Last year was great for movies, and there were a great number released worthy of awards and recognition... and yet, my most anticipated aspect of the 2025 Oscars has been excitement for Conan O'Brien. I have been a fan of his work for decades, and being the host of the Academy Awards is a terrific gig for him. That in mind, it was not a surprise at all that I very much enjoyed his monologue to open the event... but I definitely was surprised that Adam Sandler managed to upstage him and steal the show.
After a terrific recorded intro parodying The Substance (CinemaBlend's favorite film of 2024), Conan O'Brien began the Oscars with some sharp material poking fun an nominees and nominated titles – joking that nobody knows what Dune: Part Two is about and that a record for most F-bombs would have been set by Anora if not for those screamed by Karla Sofía Gascón's publicist. But the set really piqued when the host made a point about the Academy Awards being a classy affair with a very strict dress code. He then pointed directly ay Adam Sandler in the audience, who was dressed in a blue sweatshirt and basketball shorts:
O'Brien and Sandler then proceeded to get in a fake fight – with the latter claiming that nobody cared about his outfit prior to him getting the spotlight shined on him. This "conflict" then reached it's conclusion with Sandler storming out of the auditorium and telling everyone that they can meet up with him later for a midnight pickup basketball game.
I doubt he will, but I am keeping fingers crossed that Adam Sandler lives up to his promise and shows up for a game of hoops in the middle of the night in Los Angeles once all of the Oscars parties are done.
It's always great to see Adam Sandler get stirred into a lather (it has been comedy gold since the 1990s), but there were a number of wonderful highlights from the Oscars opener with energy that any fans of classic Conan bits should recognize. For example, it was amazing to see him get John Lithgow in on a joke: if award recipients go long in their acceptance speeches, they won't get played off the stage by music, but instead will earn the extreme disappointment of the Conclave star:
Also very enjoyable was Conan's threat of exposing early headshots that stars in the audience might not want to be publicized. He made a point of backing up his threat by making a Guns n' Roses joke at Guy Pearce's expense:
That being said, his shot at Zoe Sandaña did not quite work. While the host's goal was to try and make the Emilia Perez star feel silly, he instead just proved that she hasn't aged in decades:
Hopefully the rest of the Academy Awards broadcast will be just as fun as how it began, and be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend throughout the night for all of our coverage of the event. As I write this, the show is still airing, and you can watch the Oscars on ABC and stream it through various online services.
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