Kid Rock has brutal response to Conan O'Brien's Oscars joke
Kid Rock has issued a response to Conan O'Brien after the Oscars host launched a brutal jibe at the singer during the 98th Academy Awards.
O'Brien certainly took no prisoners when it came to his jokes at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday (March 15), including roasting Timothée Chalamet on multiple occasions.
During his opening monologue, O'Brien took aim at Kid Rock and his alternative Super Bowl halftime performance with Turning Point USA, the organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
The Oscars host said: "Tonight could get political, and if that makes you uncomfortable, there's an alternate Oscars being hosted by Kid Rock. It's at the Dave & Buster's down the street."
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Kid Rock, real name Robert James Ritchie, has since responded to the gaffe, and it's safe to say he's not best pleased.
Kid Rock's response to Conan O'Brien
Taking to X, the 55-year-old said: "I love a good joke, even when I am the butt of it, unfortunately this was not a very good one."
The singer then promoted his upcoming tour dates, as he penned: "Either way, if you want to see a REAL good show this spring / summer that celebrates America and 250 years of Freedom - make sure you buy your tickets from (ugh) Ticketmaster for my Freedom 250 tour - The Road To Nashville. There is a reason for this, TRUST ME!"
Kid Rock, a vocal conservative and long-running supporter of Donald Trump, hosted an 'All American Halftime Show', which was marketed as celebrating 'faith, family, and freedom' during the 2026 Super Bowl.
Alongside Kid Rock were Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett in a show which was live-streamed by Kirk's Turning Point USA.
According to the New York Times, Turning Point USA managed to attract as many as 6.1 million concurrent viewers on its YouTube channel during the Super Bowl. It currently sits at 21 million views.
As for Bad Bunny's performance at the official Super Bowl halftime show, well, that averaged 128.2 million viewers between 8:15pm and 8:30pm on the big night, according to NBC.
Oscars 2026 recap
It’s a wrap for the glitziest night in showbiz - here’s everything that happened on Hollywood’s biggest night.
One Battle After Another vs Sinners
Ahead of the ceremony, it was widely seen as a two-horse race for Best Picture between Ryan Coogler's vampire horror/period piece/surprise musical Sinners and Paul Thomas Anderson's anarchist thriller One Battle After Another.
Sinners smashed the record for the most Oscar nominations ever with 16 nods, and ended up walking away with four wins.
Those were Best Actor for Michael B Jordan's double performance as twins Smoke and Stack, Best Cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Best Original Screenplay for Coogler, and Best Original Score for Ludwig Goransson.
Faring significantly better than Leonardo DiCaprio's hapless revolutionary does in the movie, One Battle After Another secured the most wins of the evening: six out of a possible 13.
Those were for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Penn), a long overdue Best Director win for Paul Thomas Anderson, Best Adapted Screenplay (again for PTA), Best Film Editing for Andy Jurgensen and the inaugural Best Casting award for Cassandra Kulukundis.
Amy Madigan and Autumn Durald Arkapaw smash records
While One Battle After Another was the night’s big winner, history was made in several other categories.
Amy Madigan, who took home Best Supporting Actor for her performance as fashion icon and child abductor Aunt Gladys in Weapons, broke the record for the longest time between Oscar nominations.
It’s been 40 years since his first nomination for Twice in a Lifetime in 1986, which ended up going to Anjelica Huston for Prizzi’s Honor.
She said in her acceptance speech: “This is great. Everybody's asking me, 'Well, it's been 40 years, what's different about this time?' Different is I have this little gold guy!"
Autumn Durald Arkapaw took home the Oscar for Best Cinematography for Sinners. She is the first woman and the first black person to win the award.
She said in her speech: “I’m so honored to be here and I really want all the women in the room to stand up because I feel like I don’t get here without you guys.”
She also thanked Rachel Morrison in her speech, a cinematographer who was nominated in 2018 for Mudbound, but lost out to Roger Deakins for Blade Runner 2049.
History-making Oscars tie
Last night saw the seventh-ever tie in Oscars history, as both Two People Exchanging Saliva and The Singers shared the award for Best Live-Action Short Film.
Presenting the award, actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani quipped: “It's a tie, I'm not joking, it's actually a tie. Ironic that the short film Oscar's going to take twice as long.”
The other six times this has happened are in 1932 for Best Actor (Fredric March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Wallace Beery for The Champ), 1950 for Best Documentary Short Subject (A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little), 1969 for Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter and Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl), 1986 for Best Documentary Feature (Artie Shaw: Time is All You've Got and Down and Out in America), 1995 for Best Live Action Short Film (Trevor and Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life); and most recently 2013 for Best Sound Editing (Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty).
Where was Sean Penn?
Sean Penn won his third Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his hilarious and terrifying portrayal of Colonel Lockjaw in One Battle After Another, but he was nowhere to be seen at the ceremony.
Accepting the award on his behalf, Kieran Culkin joked: “Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening, or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf.”
The New York Times reports - citing two sources familiar with the situation - that Penn was actually in Ukraine instead.
He has been a vocal critic of Russia’s invasion, making the documentary Superpower about it in 2022.
He’s firm friends with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and even gave him one of his Oscar statuettes as a gift. Zelenskyy promised to return it when the war was won.
A touching In Memoriam - with some notable omissions
We lost some huge names in Hollywood this year, and the Academy paid tribute to Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle, Diane Keaton, Robert Redford and Catherine O’Hara.
Brigette Bardot, who died last December aged 91, was not honoured. Since her tribute was booed at the César awards, largely due to her far-right politics later in life, the Academy may have been trying to avoid controversy.
It’s less clear why Dharmendra, one of the biggest names in Indian cinema, and Harold and Maude star Bud Cort weren’t included.
Stars who were more widely known for TV roles, such as James Van Der Beek and Eric Dane, also did not feature.
Topics: Academy Awards, Conan O'Brien, Oscars, Kid Rock
Callum Jones