Johnny Carson Comments on David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel Hosting the Oscars

The Oscar ceremony has had various hosts over the years.

A major one was Bob Hope, who may have seemed more like a TV star when he hosted the show in the 60s(he'd started out as a radio star in the 30s), but actually Hope was a MAJOR movie star in the 30s, the 40s(often alongside Bing Crosby for "Road to" movies), the 50's, and even much of the 60s(though his movies got really bad starting around 1966.)

For the 1969 ceremony for 1968 films (Oliver won Best Picture), Hope stepped aside in favor of these "rotating movie star hosts" (all in one evening):

Gregory Peck
Ingrid Bergman
Sidney Poitier
Jane Fonda
Frank Sinatra
Natalie Wood
Walter Matthau
Diahann Carroll
Tony Curtis
Rosalind Russell
Burt Lancaster

...not bad for the time.

Came the 70's, eventually Bob Hope was phased out and a VERY prominent late night host -- Johnny Carson of The Tonight Show -- was phased in for a number of shows. Movie people saw Carson as a star unto himself, and he showed the movie people his respect by dressing up in white tie and tails(all times? at least most times.) He was a very classy host whose jokes were written for him but who knew how to ad-lib, too. (He made big hay out of a sound winner named Alan Splet, all night long.)

Came the 90's, a Carson successor -- though famously not hosting The Tonight Show on NBC, but rather perched at CBS -- David Letterman hosted the 1995 ceremony for 1994 films.

It would seem that Letterman bombed somewhat. He never hosted again.

Johnny Carson was alive then, and a very good friend and mentor of Letterman , but Carson suggested that while HE hosted with due respect that "he was a guest in the movie people's realm" -- Letterman thought he was doing his late night act.

Worst(to Carson): Letterman did his "stupid dog tricks" routine on the Oscar stage. Carson commented, ""When I hosted the Oscars, I didn't do Carnac the Magnificent on stage." (That was a fortune teller bit that Carson did on his nightly show sometimes, known to Carson fans during his tenure.)

Johnny Carson, meet Jimmy Kimmel:

For when Kimmel read a mean tweet from Trump right near the end of the 2024 Oscars, it seems most reporters the next day(particularly political reporters) didn't know that Kimmel was doing HIS "Stupid Pet Tricks": "Celebrities Read Mean Tweets About Themselves."

On Kimmel's show, celebrities come on stage one by one and each one reads from a cell phone in their hand, out loud. Each celebrity reads a REALLY mean, insulting, sometimes disgusting tweet from some troll out there in Twitter/X land.

The gag stems from two sources: (1) The celebrity proves brave enough to read something horrible about themselves out loud("She's ugly," "He has no talent" -- and this REAL one "I want to pour diarrhea in his ear.") (2) The celebrity sometimes(but not often) insults the mean tweeter back, message being "I'm a big rich star, you are a nobody."

So Kimmel was reading a mean tweet about himself from a very famous foe and for the most part the audience laughed.

But he was still doing his TALK SHOW routine ("Celebrities Read Mean Tweets") at the Oscars. And he made the bit about himself. I believe that Johnny Carson would have had something to say about that.

By the way, though the movie crowd hardly loves Trump, I thought there was an embarrassing moment for "America's New Sweetheart," Margot Robbie, when the camera came on her after Kimmel read the tweet and she rather half-heartedly applauded as if saying to Kimmel "Hey, don't drag ME into your political bit, I'm here to be loved."

David Letterman never hosted the Oscars again. Does this spell curtains for Kimmel?

Nah.