LOS ANGELES (AP) — Conan O’Brien played on his famous red hair and pale skin for an Aunt Gladys opening at the Oscars and took shots at artificial intelligence's creep through Hollywood, the Oscars' move to YouTube and Timothée Chalamet’s takes on the fine arts.
“I am Conan O’Brien and I am honored to be the last human host of the Academy Awards,” O’Brien said after taking the stage for the ABC telecast at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday night
for his second time hosting and the 98th edition of the ceremony. “Next year it’s going to be a Waymo in a tux.”
O'Brien warned the audience that security would be high at this year's Oscars.
“I hear there are concerns about attacks from both the opera and ballet communities,” the host said, getting a big laugh as the camera cut to a laughing Chalamet, the best actor nominee whose comments on the two art forms during the run-up to the show became fodder for the cultural discourse.
Later in the show in a bit that fell flat, he introduced in the orchestra a percussionist playing a “Chalamet bum drum,” a pair of fake bare buttocks played with table tennis paddles.
He then took aim at Netflix chief Ted Sarandos, who is annually a major figure in Hollywood but this year got special attention as his company nearly bought Warner Bros., the studio behind the night's biggest nominees, before backing out.
“It’s his first time in a theater!” O'Brien said, then took on a mock Sarandos voice. “What are they all doing enjoying themselves?!" he shouted. "They should be home where I can monetize it!”
The pre-recorded opening bit was maybe to be expected given how often O'Brien mocks his own hair and pallor, but still had surprising moments.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit much?" O'Brien could be heard saying to a stylist before the reveal.
He wore Amy Madigan’s caked-on Aunt Gladys makeup and bright red wig from “Weapons,” and it showed him being chased by angry kids just as she was in the role from the prestige horror film that won her best supporting actress just a few minutes later.
Gladys-Conan was then folded into clips from other major nominees. He was animated into “KPop Demon Hunters,” played table tennis against Chalamet in “Marty Supreme” and ran across the Shakesperean stage in “Hamnet.”
After winning reviews in his hosting debut last year, O'Brien, the 62-year-old onetime writer for “Saturday Night Live" and “The Simpsons,” former longtime talk show host, and professional podcaster, was rehired almost immediately.
He had nearly a year to prepare this time, and got to do it in considerably more comfort. Last year, O'Brien was among the people displaced by the Los Angeles-area wildfires.
“This year I got to wake up in my room," he said earlier in the week.
O'Brien may have given the Academy Awards telecast some stability in the hosting spot after much uncertainty about the role that can often be thankless, including a three-year stretch from 2019-2021 with no host at all. ABC convinced Jimmy Kimmel, the face of the entertainment side of the network, to host four times, something that's unlikely to happen again with the Oscars moving to YouTube in 2029.
“Some people are worried this is going to change how the Oscars are viewed,” O'Brien said Sunday after the first award was handed out, “but I’ve been assured ...” he was then cut off by a wildly intrusive YouTube-style ad featuring actor Jane Lynch pitching a tactical flashlight.
The bit got a big laugh from the room, as did most of his monologue.
