Most awkward Oscars moments from Barbra Streisand’s tearful song outburst to KPop Demon Hunters stars being cut off mid-speech

The latest and greatest in Hollywood flocked to the Dolby Theatre to attend the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday.

The night was filled with well-deserved wins, shock snubs, emotional tributes and ruthless jokes dished out by Conan O’Brien, who returned as host for the second consecutive year.

The fate of the nominations, from 24 competitive categories, were revealed during a live broadcast on ABC, with Hamnet’s Jessie Buckley and Sinners’ Michael B. Jordan becoming first-time Oscar winners.

Boasting a three-hour runtime, the ceremony offered plenty of opportunity for awkward A-list antics on and off the Oscars stage.

And now, with the 2026 show a wrap, the Daily Mail has rounded up the most viral moments.

Barbra Streisand’s tearful song for late Robert Redford 

Barbra Streisand teared up before bursting into song during her emotional tribute to the late Robert Redford during the ceremony.

The EGOT winner, 83, took to the stage to speak about her close bond with her The Way We Were co-star, who died at the age of 89 in September 2025.

Streisand began by reflecting on working with Redford, who she called an ‘intellectual cowboy,’ on the 1973 film as well as his decades-long career. 

She revealed the fond nickname Redford had for her and recalled the ‘final note’ she penned to him before his death. ‘In the last note I ever wrote to Bob, I ended it with, I love you, too, and I signed it Babs,’ she said.

But it was Streisand’s sudden performance of The Way We Were – the same song she sang at Redford’s October 2025 funeral – that proved most memorable to the audience, who flocked to social media to react.

With a giant photo of Redford in his prime projected on the screen behind her, Streisand belted the lyrics, ‘So, it’s the laughter, the laughter we’ll remember / Whenever we remember the way we were / Oh, yes the way we were’

The star, clad in a black off-the-shoulder dress and tinted glasses, concluded the rendition with a dramatic vocal run that earned loud applause from the celebrity audience.

While many people tuning into the ceremony on ABC were moved by Streisand’s emotional performance, several critiqued her typically impressive vocal abilities.

Leonardo DiCaprio crowned the ‘King of Memes’  

Leonardo DiCaprio was declared the ‘king of memes’ by O’Brien after years of his facial expressions going viral on social media.

‘He’s the star of so many movies and the king of memes. He’s the king of memes, this guy,’ O’Brien said. 

O’Brien then forced DiCaprio to create a ‘new meme’ in real time as he remained in his Oscars seat.

The camera cut to DiCaprio, who looked on awkwardly, as O’Brien captioned the living meme, ‘That feeling when you didn’t agree to this.’

DiCaprio, proving to be a total professional, turned his head to the camera nearest to him and offered a playful smirk and a shrug.

Fan fury over KPop Demon Hunters’ big win gets CUT OFF 

KPop Demon Hunters fans flew into a fury online after its musical number Golden won best original song at the Oscars – only for the writers to be cut off mid-speech.

Singer EJAE, 34, proudly took the stage to accept the prize, which she shared with her co-writers Ido, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Mark Sonnenblick, Teddy and 24.

In floods of tears, she shared: ‘Growing up, people made fun of me for liking KPop, but now everyone is singing our song and all the Korean lyrics and I’m so proud.’

After thanking a variety of people, both in her personal life and those involved with the movie, she asked: ‘Is there anyone else?’

Lee then approached the microphone and began to thank someone, but before the audience could find out whom, the play-off music drowned out his voice.

Social media erupted with outrage, as one viewer fumed: Alright f*** the Oscars for cutting off Best Original Song for Golden KPop Demon Hunters. Absolute disrespect and disgraceful to the creatives behind the biggest song of the year.’

The roast of Timothee Chalamet 

Conan O’Brien had Timothee Chalamet squirming as he called out the Oscar nominee’s ‘opera and ballet’ jab controversy in front of his Hollywood peers at the start of the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday night.

The comedian, 62, returned as host for the second year in a row after taking over the coveted role from fellow comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

And he wasted little time putting Chalamet, who is up for Best Actor, on the spot in his opening monologue for the star’s recent bizarre declaration that ‘no one cares’ about ballet and opera.

‘Security is extremely tight tonight. I’m just going to mention that,’ tuxedo-clad O’Brien said to the crowd inside Los Angeles’ iconic Dolby Theatre. 

He then quipped, ‘I’m told there’s a concern about attacks from both the opera and ballet communities.’

The camera then quickly cut to Chalamet, who could be seen nervously smiling beside his busty girlfriend Kylie Jenner.

‘They’re just mad you left out jazz,’ O’Brien jokingly added.

O’Brien tried but failed to make amends with Chalamet later in the night as he told the crowd he and the Marty Supreme star were ‘vibing.’

‘We’re vibing, right?’ he asked Chalamet, whose reply wasn’t picked up by the event’s microphones. ‘He doesn’t think so.’ 

Chalamet’s humiliating snub  

Chalamet saw his years-long Oscars dream go up in smoke on Sunday – as he was brutally snubbed for Michael B. Jordan in the Best Actor category.

The 30-year-old earned the nomination for his performance in Josh Safdie’s ping-pong drama film Marty Supreme.

This year’s Best Actor category was stacked. Chalamet was up against Jordan (Sinners), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent).

But it was Jordan who came out on top and earned the honor over Chalamet at the 2026 ceremony.

Chalamet looked visibly disappointed after 2025 Best Actor winner Adrien Brody read out Jordan’s name instead of his. 

He offered Jordan polite applause and appeared to mouth ‘yay’ as the stunned Sinners star leaned over to hug his mother Donna before heading to the stage.

Oscars chaos erupts over historic TIE 

While announcing the winners in the Best Live Action Short Film category, Kumail Nanjiani looked shocked to reveal that there had been a tie.

The award was split between the creators of the short films Two People Exchanging Saliva and The Singers.

‘And the Oscar goes to – it’s a tie! I’m not joking, it’s actually a tie,’ the comedian said. ‘Everyone, calm down, we’re going to get through this.’

The shocking outcome appears to be only the seventh time that a tie has been announced in Academy Awards history.

While it occurred at the 2026 ceremony in one of the lower-profile categories, the most famous Oscars tie occurred in 1969, when Katharine Hepburn won for The Lion In Winter, while Barbra Streisand tied her for her screen debut in Funny Girl.

To preserve the surprise of the second of the two winners being named, Nanjiani revealed that he would wait to announce the second winner until the first group could give its acceptance speech.

First up were directors Sam A Davis and Jack Piatt, who won for The Singers.

Director Davis appeared stunned by the reveal as he told the crowd, ‘A tie, wow. I didn’t know that was a thing, a tie, but we’re happy to be up here.’

After Davis and Piatt wrapped up, Nanjiani then awarded the Oscar to directing team Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata for Two People Exchanging Saliva.

Nanjiani quipped that it was ‘ironic that the short film Oscar is going to take twice as long’ to present.

Singh and Musteata said that they were ‘so happy to be sharing this Oscar with The Singers’ and noted it was a historical moment that has only happened a handful of times in Oscar history.

Bridesmaids reunion 

The cast of the beloved 2011 comedy film Bridesmaids reunited on the Oscars stage.

Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Ellie Kemper were on hand to present the Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Sound.

However, one star was noticeably missing: actress Wendi McLendon-Covey.

Bridesmaids director Paul Feig said that McLendon-Covey was simply ‘not available’ for the reunion and that there was no bad blood.

Conan O’Brien’s cringe overload 

The awards show fell flat with some viewers as film enthusiasts claimed the ceremony was a ‘joke’ and criticized Conan O’Brien’s ‘awful’ hosting skills. 

O’Brien kicked off the ceremony with a skit inserting himself into all the films nominated for Best Picture.

At one point, he transformed into an even more horrifying version of Amy Madigan’s Weapons character Gladys, who is an already creepy red-haired witch.  

He then launched into a lengthy opening monologue that concluded with an impromptu musical number about what he’d be like if he won an Oscar.

The skit, featuring the vocal talents of Josh Groban, saw O’Brien put on a crown and King’s robe as he waltzed down the aisle inside the Dolby Theatre to the stage, where he climbed a fake mountain and accepted an Oscar from a CGI messenger owl.

Later in the show, O’Brien shocked viewers and the star-studded crowd with an on-the-nose joke about pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The host used his opening monologue to reference the fact that no British actors had been nominated in major categories.

O’Brien said: ‘It’s the first time since 2012 that there are no British actors nominated for Best Actor or Best Actress.

‘British spokesperson said “yeah, well at least we arrest our pedophiles”, so they got that.’

Outrage over Schindler’s List joke

Comedian Kumail Nanjiani sparked fury by cracking a joke about the Holocaust while presenting the award for Best Live Action Short.

The 47-year-old attempted a gag about movie titles being shorter. 

‘There is a real art to making a short film. I think many full-length movies would do just as well, if not better, as short films. We should take some of these feature films, remake them as shorts. Save us some time.’ 

He then went on to rename several famous films to shorter titles, changing It’s A Wonderful Life to It’s A Wonderful Month, and The King’s Speech to The King’s Tweet. 

He added: ‘Schindler’s Post-It’ to the end of his list.

The 1993 film directed by Steven Spielberg is based on the story of Oskar Schindler, portrayed by Liam Neeson, who saved 1,200 Jews from the Nazis. 

Not only did it fail to raise laughs in the room, but viewers were disgusted. 

‘Can’t say that Schindler’s List joke was uh in any good taste,’ said one viewer. 

Another added: ‘A list isn’t a form of stationery, so ‘Schindler’s post-it’ doesn’t make any sense. bad joke.’

‘That was as CHEAP leftist antisemitic comment by this f***, Kumail Nanjiani… Schindler’s Post-It. Don’t invite him back’, another said.

One other said: ‘Why the f*** would you make a joke about short films Schindlers Post-it?’ 

Kieran Culkin throws shade at absent Sean Penn

Sean Penn was not in attendance as he earned his third Oscar.

The 65-year-old A-lister’s name was announced by Kieran Culkin for the Best Supporting Actor Award for his work in One Battle After Another but he was not in the building to accept.

The sharp-tongued 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.’ 

Pedro Pascal’s unrecognizable makeover sparks concern

Pedro Pascal ditched his signature scruff for the 2026 Oscars.

The actor, 50, looked dapper as he hit the Academy Awards red carpet on Sunday evening in a button-down white shirt adorned with a large flower on the chest and a pair of high-waisted black pants.

But the Materialists star notably changed up his appearance for the event: he shaved off his signature mustache.

Many fans were left stunned over how different he looked without his facial hair, and took to X in droves to discuss it.

Some were so shocked by his new look that they wondered if he had been ‘cloned’ or if it was actually a ‘wax figure’ on the carpet.

‘WTF happened to Pedro Pascal?’ asked one user.

‘A wax figure of Pedro Pascal was unveiled at tonight’s Academy Awards,’ joked someone else.

‘Pedro looks so different,’ read a third post, while a fourth said: ‘Not used to seeing a clean-shaven Pedro! Had to double-take.’