Oscars fans commiserate with Andrew Garfield after Jimmy Kimmel shoutout prompts ‘nasty’ crowd reaction

Andrew Garfield was the recipient of internet commiseration after his shoutout during Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscars opening monologue was met with delayed applause.

This year’s Academy Awards marked several historic wins, including Michelle Yeoh’s first Oscar, the triumph of the unique multiverse action film Everything Everywhere All at Once and comeback success stories for Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan.

You can find the full list of winners here.

Ahead of the celebrations, host Kimmel kicked off the evening with a speech about the ceremony and what could be expected from this year’s event.

As expected, he made reference to last year’s extraordinary major incident, when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for making a distasteful joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Kimmel quipped that there would be no repeat of the slap while he was leading proceedings, and gave the names of some actors and characters who’d protect him from any violence.

“You’re gonna have to do battle with Michelle Yeoh before you get to me,” he noted, before the martial arts star struck a pose from her seat and smiled.

“You’re gonna have to beat the Mandalorian before you get to me,” Kimmel continued, as the camera cut to Pedro Pascal, who darted his fingers in a V-position outwards in an “I’m watching you” motion.

Kimmel continued his bit by adding: “You are gonna have to tangle with Spider-Man!”

The cameras then moved to Garfield, who was pulling a grimacing smile. In stark contrast to the response when the other actors were name-checked, there was a noticeable silence in place of applause.

After Garfield leaned into the awkward moment even more and shrugged, the crowd finally reacted to his mention with laughter and cheers.

Some explained the gap in audience response as the crowd being confused about which version of the superhero character Kimmel was referring to.

Though Garfield reprised the role in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Holland has been the main live-action Spider-Man since Captain America: Civil War in 2016.

“He knew everyone would expect Tom that’s why the face lol,” reasoned one viewer, while another added: “He really got set up with that one, like there’s three currently active Spider-men that camera could have gone to anyone.”

Others cringed at the gap in response and noted that they would have responded with tears.

“I would’ve started bawling on the spot,” claimed one empathetic viewer. Similarly, another said: “I would get up and leave. I’d cry in the car so hard that I would have to pull over to collect myself and then I would cry even harder when I got home.”

“Oh this is NASTY,” wrote another, adding crying emojis.

A producer who worked on the broadcast has since addressed the joke, as well as Garfield’s response.

You can find the major talking points from this year’s Oscars here.