Although the main talking point from the 2022 Academy Awards continues to be Will Smith slapping Chris Rock onstage (which subsequently led to Smith resigning from the Academy and later being banned from attending the Oscars for the next 10 years), Amy Schumer has also been getting a fair amount of attention for her role as co-host, a duty she shared with Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes. For instance, a few days after the ceremony, Schumer shared a joke about Alec Baldwin she was banned from saying, but now she’s set the record straight, revealing that this was a rumor she started on her own.
To provide some context for those out of the loop, in an interview that was published on April 3, Amy Schumer informed THR that one of her cut jokes from the 2022 Academy Awards saw her saying that Netflix’s Don’t Look Up “is the name of a movie, more like don’t look down the barrel of Alec Baldwin’s shotgun,” referring to the tragic incident involving Baldwin on the set of Rust. Schumer initially indicated that she “wasn’t allowed” to say this joke, nor jabs at James Franco and Joe Rogan, but she’s now admitted on social media that she never planned to tell this Baldwin joke, saying:
I also was never going to say the Alec Baldwin joke at the Oscars. But I am saying anything I want at my live shows. Hope you come out. Link in bio for tickets to my shows. I’m touring august through the holidays!
Amy Schumer’s admission came in the same Instagram post when she debunked a report that she and her husband, Chris Fischer, had purchased an ocean-view mansion in Montecito. So rather than this being an issue of the Academy putting the kibosh on a joke, Schumer fessed up and made it clear she never had any intention of joking about Alec Baldwin fatally shooting cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza with a live round from a gun being used as a prop during Rust’s production. Per arbitration details, Baldwin didn’t comprehend that he’d fired a live round until he was shown the bullet, and the 30 Rock alum has asserted he’s not “culpable” for the shooting.
Regarding Amy Schumer, although this matter about the scrapped Alec Baldwin joke has been cleared up, it isn’t the only issue from her time on the 2022 Academy Awards that’s popped up. There was also a moment in the ceremony where she joked about Kirsten Dunst being a seat-filler, and Schumer had the Power of the Dog actress get up so she could sit with Dunst’s husband and co-star, Jesse Plemons. This resulted in people sending Schumer “death threats,” requiring the comedian to clarify on social media that this was a “choreographed bit.”
If you want to see the rest of Amy Schumer’s material from the 2022 Academy Awards, you can check out the ceremony with a Hulu subscription. As for her other work, along with her comedy tour later this year, Schumer is also writing, directing, executive producing and starring in the Hulu series Life & Beth, which has been renewed for a second season.