The 98th annual Academy Awards went down in Hollywood Sunday, with host Conan O’Brien kicking things off with a taped segment set to Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” which had him made up to look like Amy Madigan’s character in Weapons and dropping into Oscar-nominated films.
He opened his monologue by saying he was honored to be the “last human host of the Academy Awards,” before joking, “Last year when I hosted Los Angeles was on fire, but this year everything’s going great.”
Noting that security was tighter at the Oscars this year, he joked it was because of concerns over “attacks from both the opera and ballet communities,” a reference to Timothée Chalamet’s recent comments, adding “they’re just mad you left out jazz.”
There were also cracks about the Oscars getting political, joking there’s an alternate Oscars hosted by Kid Rock at Dave & Buster’s, as well as jokes about it being Netflix’s Ted Sarandos’ first time in a theater and several about the nominated films, including Hamnet and Bugonia sounding “like off-brand lunch meat.”
But it wasn’t all jokes, with Conan then getting serious about why the Oscars are important.
“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 added. “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.”
Finally he noted, “So let us celebrate not because we think all is well, but because we work and hope for better in the days ahead.”
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