10 Worst Acceptance Speeches

Kathy Griffin, 2007 Creative Arts Emmy Awards

Kathy Griffin's humor stems largely from the fact that she is proudly, unapologetically crude. After all, that's why she was receiving the Best Reality Program Emmy, for My Life on the D-List, at a ceremony that preceded the live televised show.

Photo Credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Image

Her remarks, however, sent religious groups into a tizzy and as a result, were never aired: "A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus. This award is my god now." Wrong time, wrong place.

Photo Credit:  Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage

Angelina Jolie, 2000 Academy Awards

Jolie's speech wasn't bad so much as it was creepy. Upon arriving at the podium to accept Best Supporting Actress for her (quite excellent) performance in Girl, Interrupted, Jolie proclaimed, "I'm so in love with my brother right now!" Given how she hung on him during her trot down the pre-show red carpet, people started getting ideas.

Photo Credit: Ke.Mazur/WireImage

Gwyneth Paltrow, 1999 Academy Awards

Actresses are dramatic by their very nature. We get this. That said, the sheer outpouring of emotion when Paltrow claimed the Best Actress statuette for Shakespeare in Love felt syrupy and overwrought even by the standards of daytime soaps.

Photo Credit:  Jim Smeal/WireImag

Over the course of 365 (!) words, Paltrow individually thanked every person she'd ever met, alive or dead. By the time she got around to thanking her grandfather ("you have created a beautiful family who loves you and loves each other more than anything"), the faces of audience members had long since frozen in a collective cringe.

Photo Credit: LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP/Getty Images

James Cameron, 1998 Academy Awards

The 1998 Oscars served as a coronation for Titanic, which claimed most of the night's major prizes. What wasn't expected was auteur Cameron's lack of grace upon accepting the Best Director and Best Picture trophies.

Photo Credit: Ron Galella/WireImage

First he called for a moment of silence to honor the victims of the disaster. Seconds later, he announced that he was "the king of the world!" and suggested that he'd consume a few cold ones later that evening. Classy.

Photo Credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

Christine Lahti, 1998 Golden Globes

When Lahti was announced as the winner of the Best Actress in a Drama (TV) globe, she didn't immediately make her way up to the stage to accept the bauble. That's because-as she informed viewers a minute or two later-she'd been using the bathroom when she heard her name announced. Happily, the question of whether or not Lahti had time to wash her hands on the way out was left unanswered.

Photo Credit: HAL GARB/AFP/Getty Images

Kanye West, 2009 MTV Video Music Awards

It's possible to screw up an acceptance speech even if you haven't won anything, as Kanye West proved. West took the stage during Taylor Swift's acceptance of an MTV moonman, complaining that the award should have gone to Beyoncé.

Photo Credit: Christopher Polk/Getty Images

Fiona Apple, 1997 MTV Video Music Awards

Not that anybody turns to MTV award shows for articulate musings on the artistic process, but Apple made even her fangirls wince upon receiving the Best New Artist Video for "Sleep to Dream."

Photo Credit: Terry McGinnis/WireImage

She proclaimed, with all the worldly resignation a 20-year-old can muster, that "the world is b*llsh*t" and that fans "shouldn't model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we're wearing and what we're saying and everything." After the speech, she was not, stunningly, offered a gig as a youth counselor.

Photo Credit: Terry McGinnis/WireImage

Marlon Brando, 1973 Academy Awards

Brando himself didn't bother to show up for his Oscar moment. In his stead, he sent Sacheen Littlefeather to read a statement about why he is refusing to accept his Best Actor award (for The Godfather).

Photo Credit: Archive Photos/Getty Images