Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel took aim at US President Donald Trump, trashing him throughout the Oscars night and even provoking him from the stage with two tweets.
The late-night host first poked fun at Trump during his opening monologue saying the Academy Awards were being watching across the globe 'in more than 225 countries that now hate us'.
Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel took aim at President Donald Trump, trashing him throughout the Oscars night and even provoking him from the stage with two tweets.'I want to say thank you to President Trump... remember last year when it seemed the Oscars were racist?' Kimmel told the star-studded audience. 'That's gone, thanks to him.'
He then took to the president's favorite medium – Twitter – to write: 'Hey @realDonaldTrump u up?' and '@realDonaldTrump #Merylsayshi.'
After the comments about racism in his monologue, Kimmel was serious for a moment when he addressed how divided the country was. He said everyone could make America great again if people reached out to someone they disagreed with to have a positive conversation.
#Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel says Warren Beatty 'was perplexed' after seeing card that said "Emma Stone, 'La La Land.'" https://t.co/z2AMCNpglx pic.twitter.com/RLAsDk1nF3
— ABC News (@ABC) February 27, 2017
But that moment quickly passed as he began roasting Trump again.
He later called on the crowd to give a 'highly overrated' Meryl Streep a standing ovation for her 20 Oscar nominations throughout her career.
'One actress has stood the test of time for her many uninspiring and overrated performances,' Kimmel said. 'This is Meryl's 20th Oscar nomination... she wasn't even in a movie this year, we just wrote her name in out of habit.'
He riffed off the president's post-Globes tweet calling Streep 'overrated' after her anti-Trump speech at the Golden Globes overshadowed that show's awards last month.
'Nice dress by the way... Is that an Ivanka?' Kimmel asked Streep.
Kimmel joked that Trump would tweet about all of the Oscar winner's acceptance speeches 'in all caps during his 5am bowel movement tomorrow'.
The host alluded to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's banning of some reporters from a briefing on Friday, saying that reporters from CNN, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and others needed to leave.
'We have no tolerance for fake news,' he said.
He was quick to also turn on close friend and pretend-enemy Matt Damon as he called on people to bury the hatchet with people they might not agree with amid America's disunity.
'I would like to bury the hatchet with someone I've had issues with... Matt Damon,' he said.
'When I first met Matt, I was the fat one. He's a selfish person, but Matt did something very unselfish. He could have starred in Manchester by the Sea... but he gave that role to Casey Affleck.'
He pointed out that Damon went on to star in a 'Chinese ponytail movie instead and that movie went on to lose $80 million. Smooth move dumba**.'
Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs gave a speech about diversity after the Oscars faced backlash in 2016.
She said the film industry was becoming more inclusive and diverse with each passing day.
'Tonight is proof that art has no borders, no single language and does not belong to a single faith,' she said. 'The power of art is that it transcends all these things.'
While Alessandro Bertolazzi is not a well known name outside the film industry, the makeup artist became the first Oscar winner to mention politics in his acceptance speech.
The Italian dedicated his win in the makeup and hair-styling category to 'all the immigrants'.
Iranian director Asghar Farhadi took home the Academy Award for best foreign film for his drama The Salesman. The director had previously said he was not attending the Oscars in revolt against Trump's immigration ban.
'I'm sorry I'm not with you tonight. My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and the other six nations whom have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S,' he said in a statement.
'Dividing the world into the U.S. and our enemies categories creates fear. A deceitful justification for aggression and war. These wars prevent democracy and human rights in countries which have themselves been victims of aggression.
'Filmmakers can turn their cameras to capture shared human qualities and break stereotypes of various nationalities and religions. They create empathy between us and other. An empathy which we need today more than ever.'
Mexican actor Gael García Bernal also weighed in as he presented an award saying: 'I'm against any form of wall that wants to separate us.'
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, stars of 1967's classic Bonnie and Clyde, presented the Oscar for best picture.
'Our goal in politics is the same in our goal in art, and that's to get to the truth,' Beatty said on stage.
He said the movies nominated 'show us the increasing diversity in our community and our respect for diversity and freedom all over the world.'
Even the directors of animated film Zootopia had something to say about tolerance.
'We are so grateful to audiences to audiences all over the world who embraced this film with this story of tolerance being more powerful than fear of the other,' co-director Rich Moore said.
Moonlight director Barry Jenkins said in accepting the Oscar for adapted screenplay that people who don't feel like they have support can look to the American Civil Liberties Union and artists over the next four years.
'All you people who feel like there's no mirror for you... we have your back,' he said.