THE FIRST Academy Awards, in May 1929, was a more muted affair than it is today. Back then only 270 people attended the event, which took the form of a private meal at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood; by contrast, 2,500 film-industry folk are expected at the Dolby Theatre on March 27th for a televised gala. In 1929 the inaugural winners had already been formally announced: Douglas Fairbanks, star of “Robin Hood” and “The Mark of Zorro” and the Academy’s first president, reeled off the recipients in 15 minutes. Over time, an air of mystery has been injected, advertising breaks have been incorporated and the running time has swelled to more than three hours.

As the event gained prestige and a global audience, the role of the host became more significant. In the weeks and months leading up to the Oscars, bookmakers and pundits speculate on who will take to the stage. What may seem a straightforward job—a monologue, a few quips or sketches, the announcement of a winner or two—is in fact a risky gig. At this famous event, why have so few entertainers managed to actually entertain?

The Academy Awards is the glitziest office party on the planet, a chance for American show business to celebrate its achievements while poking fun at itself. Many hosts struggle to find the right tone. Chevy Chase misjudged it in 1988 by opening with “Good evening, Hollywood phonies!” Had he followed up that salvo with more explosive material, Mr Chase would at least have been consistent. Unfortunately, due to a writers’ strike, his script was high on snark but low on laughs.

The best compères—including Billy Crystal, Bob Hope and Whoopi Goldberg—have all been skilled comedians as well as actors. They have mastered the art of the stand-up routine as well as the varying moods the ceremony requires. (At one iteration Ms Goldberg had to acknowledge the genius of both “Schindler’s List” and “Mrs Doubtfire”.) Mr Crystal, Hope and Ms Goldberg were all accepted members of Hollywood royalty, meaning the audience was more willing to tolerate quips at its expense. But when David Letterman, a smart mouth from the world of television, sent up the attendees, it came across as condescending. Other talk-show imports such as Jon Stewart and Ellen DeGeneres (pictured) took two ceremonies to get the balance right.

Hosts must also be able to think on their feet, as live broadcasts rarely go to plan. In 1959 Jerry Lewis was left in the lurch when the ceremony ended ahead of schedule; he tried to improvise for 20 minutes, an effort which was exhausting for performer and viewer alike. David Niven, however, showed off his quick wit in 1974 when a naked man ran across the stage. “Isn’t it fascinating,” Niven said, “to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?”

The Academy has often tried to mitigate the risk of a lacklustre host by dividing the responsibility among several performers. Often these groupings seem to be a random assortment of willing Hollywood types, as when Walter Matthau, Liza Minnelli, Dudley Moore and Richard Pryor worked together in 1983. Alec Baldwin detracted from, rather than enhanced, Steve Martin’s comic timing in 2010; Anne Hathaway no doubt regrets collaborating with James Franco in 2011. Yet sometimes a team can be greater than the sum of its parts, as in the case in 1974 of Niven, John Huston, Burt Reynolds and Diana Ross. This year, for the first time, three women will share emcee duties. Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes make for a promising prospect, as each is a talented performer and social commentator. (Ms Schumer’s “Last F**kable Day” sketch, in which she lampooned Hollywood’s ageism and sexism, would be a fitting addition to proceedings.)

Part of the reason the role is so challenging is the format of the Oscars itself. At the beginning the crowd is excited and exuberant and primed for a comic monologue; after a few tedious hours without food, they are less amenable to gibes. For every winner of a statuette, there are several losers (plus their family and friends). By the time Best Picture is presented at the evening’s close, the rancour and disappointment—not to mention the desire to hit the bar—are palpable. The acting categories, ostensibly the most esteemed, are rushed through.

This year the ceremony will start earlier, and run for no longer than three hours on TV, in an attempt to reverse the awards’ ratings decline. Those are welcome reforms, if not particularly bold ones. The Oscars will be a tough challenge for the hosts, as spectators are reeling from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As well as providing laughs and some much-needed escapism, Ms Hall, Ms Schumer and Ms Sykes will seek to persuade viewers of cinema’s relevance in a tense and divided world.■

See also
And the winner is…who cares? (Apr 2021)
The Academy shows how far it has come since #OscarsSoWhite (Apr 2021)
The best films of 2021 (Dec 2021)