i know it is cliche by now, but when Cuba gooding Jr. won for Jerry Maguire and got so excited and exuberant i just thought it was one of those raw, true Oscar show moments that hardly ever happens and never happened in that way. i remember getting a little emotional along with him.

so what are some of your favorite moments, either from winners, losers, show antics, songs, montages (musical or clip), etc...?

Jack Palance doing pushups.

The video won't allow embedding but I'd say the streaker.

http://youtu.be/2IIl3zSYL8k

David Niven streaking.

Brando accepting his Godfather Oscar in native american drag dressed as Sacheen Littlefeather.

George C .Scott dancing a jig on stage accepting his award for Patton.

Woody Allen showing up drunk and bloodied, accepting his Best Director Oscar for Annie Hall.

I can't get the video to embed, but Woody Allen at the Oscars in 2002

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8YaMwUumII

From what I understand, his only appearance at the Oscars.

To me, nothing is better than the reaction of Samuel L Jackson when he lost to Martin Landeau. You can see his face crumple into a frown and his lips go "Shit!" I can't believe it's not on that gif page with all the reactions from over the years.

http://youtu.be/pc5uF1I1eNk

I've always loved it when a (deserving) upset occurs and the winner obviously wasn't expecting it. The times when you can see that they are overwhelmed, disbelieving, and best of all: unprepared. Examples that immediately come to mind:

Anna Paquin (will never forget her hyperventilating, the feeling of "is she even going to be able to speak?" followed by her sudden total composure)
Juliette Binoche (the Oscar was Lauren Bacall's that year, no question in anyone's mind...oops!)
Marion Cotillard
Adrien Brody

Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová
Best Original Song, “Falling Softly” from “Once”
http://youtu.be/qx8yLvb0gZM

Ennio Morricone getting the Lifetime Achievment Award from Clint.

Agreed. You really get caught up in the moment when that happens.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YHnT6enjiGM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Also, Letterman showing up in the opening montage the year after he hosted. He appeared as the pilot of the plane in "The English Patient" maniacally screaming "Uma! Oprah! Uma! Oprah!" while trying to run Billy Crystal down.

When Return of the King basically swept the oscars.

Yeah, 11/11 with Spielberg capping it off by saying "It's a clean sweep!" That was pretty good.

+1. This is probably the most memorable for me.

You just redeemed yourself after that slam at Rooney Mara in the other thread.

What made it even better was that Clint was translating the Italian as well.

I love it when celebs lose their shit on stage. They're such drama queens anyway so some of them just take the ball and RUN with it. Case in point: Halle Berry. She just had a full-on breakdown right there on the stage.

And then she started thanking her lawyer...

The look on Burt Reynolds' face when he lost the Oscar to Robin Williams.

That was dumb as shit.

Lumet winning I guess. First that came to mind anyway. I loved his acceptance speech, and the fact that he was recognized.

Charlie Chaplain receiving an honorary Oscar, coming out of exile. The standing ovation lasted 12 mins (the video skips most of that). You can skip to the 2:45 point if you want to skip the introduction speech.

http://youtu.be/J3Pl-qvA1X8 Again, could not embed the video.

Yeah that was an awesome one. As well as Kurosawa's lifetime achievement award.

That's amazingly awesome. I like the top comment "This is like Mozart going to the Grammys" so, very, very true.

I was going to mention that one too.

Years ago, I had a VHS tape called "Oscar's Greatest Moments." It was an official Academy release, hosted by Karl Malden. I guess it would be unnecessary these days because of Youtube, but I watched it a bunch of times back in the day. I think they picked the Chaplin moment as the best ever.

I guess today he'd be relegated to the non-televised luncheon.