The Oscars hasn’t had a host since 2018. This year Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall grasped the nettle. After an opening performance from Beyoncé on a tennis court in Compton, Los Angeles, performing Be Alive from the nominated film King Richard, Sykes concluded the opening monologue by vowing: “For you people in Florida, we’re gonna have a gay night! Gay, gay, gay!” Florida has passed a bill which will prevent LGBTQ+ issues from being discussed in classrooms.
The trio also tackled Hollywood sexism, joking that three women had been hired to host “because it’s cheaper than hiring one man”. They then moved on to race, as Hall announced that she was “excited to be representing black women who are standing proud” – to which Schumer replied: “and I am celebrating unbearable white women who call the cops when you get a little too loud.”
Hall joked that she was “disappointed that Space Jam 2 didn’t get best special effects for the hairline they gave LeBron James.” James added that “Black Twitter is going to love that,” to which Schumer said “What’s black Twitter?” These jokes will be seized on by right-wingers who decry the Oscars as a showcase for the woke Hollywood elite, but they made the assembled A-listers laugh.
The trio also joked about the fact that the technical awards are no longer televised –close to the bone given that Dune had just won four awards. “It was a controversial and difficult decision but I think we’ve moved on,” said Hall, as the lights went off in the Dolby theatre.
The rest of the opening jokes were largely aimed at the nominated films. Schumer said of the inscrutable and slow-moving The Power of the Dog, “I’ve watched that film three times and I’m halfway through it.” Of King Richard, she pointed out “After years of Hollywood ignoring women, we finally got a movie about the incredible Williams sisters’ … dad.”
Don’t Look Up was zinged with the line: “I guess the Academy members don’t look up reviews”, before Schumer riffed on a familiar subject, saying that Leonardo DiCaprio was a climate activist “because he wants to leave a cleaner, greener world for his girlfriends.”
Schumer, who returned to the stage to do a short comedy monologue on her own, also teased screenwriter Aaron Sorkin for Being the Ricardos, or, as she put it, having “the innovation to make a movie about Lucille Ball without a line that’s funny. It’s like making a movie about Michael Jordan and showing the bus trips between games.”
While it wasn’t as savage a roast as Ricky Gervais used to embark on at the Golden Globes, the hosts managed to indicate that the Oscars are more inclusive – while still being funny.
