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On The Table Read Magazine, “the best entertainment magazine in the UK“, the Oscars is a night of entertainment beyond the actual awards, and these are the most shocking Oscars moments!
Many of us tuned in to watch the unpredictable event at the 95th Academy Awards unfold, from Hugh Grant’s impolite pre-show interview to Angela Bassett’s response to losing best supporting actress.
TheSlotBuzz.com was eager to investigate this further by utilizing viewing figures to conclude the most shocking and controversial Oscars moments of all time.
Most Shocking Oscars Moments
| Rank | Name of Nominee | Name of Film Nominated | Reason for Shock | Award Category | Oscar Date | Youtube View Count |
| 1 | Will Smith | King Richard | Slapped Chris Rock | Best Actor | 94th – 2022 | 108, 544, 451 |
| 2 | Jennifer Lawrence | Silver Linings Playbook | Falls down going to the stage | Best Actress | 85th – 2013 | 15,327,834 |
| 3 | Marlon Brando | Godfather | Refused to Accept Award in Protest | Best Actor | 45th – 1973 | 14,023,526 |
| 4 | Joaquin Phoenix | Joker | Vegan and Anti-Cancel Culture Beliefs | Best Actor | 92nd – 2020 | 13,362,270 |
| 5 | Robert Benigni | Life is Beautiful | Climbed over Speilberg in excitement | Foreign Language Film | 71st – 1999 | 12,658,800 |
| 6 | Adrien Brody | The Pianist | Kisses Halle Berry | Best Actor | 75th – 2003 | 7,379,517 |
| 7 | Angelina Jolie | Girl, Interrupted | “Over-Affection” Towards Brother | Best Supporting Actress | 72nd – 2000 | 5,607,210 |
| 8 | Fred Berger | Moonlight – La La Land | Award given to wrong film | Best Picture | 89th – 2017 | 2,696,067 |
| 9 | Michael Moore | Bowling for Columbine | Controversial speech about President Bush | Best Documentary | 75th – 2003 | 1,784,489 |
| 10 | Roman Polanski | The Pianist | Receives award after fleeing country | Best Director | 75th – 2003 | 1,429,570 |
Will Smith
Will Smith’s astonishing response to Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars is the Oscars moment that has received the most views. Chris Rock made fun of Will’s wife while he was presenting, which led to him publicly slapping Chris Rock live on television. At first yelling “Keep my better half’s name out your f****** mouth!” In the three days following and including the day of the event, there were almost five times (53%)* more searches for “Will Smith slap” than there were for “Oscars Award Ceremony.” As a result, the shocking moment was viewed more than 108 million times on YouTube. Since then, it has been reported that Will has been banned from attending any academy events or programs for ten years.
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence’s speech at the Oscars received the second most views. The “Silver Linings Playbook” actress stumbled as she ascended the steps to accept her award in 2013 because she was so shocked when her name was called for the title of best actress. Her name was found to be searched 4.5 times (56%)* more than “Oscars Award Ceremony” after the event and for the following three days. The moment went viral and now has 15,327,834 views.
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, star of Godfather, gave the Oscars speech that was revealed to be the third most shocking. He was honored by the academy, but to everyone’s surprise, he turned down the ceremony, which had 14,023,526 views. All things being equal, he surrendered his spot at the platform to Local American common freedoms advocate Sacheen Littlefeather, who conveyed a proclamation from the entertainer expressing that he was declining the honor due to the mistreat
Methodology:
1. TheSlotBuzz.com were keen to discover the most shocking or controversial moments of all time at the Oscars.
2. To do so, TheSlotBuzz.com created a seed list of 10 moments described as “shocking”, “controversial” or “unexpected” by scraping articles from reputable sources such as; Vogue, Daily Mail, Rolling Stone and Leisurebyte.
3. Each moment was ranked by view count taken from the official Oscars YouTube channel, with an exception for Will Smith whose moment was from the official Guardian News YouTube channel.
4. Through data analytics tool Google Trends, TheSlotBuzz.com were able to discover the increase in search volumes from three days prior compared to three days after and including the day of the event to highlight each moment that wasn’t typical of an awards night.
5. All data was collected on 06/03/2023 and is accurate as of then, but subject to change.
ment of Native Americans today by the film business.
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