John Cena Shocks Oscars With ‘Streaker’ Joke

Every year something happens at the Oscars that everyone talks about. This year, it’s John Cena “streaking.”

(Technically he did not streak. But only by the thinnest of margins.)

As it turns out, this year’s Academy Awards was the 50th anniversary of one of the most infamous moments in Oscar history: When an actual streaker ran across the stage in the middle of the presentation of one of the awards. If you’ve never seen it, here is that iconic, shocking sequence of events...

To pay, uh, tribute to that moment this year’s Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel basically cued up a moment for a streaker to run across the stage this year. But one didn’t appear. And then none other than John Cena emerged from the wings, telling Kimmel he no longer wanted to go through with the planned gag, because it was demeaning. Which, fair! Plus, like a billion odd people watch the Academy Awards. Even if you’re as ripped as John Cena, would you want to streak for a billion people? I think not.

After more cajoling from Kimmel, Cena did walk across the stage “naked,” with the an award envelope covering his, er, attitude adjustment.

You can’t see me, indeed.

The punchline was the award Cena was presenting was for Best Costumes, which let Cena deliver the incredible line “Costumes ... are really important” stark naked.

If you missed the moment, here is a video of it.

Cena can currently be seen in Ricky Stanicky, a new comedy from Peter Farrelly of the Farrelly brothers. He is really funny in the film — although he generally wears many more clothes. For the full list of this year’s Oscar winners, that is available here.

Oh an the award for Best Costumes went to Poor Things.