It’s Conan the Barbarian.
Conan O’Brien, 61, might be a prolific talk show host, comedian, and podcaster – but surprisingly, 2025 marks his first time hosting the Oscars.
In a playful opening, O’Brien was introduced as a “four-time Oscars viewer.”
On the stage, he was full of self-deprecating jokes and seemed relaxed as he goofed around.
“A Complete Unknown. A Real Pain. Nosferatu. These are just some of the names I was called on the red carpet….I think two were fair,” the comedian began.
O’Brien also didn’t waste time on commenting on the elephant in the room: “Emilia Perez” star Karla Sofia Gascon, 52, the first transgender woman to get a best actress nomination – before she fell from grace after her controversial social media posts resurfaced in January.
“‘Anora’ uses the f-word 479 times,” he began, referring to the nominated film, before adding, “that’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofia Gascon’s publicist.”
He added that the actress “is here tonight….And Karla, if you are gonna tweet about the Oscars, remember, my name is Jimmy Kimmel.”
As an Oscars host, O’Brien follows Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted in both 2023 and 2024 – as well as in 2018 and 2017 – Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes, who co-hosted together in 2022, two years in a row (2020 and 2021) when the ceremony had no host, and Chris Rock, who hosted in 2016.
O’Brien then took a jab at “Best Actor” nominee Timothée Chalamet, who was wearing a bright yellow suit.
“Timmy Chalamet is up for best actor tonight. Love that suit, you will not get hit on your bike tonight. Safe!” he teased.
O’Brien said that instead of playoff music, to give actors an incentive to shorten their acceptance speeches, he would either show John Lithgow in the audience looking not mad but disappointed, or he’d show a headshot from the beginning of their careers. He proceeded to display a headshot of “The Brutalist” star Guy Pearce with a mullet and joke, “I loved you in Guns N’Roses.”
He also displayed Chalamet’s “headshot” as a sonogram of a baby in a womb, mocking his youth.
O’Brien then said, “I did that to them so its only fair to do it to me,” as he showed a picture of himself as a child with buckteeth and a bowl cut, quipping that he was “38 years old” in it.
“Finally, for such a prestigious night, it’s important that everyone is properly dressed,” he said, as the camera cut to Adam Sandler sitting in the audience clad in basketball shorts, sneakers, and a blue hoodie.
“Nobody even thought about what I was wearing until you brought it up!” Sandler said in mock rage as he stormed out.
Getting serious for a moment, O’Brien also addressed the deadly LA wildfires, which took many celebrities’ homes, including his own. “The people of Los Angeles have been through a devastating ordeal, and this needs to be addressed,” he began.
“In moments such as this, any awards show can seem self indulgent and superfluous. Yes, we will honor many beautiful and talented A-list stars,” he said.
“But the Oscars shines a light on people you will never see – craftspeople, artisans, technicians, customers. Hardworking men and women behind the camera who have devoted their lives to making film.”
Lightening up, he added, “Even in the face of terrible wildfires and divisive politics, this seemingly absurd ritual is gonna be here….I will not, I’m leaving Hollywood to run a bed and breakfast in Orlando.”
O’Brien then broke out into a song mocking the Oscar hosts’ tendency to do time-wasting songs and comedy bits, singing, “I won’t waste time!”
During his song, he sang, “Now for no good reason, here’s the sandworm from Dune II playing chopsticks on the piano!” as someone in a Sandworm costume came out.
“Hey to check it out, someone who’s not even nominated, dancing Deadpool,” he added, as a dancer in costume came out during his “I won’t waste time” song.
In a February 27 interview with the New York Times, O’Brien admitted that he was excited but worried about the gig.
“It’s the thing I wake up and think about at night: What’s the best way to tackle this? How? In a way that makes me creatively happy?” he said.
“There will be things that don’t go the way I want them to go,” he added. “But stay open to the possibility that that’s a gift, and you can make something out of it.”
He also admitted that he’d never attended the ceremony before. “This was the only way I could get invited,” he joked.
O’Brien is best known for his late-night hosting career, which spanned more than two decades. Before that, he wrote for “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons.”
He said he spoke with Billy Crystal, who hosted the Oscars nine times between 1990 and 2012.
“The entertainment landscape has changed a lot. I told Billy Crystal: ‘You hit a note that I think you can’t hit anymore.’ Because when people tuned in to his Oscars, everyone had seen the movies he was parodying. It’s not the communal campfire that it maybe once was,” he told the outlet.
O’Brien still thinks the Oscars “has meaning” despite that.
“I don’t think of it as a thankless task — even if I just do it once, and no one’s interested in me doing it again, it will have been a meaningful experience for me,” he said. “My parents aren’t here to see it, but I know it would have been a huge deal to them.”
In Dec. 2024, both of O’Brien’s parents died within days of each other. He was also one of the many celebrities impacted by the deadly LA wildfires and told the Times he’s still living in a hotel.
“My one goal with the Oscars is, I would like to have fun onstage that night. I would like to enjoy it,” he said.
“Because I’m at a stage in my career where I don’t know if one thing leads to another anymore.”
