A man was humiliated this night (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
It’s Hollywood’s biggest night, and this year – it was absolutely ruined. I was watching the Academy Awards in the electronics section of the last surviving Radio Shack tonight when I saw something shocking.
It was Robert Downey Jr. winning an Oscar for “Oppenheimer.”
Then I saw something else. John Cena, the professional wrestler, appeared on the screen. The moment I saw John Cena, I started laughing. There’s nothing funnier than John Cena appearing at the Oscars. But my laughter quickly stopped when I realized something terrible – John Cena was naked.
Producing live television is always a risk. You never quite know what’s going to happen, but one thing the viewer never plans for is to see a naked man in visible distress. My heart dropped. I don’t know how the Academy Awards production could have gotten it so wrong, but they sent a naked man onstage in front of a crowd of A- and (mostly) B-list celebrities.
The cruel irony was that this unfortunate mistake occurred during the presentation for “Best Costume Design.”
Cena fully dressed (for comparison) (Kris Connor/Getty Images for WWE)
I wish we could somehow go back in time to correct this blunder, because John Cena is a person with feelings, and to be humiliated in this way must have been traumatic. At the Academy Awards, men traditionally wear tuxedos, but because of this tragic wardrobe malfunction, Cena was sent onstage in nothing but his finely-tailored birthday suit.
Shivering, with nothing to cover himself but an Oscars envelope, John Cena experienced the worst humiliation of his life, and honestly I think someone should have to answer for that. Live television productions should make every effort to ensure that the stars involved appear fully clothed.
What if this happened on some other TV show? What if Jeremy Allen White was doing naked yoga in the opening credits of “The Bear”? People wouldn’t tune in to watch that! If I were to produce a television show, the very first and the very last thing on my checklist would be that everyone involved in the production is wearing clothes. No one should be forced to do their job naked.
It’s high time we take action to PROTECT MEN.
Furthermore, I believe that John Cena should not be cancelled because of this. This mistake clearly wasn’t his fault. Nobody would willingly agree to present an award in the buff, and I want the world to forgive John Cena for what happened because the situation was clearly out of his control.
If John Cena ever becomes an actor and stars in a movie, I would urge everyone to go see that movie and prove that he’s not being held responsible for this disgusting mishap. I would want nothing more than for John Cena to take up acting, star in a movie, and have it be a huge box office hit. Then the world could prove to John Cena that we forgive him.
