Conan O’Brien returned to the Dolby Theatre on Sunday as the host of the 98th annual Academy Awards — a job that allowed him to poke fun at the current state of Hollywood and the world.
O’Brien, who hosted last year’s Oscars ceremony less than two months after devastating fires swept through Los Angeles, declared in his opening monologue: “Last year, when I hosted, Los Angeles was on fire. But this year, everything’s going great.” Alas, that sentiment proved to be tongue-in-cheek as next year, O’Brien said, the host will be a self-driving “Waymo in a tux.”
As long as the Oscars had a human host, however, O’Brien planned to make the best of it: His opening sketch saw him inserting himself into moments from the Best Picture nominees — and that included donning Oscar winner Amy Madigan’s wig from Weapons.
As the host also appeared this year in the film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You opposite Rose Byrne, he also launched into a musical sketch — featuring singer Josh Groban, a falcon, a crown and an anointment by the Pope — that imagined O’Brien taking home one of those golden trophies.
But O’Brien also took the opening moments of the show to share his earnest feelings about what the Academy Awards mean.
“Everyone watching around the world is all too aware that these are very chaotic, frightening times,” he said. “It’s at moments like these that I believe that the Oscars are particularly resonant.”
“Every film we salute is the product of thousands of people speaking different languages, working hard to make something of beauty,” he continued. “We pay tribute tonight, not to just film but to the ideals of global artistry, collaboration, patience, resilience and that rarest of qualities today, optimism.”
Here are some of the highlights from O’Brien’s second time hosting the Oscars.
O’Brien roasts this year’s Oscar contenders
During his opening montage, O’Brien delivered a string of sharp jokes about the year’s films and the film industry itself. Poking fun at some of the season’s titles, he quipped, “Between Hamnet and Bugonia it’s been a big year for movies that sound like off-brand lunch meat,” before adding, “At the beginning of Hamnet, a message comes on the screen explaining that the names Hamnet and Hamlet were used interchangeably. That’s when I knew I better buckle up.”
He also took aim at blockbuster storytelling, joking that F1 is “the story of a race car driver who finally wins after deciding to go faster.”
Turning to the industry, he noted, “Sinners director Ryan Coogler said he declined to become a voting member of the Academy because he doesn’t like judging his fellow artists’ work,” then addressed the crowd with, “But the rest of you pricks seem to love it.”
O’Brien teased Timothée Chalamet about his recent controversy
Earlier this month, Marty Supreme actor Chalamet got into hot water when he made a comment about people no longer caring about ballet and opera. O’Brien joked about security being tighter at the awards show this year due to the ire from both of those communities seeking revenge on Chalamet.
And that wasn’t the only major Chalamet reference O’Brien made during the ceremony: The host also introduced a new instrument in the orchestra called the “Chalamet bum drum” that looked just like Chalamet’s backside getting whacked with ping pong paddles — a nod to his role in Marty Supreme.
O’Brien takes a shot at Trump
President Trump recently stirred controversy when he announced he would rename the Kennedy Center the “Kennedy Trump Center.” In one of the few overtly political jokes of the night, O’Brien said, “We’re coming to you live from the Has A Small Penis Theater. Let’s see him put his name in front of that.”
O’Brien eases all our fears about the Oscars moving to YouTube
In 2029, the Oscars will move to YouTube, which O’Brien assured the Academy Awards audience will be totally chill. Of course, O’Brien’s monologue was immediately interrupted by a commercial for “tactical flashlights,” starring Jane Lynch — a reference to YouTube’s sometimes chaotic ads. The awards show was interrupted moments later by a second ad for a law firm — also starring Lynch! — which declared that anyone injured in a tactical flashlight incident may be entitled to compensation.
It wasn’t the first jab that O’Brien made at the age of streaming. The moment came after an earlier joke O’Brien made that pointed at Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, who he said was experiencing his very first theater experience. In a mocking voice, O’Brien added, “Why are they all together enjoying themselves? They should be home alone, where I can monetize it!”
O’Brien mocks phone-first filmmaking
O’Brien also took aim at the legions of people now watching all of their content on their phones by honoring the (fictional) production company Ventura Crossroads, whose logo just so happens to look like the word “Turds” in a vertical video format.
“Ventura Crossroads preserves only the most visually interesting parts of the frame, so now future audiences can enjoy reimagined classics like Two Angry Men,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien and Sterling K. Brown rehash plots
O’Brien was joined by Paradise star Brown for a segment in which they honored the new Hollywood tradition of really hammering home plot points — so that every distracted audience member can really understand movies. In a black-and-white scene from Casablanca, in which O’Brien played Rick and Brown portrayed piano player Sam, the two reminded one another about the time period (World War II, aka “the Hitler one”) and who Ilsa is (Rick’s long-lost love, who is now married, and whom Rick just realized he loved again, during World War II.)
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