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 year as host. “Next year it’s going to be a Waymo in a tux.”
O’Brien warned the audience that security would be high.
“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 giggling Chalamet, the best actor nominee whose comments on the art forms during the Oscars run-up became fodder for cultural discourse.
O’Brien also 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!”
In another operatic moment, singer Josh Groban, in knightly garb, serenaded O’Brien in a fantasy sequence where the host imagined winning an Oscar for his outstanding monologue.
“He did this himself, and he’s grateful to none,” Groban sang to music from “Zadok the Priest,” a 1727 coronation anthem by George Frideric Handel.
The prerecorded 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 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 getting raves in his 2025 hosting debut, 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 may have given the Academy Awards some stability in the hosting spot after much uncertainty about the often-thankless role, including a three-year stretch from 2019-2021 with no host. ABC convinced Jimmy Kimmel, the face 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.
Modern tech and slang were common themes. There was a fake ad for an app that uses AI to reduce films to their phone-screen essentials. And Conan emphasized his age and lack of cool as he rattled off Gen-Z and Generation Alpha slang, saying he was “hostmaxxing the Oscars” and “trying to rizz up the younger demographic by going brain-rot mode.”
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