Amy Schumer revealed on the April 13 episode of “The Howard Stern Show” that her seat-filler joke at the 2022 Oscars with Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst led to death threats against her from people who thought she “didn’t respect Dunst.” (via Yahoo Entertainment). ). The bit found Schumer, much to Plemons’ bewilderment, mistaking the Oscar-nominated Dunst for a seat filler and throwing her out of her seat.
Schumer explained to angry fans the day after the Oscars that the seat-filler joke was “a choreographed piece” and that Dunst was involved in the joke. The comedian added, “Hey, I appreciate the love for Kirsten Dunst. I love you to! Wouldn’t treat that queen so disrespectfully.” Speaking to Stern, Schumer said she responded to fans because the death threats she received over the joke were out of control.
“They were so bad that the Secret Service contacted me about this,” Schumer said of the death threats. “I said, ‘I think you have the wrong number. It’s Amy, not Will.” The misogyny is incredible.”
Schumer noted that the Los Angeles Police Department was also in touch with her about the threats she faced over the haze seat filler joke. Not only did Schumer have Dunst’s blessing with the joke before the Oscars, but she made sure all of her joke targets were reported ahead of time. Schumer said she even contacted Leonardo DiCaprio about the joke he was dating younger women. Schumer said DiCaprio replied, “Go ahead.”
In the weeks after the Oscars, Schumer also made jokes that she didn’t tell on the air. One joke related to Alec Baldwin’s deadly Rust shoot: “‘Don’t Look Up’ is the name of a movie? Don’t look down the barrel of Alec Baldwin’s shotgun.” Schumer told Stern that she never intended to make that joke on the show, noting that she often comes up with “nasty, horrible roast jokes that I can’t help.” [are] in my thoughts.”
Schumer also explained to Stern her initial reaction to Will Smith hitting Chris Rock. The comedian first addressed the slap by writing on social media that she was still “triggered and traumatized” by the incident. Schumer has faced backlash, but as she told Stern, “People made fun of me for saying it was traumatizing. I don’t think it was traumatizing for me. I think it was traumatizing for all of us.”
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