The Oscars Streaker

Despite hiring some of American's greatest comedians to host the Oscars, the annual awards ceremony is often panned for being disappointingly unfunny. Not in 1974. That year, a 33-year-old man named Robert Opal ran across the stage naked just as actor David Niven was about to present the award for Best Picture. Opal, flashing a peace sign, reportedly got backstage using a press credential. As the streaker ran off camera, Niven's recovered from a giggle with one of the Academy Awards' best lines ever: "Isn't is fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off his clothes and showing his shortcomings?" The whole thing was broadcast live on NBC.

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