It was his first time as host and he knocked it out of the park.
Not in his wildest dreams could Jimmy Kimmel have imagined what would happen on what was his debut as Oscars host on Sunday night, but up until the moment that everyone was talking about, it was going quite swimmingly for him.
The opening monologue can be the making or breaking of an Oscars host and can be quite dangerous territory; taking the piss out of the stars in front of you is almost obligatory, but you want to avoid going too far and causing offence while you’re at it.
Kimmel seemed to get the balance right in his monologue; acknowledging that the US isn’t exactly a united place at the moment without going into a rant, throwing the odd compliment here and there, taking the piss without going too far and wrapping it up in well under ten minutes.
Matt Damon, Donald Trump, Mel Gibson, Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington all received a fairly mild tongue-lashing from the host, who will likely get the nod to do it again in future on the back of an accomplished performance.
My opening monologue from the 89th #Oscars… @TheAcademy @ABCNetwork pic.twitter.com/rXNU8aZfcd
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) February 27, 2017
He can hardly be blamed for this after all.
