Conan O’Brien’s Best Jokes in His Oscars 2025 Monologue

After a powerhouse musical performance from Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, first-time host Conan O’Brien kicked off Oscars 2025 with a high-energy salute to Hollywood’s biggest night. After emerging from Demi Moore’s spine, The Substance–style, he jokingly told a stationary audience to sit down. “I know what you’re thinking: Did Conan not have work done? Seriously, he looks his age,” he joked, before noting that, unglamorously enough, Hollywood’s biggest night “starts at four in the afternoon” for those on the West Coast.

“A Complete Unknown, A Real Pain, Nosferatu,” O’Brien said, naming off some of the top nominees at the Academy Awards: “These are just some of the names I was called on the red carpet. I think two were fair.” He then noted the heartfelt opening by Erivo and Grande at Los Angeles’s Dolby Theatre, quipping of Wicked, “It’s the perfect movie for anybody who’s ever finished watching The Wizard of Oz and thought, Sure, but where did all the minor characters go to college?”

Following Jimmy Kimmel’s two-year stint, O’Brien took over hosting duties after hosting the Emmys twice. He has also hosted the MTV Movie Awards and the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He was introduced as a “four-time Oscar viewer” by telecast announcer Nick Offerman.

There was no shortage of material in the 2025 Oscar nominations for O’Brien to riff upon—starting with the dampened Oscar hopes for Emilia Pérez, which led this year’s honorees with 13 nominations. The former late-night host acknowledged the palpable awkwardness surrounding best-actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón and her scandalous past tweets. “Karla Sofía Gascón is here tonight,” he began, to applause from the crowd, and a shot of the actress with raised prayer hands. “Karla, if you are going to tweet about the Oscars,” said O’Brien, “remember: My name is Jimmy Kimmel.” He used another best-picture nominee to make another joke: “Anora uses the F-word 479 times. That’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofía Gascón’s publicist.”

Other controversies among this year’s best-picture nominees gave O’Brien ammunition as well. There was the apply of generative AI in 10-time-nominated epic The Brutalist: “We did not use AI to make this show. No AI. We would never do that. We use child labor,” cracked O’Brien. “Hey, they’re still people.” Discomfort with Conclave among religious circles: “If you haven’t seen Conclave, its logline is ‘A movie about the Catholic Church, but don’t worry.’” The lovable Gen Z antics of best-actor nominee Timothée Chalamet gave O’Brien some of his best material. “I love that suit,” O’Brien said of Chalamet’s butter-colored Givenchy. “You will not get hit on your bike tonight.” The host then added, “Bob Dylan wanted to be here tonight, but not that badly.”

Elsewhere in his opening remarks, O’Brien poked fun at Babygirl, a movie that was not nominated, noting that Antonio Banderas plays the husband of Nicole Kidman, “a man who doesn’t know how to give his wife an orgasm.” According to Conan, this was probably the suave performer’s “most challenging role of his career. Should’ve come to me, man.”

O’Brien also took aim at Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos, whose company recently seized artistic control of the James Bond franchise, by including a bit where Bezos arrived to the Oscars 2025 in one of his company’s packages—before getting unceremoniously thrown onto the red carpet, and then later stolen before he could make it inside the ceremony.

Before any of the 2025 Oscar winners could be announced, O’Brien took a moment to acknowledge the “devastating ordeal” inflicted by the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year. “Any awards show can seem self-indulgent and superfluous” under these circumstances, O’Brien began, before shouting out the unsung “men and women behind the camera who have devoted their lives to making film” as a link to a website helping fire victims flashed onscreen. “Through trauma and joy, this seemingly absurd ritual is gonna be here,” O’Brien continued. “The magic, the madness, the grandeur, and the joy of film worldwide is gonna be with us forever.”

Ahead of the 2025 Oscars, O’Brien said that there would “be political jokes here and there…. But if it’s a screed, I’m doing a disservice to everybody. I’m actually doing a disservice to the people who might agree with the screed, in my opinion,” he told The New York Times. “However anyone voted should not be a prerequisite for whether you enjoy the show. I feel very strongly about that.”

O’Brien has also shared his love for a few of the nominated films mentioned in his monologue, including A Complete Unknown, Anora, and Conclave. “I’ve seen all the movies and I saw real merit in a lot of them,” he said. “And then I’ll be quiet about the ones that I wasn’t as crazy about, because who cares?” Tell that to Emilia Pérez.

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