Jimmy Kimmel delivers the opening monologue of the 96th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
The 96th Annual Academy Awards caused a bit of a stir before the ceremony even started because of WHEN they started: six minutes past the scheduled 6 p.m. Central Time, with a comfortable and confident Jimmy Kimmel handling host duties for the fourth time. Some in the audience stood to greet Kimmel, who ad-libbed, “Thank you for that partial standing ovation” and noted, “We’re already five minutes over and I am not joking.”
It was a tad ironic that Kimmel joked about the long running time for so many movies in a solid if hit-and-miss monologue that stretched past 15 minutes. Heavy on inside-baseball references and jokes, it ended on a strong note, with Kimmel bringing out dozens of behind-the-scenes crew members to thank them for refusing to cross picket lines during last year’s strikes. Nice to see the stars rising as one to thank all the union craftspeople whose names you see rolling on the screen after the movie is over!
The opening montage featured a gag reminiscent of Billy Crystal’s stints as host, with Kimmel edited into the park bench scene in “Barbie.” When Margot Robbie’s living doll said, “You’re so beautiful,” Kimmel replied, “I know, I was just thinking that. I haven’t eaten in three weeks. I’m so hungry. I have to go host the Oscars.”
A dig at “Madame Web” met with a tepid response. A visual gag involving Messi the dog from “Anatomy of a Fall” worked. Some wisecracks about Robert Downey Jr.’s past problems were helped because Downey played along from the audience. One of the best jokes to land: “Emma [Stone] played an adult woman with the brain of a child, like the lady who gave the rebuttal to the State of the Union on Thursday.” Zing!
Kimmel also noted that “48 years ago, Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster were nominated for ‘Taxi Driver,’ and they are both nominated again tonight. 1976 was the year. In 1975, Jodie Foster was young enough to be Robert De Niro’s daughter. Now, she’s 20 years too old to be his girlfriend.” Cut to shots of De Niro gamely laughing, and Foster wearing an expression that said, “He’s not wrong.”