Oscars And Trump: 11 Jokes And 5 Straight Lines That Brought Politics To The Show

It should not come as a surprise that politics played a central role in the Academy Awards show Sunday night. Most of the lines were jokes from the mouth of host Jimmy Kimmel at the expense of President Trump.

But he was far from alone in referencing the politics of the day. And some of the lines were downright serious.

First, the jokes.

1. "I want to say thank you to President Trump," Kimmel said early on. "I mean, remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars that were racist?

2. "I would like to talk about one person who has withstood the test of time for her uninspired and overrated performances," Kimmel said, referencing Trump's criticism of Meryl Streep after she offered some scathing comments about him at the Golden Globes.

"Meryl Streep has phoned it in on more than 50 films over the course of her lackluster career.

"Nice dress, by the way. Is that an Ivanka?”

3. In introducing the president of the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Kimmel said "how rare" it's become to have a president who believes in both arts and sciences.

4. Kimmel said that the Oscars are now being seen in "225 countries that now hate us."

5. Kimmel thanked the Department of Homeland Security for letting Oscar-nominated Isabelle Huppert into the country.

6. After pointing out that the United States is very divided and the country needs to be united, he said: "Let's just get something straight off the top: I can’t do that. There's only one Braveheart in this room, and he’s not going to unite us either." He was talking about Mel Gibson.

7. At one point, Kimmel asked if there was any representative of media organizations like The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, "or any organization with Times in it" in the building, and if there was, "I want to ask you to leave the building."

8. Kimmel said "we have no tolerance for fake news. Fake tanks, we love."

9. Dr. Ben Carson got a shoutout when Kimmel said not only did "Dr. Strange" get nominated for Academy Awards, "it was named secretary of Housing and Urban Development."

10. "Some of you will win and give a speech that the president of the United States will tweet about in all caps" during his 5 a.m. trip to the bathroom.

11. "U up?" Kimmel tweeted to Trump at one point while on air. "#merylsayshi."

Now, some of the straightforward political statements.

1. "Flesh and blood actors are migrants, we travel all over the world, we build families, we construct stories, we build life that cannot be divided," Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal said. "I'm against any form of wall that wants to separate us."

2. "Tonight is proof that art has no borders," said Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

3. "Dividing the world into the us and our enemies categories creates fear," said a statement from the Iranian filmmaker who won the Oscar for "The Salesman."

4. Even before the show started, director Ava DuVernay — nominated for her documentary, "13th" — tweeted a photo of herself holding up a sweatshirt reading "Trayvon." Sunday was the anniversary of the killing of Trayvon Martin.

5. Many people sported blue ribbons in support of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Photo Credit: Kevin Winter / Getty Images Entertainment / Getty Images