Jimmy Kimmel feels the need for speed in a new Oscars 2023 promotional video. On Tuesday (February 14), the comedian published a four-minute teaser in which Jon Hamm and Charles Parnell from Top Gun: Maverick grudgingly entrust him with presenting the biggest night in Hollywood.
At the beginning of the video, Kimmel enters the Top Gun flight academy, where he sees a wall covered in photographs of past Oscars hosts, including Ellen DeGeneres, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin, Chris Rock, and nine-time host Billy “Marvelous” Crystal.
Kimmel meets with Hamm and Parnell, who proceed to provide him with a lengthy list of A-listers who turned down the hosting position before settling on him. This is reminiscent of the scene in Top Gun: Maverick where Tom Cruise discovers he’s been sent back to the academy as a teacher.
Kimmel states, “I must admit I wasn’t expecting to be invited to host again,” to which Hamm responds, “Let me be crystal clear: you were not my first choice. Or my second selection. Or my third, fourth, fifth, tenth, or eleventh preference.”
Parnell explains, “ABC has instructed us to select an unflappable host. And unflappable,” echoing last year’s event in which Will Smith smacked Chris Rock across the face for making a joke about his wife.
After the duo rejects Kimmel’s proposal to launch the three-hour celebration with a musical song, the talk show host proposes an other strategy for completing the task.
“This is a large audience of extremely anxious prominent people. “To break the ice, I would likely begin with something self-deprecating,” he says. “Joke about the fact that I’m wearing two pairs of Spanx, or perhaps something about the power of narrative. They adore it!”
Kimmel continues, “Then I’ll lead a standing ovation for an old person, and if I survive, there are only four or five hours left until we award Best Picture to, hopefully, the right film.”
The last time Jimmy Kimmel presented the Academy Awards was in 2017 – the year of envelope-gate, when La La Land was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner instead of Moonlight.
Crystal (or Double Admiral Crystal) enters the room after Hamm says they made a “terrible mistake” by employing Jimmy Kimmel Live! host Kimmel. Crystal has faith in the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host. Crystal states, despite his refusal to accept the hosting role himself, “I think he can do it.”
ABC will telecast the 95th Academy Awards on March 12 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
»New Promo: Jimmy Kimmel Must Be “Unslappable” to Host Oscars«