It's an oft-speculated industry secret among Hollywood's endless award galas: with organisers eager to entice top celebrities to their shows, sometimes stars will get a prize just for turning up.
Comedian Aziz Ansari has hilariously ripped the veil off that common practice, with a brutally honest awards show acceptance speech that viewers have described as the "best ever".
The Master of None star was accepting the Charlie Chaplin award for excellence in comedy at the Britannia Awards - a ceremony the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) hold in Los Angeles - when he pivoted away from the usual acceptance speech niceties.
"This is a tremendous honour," he told the crowd. "One thing I hate about honours, though, is you can't accept them from home.
"I tried, they said it was not possible," he joked as onlookers, including director Ava DuVernay and actor Dick Van Dyke, giggled uncomfortably.
"I was in London, and I had to fly to LA from London to accept a f---ing British award! That is not cool," he continued, railing against the irony.
"I met this lovely woman there, we were having a great time in London drinking flat whites and eating shepherd's pie, riding the tube... And then who comes in and ruins my amazing British experience? The f---ing BAFTAs!"
He said his request to accept the prize via a video message was denied by organisers, who told him actor John Lithgow would be attending to accept his own prize, too.
"Who cares! He probably hates his family and he's looking for an excuse to leave the house!" Ansari yelled, as the auditorium cameras cut to a laughing Lithgow.
After railing against the pomp and ceremony of awards shows for a further two minutes, including the "f---ing awful awards show food" and the "awkward" tribute reel that plays before the award's handed over, he tried to salvage the mood.
"All that stuff is just jokes," he said soberly, as the crowd burst into cheers. "This is really a very nice... thing."
The speech drew quick praise online, with viewers describing it as "spectacular" and "brilliant".
In March, a German comedy duo similarly exposed the way awards shows often bend the rules to attract big name talent.
In the wake of the Oscars' La La Land gaffe, they hired a Ryan Gosling impersonator to attend Berlin's Goldene Kamera awards to accept the prize for best international film.
The impersonator, a 27-year-old cook from Munich, made it onstage and even mumbled an acceptance speech to an audience which included Nicole Kidman and Jane Fonda, before organisers uncovered the prank and demanded the prize be returned.
Here's @azizansari! Tonight he's receiving the Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy #Britannias pic.twitter.com/3vRzAVktRm??? BAFTA Los Angeles (@BAFTALA) October 28, 2017
