Even his poignant comparisons of the dehumanisation of war exhibited in both World War two and the Iraq War in his acceptance speech are forgotten in favour of Halle Berry wiping Brody’s leftover saliva from her mouth.

#3- The Academy’s Lowe Point

The 1989 Academy Award’s opening number was an absolute travesty. It is still the only opening in Oscars history to have resulted in a petition calling it ‘humiliating to all of Hollywood’ and a lawsuit from Disney. What was the problem? Rob Lowe and unknown actress Eileen Bowman kicked off the Academy Awards with a terribly cheesy opening number as Snow White and her ‘date’. Complete with an atrocity to the ears from Lowe, a menagerie of cameos from decaying film stars and a parody of ‘Proud Mary’ titled ‘Keep the Cameras rollin’, everyone in the audience was wondering what mastermind-behind-the-disaster Allan Carr had been smoking. This 15-minute long train wreck is an affront to the senses and the scale of its awkwardness can only be truly understood by watching it for yourself. Just please don’t send your complaints to me after having wasted a quarter-hour of your life.

#2- An Unforgettable Streak

The 1974 Academy Awards occurred when the USA was experiencing a tidal wave of counter-culture and going against authority was the norm. Despite this, audiences were still completely unprepared for when photographer Robert Opel ran across the stage naked before co-host David Niven was able to introduce Elizabeth Taylor. Whilst this may have been the only time that the otherwise stuffy and conservative Academy Awards showed full frontal male nudity to audiences across the country, it places second on our list purely due to Niven’s quick-witted and iconic save: “Well ladies and gentlemen, that was almost bound to happen… But isn’t it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?’

#1- Leave the Oscar, Take the Indian

The Godfather is arguably one of the greatest films ever made, so it is unsurprising that Marlon Brando won the Oscar in 1973 for his performance as Vito Corleone. What was surprising however was his decision to use this opportunity to protest against Hollywood’s stereotyping of American Indians by sending Indian Rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather in his place to give a 15-page speech about Hollywood’s inconsiderate portrayal of Native Americans. Prohibited from giving her speech in its entirety by the Academy, Littlefeather was met with a combination of cheers and boos from the audience. Brando’s attempt at getting back at the Academy for passing him by on 5 previous Oscar nominations irreparably altered the mood of the show and left audiences with a bad taste in their mouths.

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