Emma Stone’s Reaction to Jimmy Kimmel Joke Decoded by Lip Readers

Emma Stone’s reaction to a joke Jimmy Kimmel made about her movie, Poor Things, at Sunday night’s 96th Academy Awards has gone viral on social media.

Oscars host Kimmel made quips about the critically acclaimed film, for which Stone won the coveted Best Actress award.

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things is adapted from Alasdair Gray’s 1992 award-winning novel of the same name. The sci-fi comedy tells the story of Bella Baxter (Stone), a woman in Victorian London who is brought back to life by a scientist following her death.

With Baxter having been pregnant at the time of her drowning death, the fetus of her unborn child is placed in her skull, leading to her discovering life all over again as a child in an an adult’s body.

In his opening monologue, Kimmel joked: “Emma Stone played an adult lady with the brain of a child, kinda like the lady that gave the State of the Union rebuttal.”

Kimmel was referring to Alabama Senator Katie Britt, who on Thursday faced widespread backlash after delivering the Republican Party’s response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.

Later, after a clip was shown from Poor Things, Kimmel quipped: “Those are all the parts of Poor Things we’re allowed to show on TV,” suggesting that much of the movie contained footage that was highly sexual in nature.

While the audience laughed, the camera panned to Stone, who looked less than amused as she sat with her Poor Things co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Christopher Abbott. She was briefly seen making a comment to Abbott, before the cameras cut back to the stage at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre.

The footage has now gone viral on X, formerly Twitter, where one post had garnered 9 million views on the social media platform as of press time. A number of X users lip-read Stone’s comment and concluded that she had insulted Kimmel.

One said that Stone had called comedian Kimmel a “p****,” before calling the actress “the realest person in that theater,” for her apparent comment. As of press time, the post has garnered more than 6.5 million views.

“Emma Stone says ‘He’s a p****’?” another viewer wrote in response, as they also shared a clip from the ceremony.

“Emma Stone has never been more attractive than saying ‘he’s such a p****’ about Jimmy Kimmel,” another X user weighed in.

“Did Emma Stone call Jimmy Kimmel ‘a p****’ at the Oscars tonight?” another asked. “Well, don’t come for a Queen…”

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Stone and Kimmel via email for comment.

Whatever Stone said to her co-stars, she had the last laugh on the night, scooping the Best Actress trophy for her efforts in Poor Things. Stone’s Oscar win was her second—she previously won Best Actress in 2016 for La La Land.

“My dress is broken!” Stone declared to the audience after ascending the stage. “I think it happened during ‘I’m Just Ken,’ I’m pretty sure.”

Earlier in the night, Stone’s La La Land co-star Ryan Gosling performed the song I’m Just Ken from his movie Barbie and jumped into the crowd to offer Stone his microphone so that she could sing along.

After having joined in earlier, Stone quipped as she turned to depart the stage with her Oscar: “Don’t look at the back of my dress!”