Conan O'Brien's 5 Best Jokes From His Oscars 2025 Opening Monologue
First-time host Conan O'Brien began the 97th Academy Awards with some much-needed levity given the tragedy surrounding Los Angeles and the movie industry over the last couple of months. While this is the first time O'Brien has hosted the Oscars, he has plenty of experience emceeing prestigious award shows. Over the last three decades, the 61-year-old has hosted the Primetime Emmys, the MTV Movie Awards, the White House Correspondents Dinner, and the NFL Honors, among other specials and ceremonies.
O'Brien's previous hosting gigs have come with critical acclaim, as he typically manages to find a nice balance between genuinely funny jokes at the expense of the attendees without crossing the line into being overly offensive. He toed that line again at the 97th Academy Awards, as the deadly wildfires that ravaged the Los Angeles area cast a pall over the 2025 awards season. The voting period was extended for the Oscars, and some changes were made to the event schedule, but O'Brien's comedic monologue was a welcome kickoff to the proceedings.
Follow along live with ScreenRant all night long at the Oscars 2025 Live Blog.
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5 Conan Takes A Shot At Himself
The Oscars Invoked The Titles Of Three Nominees For The Joke
Part of Conan O'Brien's charm is that he is the king of self-deprecation. One of Conan's best monologue jokes was in that vein, as O'Brien seemed to randomly list the names of three nominated films before revealing that it was the setup for a joke.
A Complete Unknown, A Real Pain, and Nosferatu...these are just some of the names I was called on the red carpet. I think two were fair.
What makes the joke so good is the secondary punchline. He makes fun of himself in three different ways, implying that he's unimportant among the mass of impressive names at the Oscars, comes off as an annoying comedian and little else, and that he's both tall and unattractive. Adding in that "two were fair" but not mentioning which two is what takes the joke to the next level.
4 Conan Skewers One Of The Year's Most-Nominated Films
He Cracked Wise About The Length Of An Epic Period Drama
Conan took plenty of shots at the nominees in his monologue, of course. One of the most succinct but perfectly-executed jokes related to the extreme length of Brady Corbet's epic period drama, The Brutalist. The sprawling story of a European immigrant's journey to capture the American Dream was brilliant, but required an intermission during most screenings. Conan did not let that length off the hook.
The Brutalist also received 10 nominations. I loved it, and didn't want it to end. Luckily, it didn't.
The Brutalist has a runtime of 215 minutes, making it one of the longest movies of the year. While there is plenty of love for the movie from an acting and filmmaking perspective, any movie pushing four hours in the modern movie industry is going to catch some heat.
3 Conan Eases Concerns About Conclave
The Comedian Acknowledged The History Of Oscar-Nominated Movies About The Catholic Church
As he rattled off one-liners about the various major movies up for awards, Conan took a shot at the history of award-winning movies related to the various scandals of the Catholic Church when he got to Conclave.
The movie Conclave is up for Best Picture tonight. If you haven't seen Conclave, its logline is "A movie about the Catholic Church...but don't worry."
Conan is referring to the fact that in recent years, Oscar-nominated films related to the Catholic Church tend to relate to the abuse, scandals, and cover-ups that have been prevalent within the church over the last two decades. Two of the most famous examples are the 2008 drama Doubt, starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the 2015 biographical drama Spotlight. Conclave deals with the drama surrounding the selection of the next Pope, and doesn't dig deep into anything darker or more nefarious.
2 Conan Addresses One Of The Ceremony's Most Controversial Topics
O'Brien Took A Shot At Karla Sofia Gascón's Controversial Tweets
Conan also addressed the controversial nature of some of the nominees at the Oscars during his monologue. He took a shot at Karla Sofia Gascón, the Spanish Emilia Pérez actress who has been in hot water over a number of controversial social media posts and accusations of hate-mongering.
Little fact for you, Anora uses the F-word 479 times. That's three more than the record set by Karla Sofia Gascón's publicist.
Conan noted that he was only having fun while acknowledging Gascón's presence at the show, but quickly followed up by reminding her that if she tweets about the show, that his name is Jimmy Kimmel. It's a funny jab at a fellow late-night comedian who hosted the Oscars last year.
1 Conan Hilariously Compares Himself To Antonio Banderas
The Oscars Host Gave A Nod To The Nomination-less Erotic Thriller Babygirl
Perhaps Conan's funniest joke of the monologue related to a movie not nominated at the Academy Awards, Babygirl, specifically the famously handsome and debonair actor Antonio Banderas, who starred in the movie. He also mixed some of his trademark self-deprecation into the inappropriate yet hysterical joke.
In the film Babygirl Antonio Banderas plays a man who doesn't know how to give his wife an orgasm. Banderas describes it as the most challenging role of his career...should have come to me man, should have come to me.
Conan O'Brien may have earned himself another chance at hosting the Oscars next year, given how well-received his performance was. His monologue was just a taste of the well-timed and clever humor that O'Brien brought to the entire show.
You can also check out the list of all winners at the 97th Academy Awards here.
