Robert De Niro [Source: ENews]

It happens.

Robert De Niro’s reaction was no Angela-Bassett-at-the-Oscars or anything, but his ears definitely perked up when he heard his first name announced as the winner of the 2024 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (by Bassett, incidentally, as last year’s Globe winner for supporting actress). A second later, however, it was Robert Downey Jr. making his way to the stage, but such are the risks of being an actor named Robert who starred in one of the most acclaimed films of the year.

Downey, incidentally, won for his turn as the nefariously motivated Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, while De Niro was nominated for his performance as the nefariously motivated William King Hale in Killers of the Flower Moon, both real people portrayed in a three-hour film ripped from a gripping nonfiction bestseller.

De Niro—who won his sole Globe out of 10 nominations in 1981, best actor for Raging Bull, and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in 2011—was, however, the target of one of host Jo Koy’s most risqué zingers in his monologue, the comedian quipping about the two-time Oscar winner, “Your last performance has got to be your greatest performance ever. How’d you get her pregnant at 80?”

The star, while 80 now, was 79 when his seventh child was born, but who’s counting? (And cue the mob-beating-related memes that started to file in on the site formerly known as Twitter…)

Downey was accepting his third Golden Globe, though he self-deprecatingly called it his “most improved player” honor rather than admit it was a well-deserved achievement that just may precede his first-ever Oscar win.

Noting how he had received rave reviews for his turn as an “unrecognizably subtle Lewis Strauss,” Downey added, “to my fellow nominees, let’s not pretend this is a compliment.”

And for the record, De Niro was smiling along with the rest of the amused crowd. (He and girlfriend Tiffany Chen also laughed heartily at Koy’s joke, too, the busy couple obviously in a good mood.)