When Sean Penn announced that the Best Picture Award would go to Birdman he lead into the announcement with a racial joke. “Who gave this son of a b*tch a green card?” asked Penn in reference to the film's director, Mexican writer/director/producer Alejandro G. Inarritu. 

Twitter immediately erupted with outrage about the joke, but not everyone found it offensive. 

When Inarritu was asked about the comment backstage, he said, “I found it hilarious.”

“Sean and I had that kind of brutal relationship where only true friendship can survive," he explained. "When I was directing him in '21 Grams,' he was always making jokes … I made a lot of very tough jokes (to him) that I will not tell you.”

“I didn’t find it offensive," he reiterated. "I thought it was very funny.”