Award show season is over, but these entertainers have made award shows interesting to watch since their inception. Pulling from some of the best comedians in modern history, here are ten of the funniest award show speeches ever delivered.
Robin Williams, 1992 Golden Globes
Robin Williams gave a gut-splitting acceptance speech at the 1992 Golden Globes after he won Best Actor in a Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy for his performance in The Fisher King.
“I’d like to thank my agents, my managers, all the people who make me Jewish by commission,” Williams cracked, before going on to thank almost everyone else in the room in various accents and dialects. “I’d like to thank Jeff Bridges, a man who should be declared a national treasure…I’m just thanking everybody now.”
Jim Carrey, 1999 MTV Movie Awards
Jim Carrey ascended to the MTV Movie Award stage in 1999 wearing a disguise — including a lit cigarette, John Lennon-inspired sunglasses and a burly, foot-long head of hair and beard to match —after he won Best Male Performance for his turn in The Truman Show. His costume was so convincing that even his manager couldn’t find him in the green room.
Bill Murray, 2004 Golden Globes
Bill Murray’s deadpan delivery of his acceptance speech for Best Actor at the 2004 Golden Globes is the type of savage stand-up that Saturday Night Live made him famous for.
Hailed for his work in Lost In Translation, Murray mocked the long acceptance speeches of his peers — “You can all relax, I fired my agents a couple months ago” — before moving onto the studios that put the movie out. “I would thank the people at Universal and Focus, except there are so many people trying to take credit for this I wouldn’t know where to begin.”
Murray keeps it together, but the audience definitely doesn’t. The stars are barely able to stay in their seats.
Steve Carrell, 2006 Golden Globes
Instead of writing his acceptance speech for Best Actor in a TV Series: Musical or Comedy, Steve Carrell — who was just getting his feet wet with his role as Michael Scott in The Office — let his wife Nancy pen what he was going to say. Unsurprisingly, Carrell strikes a perfect balance between sincere and hilarious as he ad-libs his way through.
Jerry Seinfeld, 2007 HBO Comedian Awards
Flanked by some of the funniest men in the business, Jerry Seinfeld famously delivered the “All Awards Are Stupid” speech while accepting HBO’s Comedian Award.
“I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. I don’t want you to think that I’m not honored by this, because I’m, I feel very, very honored, and it’s — but it’s just that awards are stupid,” Seinfeld told the crowd. “And why? Because awards don’t mean a g-ddamn thing. It’s stupid, they’re all stupid.”
Will Ferrell, 2011 Mark Twain Comedy Award
Opening his speech by shattering the Mark Twain award he’d just been given on the floor, Will Ferrell’s acceptance speech channels some of the best work he’s done in his career — and runs the gamut of emotions throughout the ten minutes he’s onstage.
Adam Sandler, 2012 People’s Choice Awards
Adam Sandler used the 2012 People’s Choice Awards to channel his own character in Billy Madison as he went through an extensive list of people he’s “never thanked” during any award ceremony — his teachers.
“The ones who shaped and molded me, and provided the inspiration and courage that helped me to achieve my dream of making movies, that critics all over the planet despise with unreasonable fury, but that you the people seem to like.”
For two minutes, Sandler lists off everyone — from “Mrs. Really Old Lady With the Bad Wig Who Died Halfway Through Second Grade” to “My Librarian, Mrs. Rotten Breath.” Hilarious and unique, it’s worth a watch.
Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon, 2014 Emmys
There was some foreshadowing in this bit between Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon — in which Fallon charges the stage and insists there’s been a mistake — both because of the infamous Oscars Best Picture mix-up in 2017, and the skyrocketing success of Colbert’s Late Show, which has hammered Fallon’s Tonight Show in ratings since President Trump took office. Even still, the two show off why they helm the two biggest late-night talk shows in this impromptu skit.
Anna Kendrick, 2015 American Music Awards
Anna Kendrick managed to pack an impressive list of insults into this one-minute acceptance speech after Pitch Perfect 2 won Top Soundtrack at the American Music Awards in 2015. Calling the soundtrack’s producers “a ruthless little group of sociopaths” and asking the film’s music supervisors when they’re going to have a threesome — “Just DM me,” Kendrick said — her co-stars aren’t sure how to react as she delivers the punchlines.
Ellen DeGeneres, 2016 People’s Choice Humanitarian Award
Ellen is a moral cut above the rest, so it’s no surprise that the comedian nabbed the 2016 People’s Choice Humanitarian Award. But DeGeneres didn’t let the emotional highlight reel of her philanthropic work keep her from cracking jokes when she got onstage to accept it.
“This is crazy. I mean, so, so deserved. But this is crazy…I started my show just to make people happy, and to make people laugh, and to get very, very rich.”
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