Leading up to the Oscars, Sacha Baron Cohen’s whole will-he-attend-the-Oscars-or-has-he-been-banned, or-did-he-just-purposely-get-banned-so-he-could-make-this-video shtick was getting stale before the event even started. In the end, he showed up on the red carpets in character after all, making the whole back and forth beforehand seem like that much more of a publicity stunt. I mean, it was intended as a publicity stunt from start to finish, but still, there are limits to how far you can stretch it before everyone tunes you out.

So then Cohen, dressed as Admiral General Aladeen from The Dictator, pulled the stunt you see above. I watched 90 minutes of red carpet and the entire telecast and still managed to miss it. Long story short, Cohen had an urn with Kim Jong-Il’s picture on it, saying “it was his dream to be sprinkled on the red carpet, and Halle Berry’s chest again,” and then dumped the ashes on Seacrest, who says he wasn’t in on it.

“I definitely did not know that he was going to do that!” Seacrest, 37, said Monday on On Air with Ryan Seacrest. “He comes over, and I asked him a couple of questions, but . . . You know that feeling in your gut.”
His saving grace? The advice of his mom Connie to “always make sure to bring two jackets, because you never know what’s going to happen!” [USWeekly]

That is the whitest advice ever. I bring two jackets too, but I do it in case I have to help a pretty lady cross a puddle. Anyway, obviously they weren’t actually Kim Jong-Il’s ashes, they were probably just some stray dogs’. All in all, the bit turned out far better than anyone could’ve imagined. Who could argue with Ryan Seacrest getting dumped on? Classic comedy, fun for all ages. The only way it would’ve been better is if they could’ve somehow worked in Billy Bush getting hit in the crotch with a wiffle bat.