95th Academy Awards: The best Oscars hosts, from Bob Hope to Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the Oscars for the third time. (Image source: Screen shot/Jimmy Kimmel Live)

Jimmy Kimmel—“unflappable, unslappable”—is all set to host the Oscars 2023. There will be self-deprecating jokes, grand tributes, witty repartee but no singing and dancing, and hopefully no real-life drama. Like every MC worth their punchlines, Kimmel (and writers at the Academy) are likely going to milk that Will Smith-Chris Rock incident till it’s dry. It’s why Kimmel’s been going to press saying he’s the first host who has needed to train in a special skill: martial arts.

This will be Jimmy Kimmel’s third time hosting the Oscars—which must mean he’s doing something right. For the 95 editions that the Academy Awards have been around, the Oscars host has held a prime position. In the early years, especially before the show came to be televised, it was the Academy’s president who held hosting duties. Over 60 people have hosted at the Oscars; and there have been host-less editions as well. Song-and-dance routines, jokes, comedy sketches and bits have been a part of Oscars hosting tradition, and many award shows have borrowed from this playbook—if not straight out copied with the goal to engineer some candid moments for the press.

But ever since a popular entertainer has been centrestage, their act has made, broken and defined their careers. Bob Hope, who began in 1940, would perhaps not be the globally-renowned legend had it not been for his long association with the Oscars. 2011’s Oscars are widely acknowledged as the worst show, and it put a quick end to James Franco and Anne Hathaway’s emceeing careers.

Below are some of the more memorable Oscars hosts who elevated what could be a boring industry night of self-congratulations and ego boosts with some much-needed roasting and skewering of these esteemed performers. The only thing that unites them? A joke about Jack Nicholson and his black-as-night sunglasses which he wears indoors, at night, at every Oscars ceremony.

Bob Hope

The British-born American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, and dancer hosted the Oscars 19 times—more than anyone else before or after him. Every sentence he spoke ended with a jibe, and his deadpan delivery was such a hit that Hope became synonymous with the Oscars for decades. Filmmakers to studio honchos, stars to senators—no one was safe on these nights of “agony and ecstasy”.

Billy Crystal

The other thing that defined the When Harry Met Sally star’s career was his Oscars emceeing—which he did for nine years. “It’s a wonderful night,” he’d break out into song, a medley of tracks introducing the night’s biggest nominees, a sweet affectation that came to be a hallmark of the Billy Crystal Oscars era.

Whoopi Goldberg

Each of the four times that she hosted the Oscars was a class act from the Sister Act star. The first woman and black person to host the Oscars, Goldberg’s hallmark was her dry wit and relentless takedown of the assembly, along with often dressing up in elaborate costumes and a little spoken-verse number each time, uttered in part-humour, part-exasperation with the world’s many frustrations of that year.

Ellen DeGeneres

The talk show star and comedian may have hosted the Oscars only twice—in 2007 and 2014—but at both editions, she riffed like a pro, speaking with and of the audience in her signature connect-the-dots tone of comedy. The 2014 Oscars will always be remembered for that iconic selfie she took, which then went viral on social media and then set a new tradition for the rest of time for all people who ever go on stage. But the opening monologue is a gold-mine of observations that somehow, in retrospect, really encapsulates that year in entertainment.

Johnny Carson

“America’s greatest natural resource” is how Carson was introduced at the Oscars in 1980. The late, great late night talk show host was at his acerbic best each of the five times he hosted the Oscars—swilling in a shot of global politics and journalism in the way only he could. He used the Oscars pulpit to explore that common ground between the insular world of Hollywood and the rest of the world.

Steve Martin

Among the greatest comedians America ever produced, and current star of the superb Only Murders in the Building, killed it for every one of the three times he hosted the Oscars. Watch him in a bit about movie stars, especially the ones that have the decency to not boast about sleeping with other movie stars, like him—it’s as funny today as it was 20 years ago.

Chris Rock

Before he got smacked by Will Smith for taking Jada Pinkett Smith’s name at the Oscars last year, Chris Rock was making jokes about Jada Smith’s activism in 2016, when she chose of boycott the Oscars because the nominees were predominantly White (#OscarsSoWhite campaign). Rock began by calling the Oscars the “White people’s choice awards”, and then went on to muse about who exactly was protesting the Oscars. Raw, potent and proof that anger and disagreement are best expressed in enduring savage takedowns.