Let's revisit the "explosion of excrement" that was David Letterman hosting the 1995 Oscars
Film Features Push The Envelope
Uma, Oprah, oh no.
David Letterman was a late-night juggernaut when he was asked to host the 1995 Academy Awards. The former Late Night host was a ratings success with his two-year old Late Show at CBS routinely besting Jay Leno, who had taken the gig many (including Letterman) thought he would gotten after Johnny Carson retired in 1992. Still, Letterman was nervous. “I started to get scared realizing, ‘Maybe I don’t belong here,’” he told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year of preparing for the gig, a night he described as an “explosion of excrement.”
Letterman’s performance is most remembered for the moment he “introduced” Oprah Winfrey to Uma Thurman (and Keanu Reeves). The bit that fell flat on arrival, but the host continued to call back the bit throughout the evening—a decision Letterman doesn’t recall making in the moment. “Well, see, now this is interesting, because I had forgotten the subsequent references. Did I do it continually?” he asked THR’s Scott Fienberg. “I was trying to save myself. ‘If you have an extra life raft, throw one to me!’ That’s what I was trying for. But I had forgotten that—I thought it was just one and out. It must have been pure survival instinct.”
Letterman may not remember the details of the evening, but The A.V. Club’s managing editor Erik Adams certainly does—and he joins editor-in-chief Patrick Gomez on today’s episode of The A.V. Club’s podcast Push The Envelope to discuss the entire performance. “I don’t think I had enough of a context to understand what was successful and what was unsuccessful in terms of the Oscars stage,” Adams says of being 10 when the ceremony aired. “I thought it was hilarious.”
Above, you can listen to the whole episode of Push The Envelope, which includes a discussion about how the ’95 Oscars pitted Baby Boomers against Gen X, as well as an interview with Tom Green. And here’s a brief excerpt of the Letterman conversation.
ERIK ADAMS: It doesn’t help that the joke wasn’t something that was written far in advance. That was something that his longtime producer, Rob Burnett, just kind of pitched when they were almost going to air. And for a production of this scale, there’s a certain amount of planning and preparation that has to go into it—and it is absolutely devastating to any element of improvization that a performer wants to introduce into it.
PATRICK GOMEZ: [He’s said] there just wasn’t enough preparation there for him to even know where they were seated in the audience. So, you know, he was trying to find them, and that was stressing him out. There was a lot going on. That just gives me anxiety, just thinking about it.
EA: It it plugs into a very basic, primordial kind of sense of humor, which I think is pretty frequently underlining these types of Letterman bits where he’s just amused by the way that certain sounds and words work. There’s there’s a reference to hakuna matata in that cab driver . I can kind of see being like having the same roots as the Uma, Oprah, Keanu bit.
EA: It’s just this interesting testament to what you can and cannot take the piss out. Letterman is the ultimate at deflating showbiz puffery, and he couldn’t do it on show business’ biggest night.
PG: It is interesting to to look at the trajectory of the ratings…. Because if you ask him, he says that he doesn’t think it had anything to do with it, but after that point, it started to become the era in which Leno kind of overtook things in the ratings. But by solidifying that [Uma-Oprah] moment in our brains, I think Letterman goes down as one of the most memorable Oscar hosts. So at least there’s that.
To hear the entire conversation, subscribe to Push The Envelope wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re a fan, remember to rate, comment, and subscribe to get the episodes as soon as they’re live.
New episodes of Push The Envelope are released every Thursday.
102 Comments
I had a film professor in undergrad who would dock one’s grade on an assignment if they ever used the word “interesting.” It’s a valid point – use of that word is a cover for an inability to find something that is actually interesting to say.
I would have gone out of my way to quote film critics using the word “interesting.”
That was always my Mom’s adjective for anything she found unusual or just didn’t get. “Oh, it was interesting.” “Well, that was interesting.” It was more a qualification than a criticism.
The internet has made writers out of people who don’t have much to say or don’t know how to say it. “Lacking” is my pet peeve (lacking what?!), and I see it in freakin’ headlines.
“Clunky” is mine. All of these words (and others I can’t think of at the moment) are used as lazy shorthand for “writers”.
Mine is “I’m still processing”. Maybe wait until you’ve finished processing.
No, it’s just like, different.
How many stories can you tell about the internet? But also how many stories can you pull out of hanging around courts and cop shops on the crime beat?I think the real lesson learned from internet journalism is that everyone expects a Sunday edition seven days a week.
“Interesting” is my go-to answer when I really don’t care at all about what someone is telling me.I’ve said it a lot in the last 7 months.
I like “strongly”.
Love,
Donald
I’ll never forget the night my dad called the dinner my mom made “interesting.”I think he still has a shard of plate lodged in his cheekbone.
Your point is compelling.
Would have made it hard to write a paper about Arte Johnson.
That’s an — interesting take on it.I always figure it’s a Very Midwestern way to say, “I didn’t like it, but maybe someone else will…?”
I’ll have to dock you two points for that.
So not a fan of Bugs Bunny were they? lol
How did you get here before I did with this bit, VideoPgh?Well-played, Old Sport!
In the Northern Midwest where I was born, we don’t say “Interesting” — we say “Different”.
Oh, yah! That’s different….
High School Me, Five Minutes Into the Broadcast: What’s up with these idiots in the audience? They just don’t get why this is so funny!High School Me, Ten Minutes Into the Broadcast: Maybe I need to re-think this…
Honestly, no one has done a very good job since Carson who was admittedly on autopilot himself but smooth, assured and always pitch perfect deadpan.
True.
Billy Crystal had a good formula down for a while.
Steve Martin too.
Billy Crystal was great for a while. Every bit as good as Carson, and with more range.
Bill Crystal has the kind of comedy that didn’t age well, though it slayed at The Oscars when he was hosting.
So did Whoopi!
I was personally partial to both Jon Stewart (well, the second time, at least) and Chris Rock, though I might be in the minority for both.
Other than them trying as hard as possible to avoid using white dudes (for good reason), I don’t know why they don’t just get Stephen Colbert to host, or even just go the most obvious route possible and ask Tom Hanks.
That great bit where he said (speaking about the next presenters, Luke and Owen Wilson) “I want to introduce to you two talented brothers. Which, if you think about it, describes the Baldwins.” It got this great half laugh, half uuuunnnh, that was a little too mean but you can tell that I still think that it was funny response. I was in the just laughing half.
That’s because Carson’s brand of polite mockery just always worked. Letterman’s more abrasive take never did, and Leno just feels like he’s pandering….
Chris Rock had a real good-natured joke about Jude Law being in every single movie that year. Then Sean Penn had to get all serious and dedicated and kill the joke later that night.
I hated him. Just couldn’t help it. Everything had to be a freakin’ dirty joke. Letterman eventually resorted to that kind of humor also.
I hoped, not that white guys were underrepresented, to have Robert Osbourne host just once since we started the current stretch where no one wants to host anymore, but we lost him.
Whoopi seemed to do a good job, at least that’s how it played out over this side of the Atlantic.
AKA the day a wryly hilarious man lost his funny for 3 hours and 39 minutes. It was reported that he regained it shortly thereafter but sources couldn’t be reached for comment.
I actually enjoyed Letterman as the host.
I’m living for the day when Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Lady Gaga attend the same awards event so the host can recreate the Uma-Oprah bit with “Gugu. Gaga. Gaga. Gugu”…
Jesus can you imagine the Twitter response? As I was reading this, I found myself wondering what would happen if you pulled the Uma/Oprah joke today. Would people be offended? People flipped out when Jimmy Kimmel suggested that Mahershala Ali’s first name was confusing to pronounce. (I understand why — just saying these “your name is funny” jokes felt pretty innocuous and dumb when Dave did ‘em, but they don’t play very well today.)
Mangling someone’s name seems innocuous, but feels contemptous when it’s done to somebody being honored, especially when the person being honored isn’t a White Protestant.
It’s like, “Fucking ask somebody to tell you and write it down phonetically!”
Right. Absolutely. Put the phonetic spelling in the damn teleprompter if you have to.
Maybe I’m biased and being generous to Dave but I don’t think it’s entirely the same as saying “your name is funny” in the way Kimmel meant. Kimmel’s meaning, IMO, was “I just can’t pronounce these dang foreigner names” which is dumb because that has nothing to do with the name and everything to do with the person trying to pronounce it. Millions of people have no problem pronouncing Mahershala, Satyajit, Wojciehowicz, or Tatsuhisa. Dave, I think, was just fascinated by the “primordial-ness” of the Uma, Oprah and Keanu, probably mostly because of the O vowel sounds. As I’m typing this I’m realizing it’s similar to Kimmel’s in taking an ethnocentric position (“these foreign names sound funny yet interesting”) but maybe it’s still not as bad. Kimmel’s joke assumes everyone will agree Mahershala is difficult to pronounce which is ridiculous since Muslims watch Kimmel. Letterman’s joke assumes everyone will agree with his idiosyncratic observation of those sounds put together to form a name which is just bad comedy.
I agree completely, and I had the same moment of confusion you did when going, “Maybe the open vowel sounds sort of ARE cultural signifiers.” I could just imagine the hot-take “discourse” if it happened today. And Kimmel’s joke was hacky and culturally stupid, although I can imagine him saying “I was really just trying to speak for a lot of people who see that name and realize the limits of their own cultural understanding, not trying to say the name itself was bad.” Again, a very cheap joke, and I don’t mean to defend him. Not sure it’s a “cancellable” offense, but something we can rightly consign to the trashcan of hack culturally insensitive jokes.
It’s about as hacky and culturally stupid as you can get. The joke could possibly be “the oldest joke in the world.”
Well maybe not the oldest but
definitely dating back to the first time two distinct ethnic groups met each
other. It’s a joke that says “we are us, right? And they are them.” That is was aimed at a Muslim makes it a 21 century joke but no doubt American comedians were making the same jokes about Italians in the 1890s or whatever. There’s probably a variant in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
With special musical guest, Kajagoogoo!
Literally every time I see Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s name I start singing the name in my head like Ol Dirty Bastard’s “Oooh baby I like it raw… ooh baby I like it raaaaw!” I don’t actually want to know how its pronounced because that would ruin my brain’s “Goo goo ma-batha raaaaw!”
Would you like to buy a monkey?
Norm Macdonald as Oscars host. I would watch the shit outta that.
Norm hosted the Canadian Screen Awards 4 or 5 years ago. He was really good.
You got any gum?
You’re not dealin’ with a chimp.
It’s a classic!
He did name-check “Cabin Boy” more than once during that broadcast, if memory recalls. “Cabin Boy” should have gotten Best Picture that year, damn it all.
It’s… really not that bad? The reputation certainly precedes any actual, offensive folly. There was even a truly great zinger when Letterman referred to the nominated film Eat Drink Man Woman as how Schwarzenegger asked Maria Shriver on a date.
I just feel this is before the public could have that much opinion on matters, what tabloids said about celebrities was the truth.
Damn, I posted that too, should have checked. I just think of that line still and laugh out loud.
Yes! That’s the one joke I remember besides the awful “Uma, Oprah” bit, but it was a good one. You just have to imagine Arnold saying it.
25+ years and that one liner is still stuck in my head so it’s worthwhile for that.
He roasted the Academy for snubbing Hoop Dreams twice so as far as I’m concerned it’s a triumph.
There’s also a nice zing at Bob Dole telling people they should be watching movies like “Boys’ Town” to figure out how to deal with socio-political issues. “Maybe he would be better off working at a Blockbuster.”
I didn’t think his performance that night was so awful. It was certainly mediocre, but not awful. I think Letterman himself was responsible for making people think he bombed horribly. He said it on his show for months afterwards.
The reviews weren’t good, though, so I’m sure it didn’t help. One Hollywood watch party had someone joke that Jay Leno, who was in attendance, was the luckiest man in town that night.
As a kid, I loved staying up late watching Letterman with my dad, so I was excited that he got to host the Oscars. And when it finally came around, I honestly thought it was pretty damn funny. I thought the “Would you like to buy a monkey” bit was pretty good.
To this day, it’s probably one of the most memorable hosting gigs. There was a great New York Times article about it recently. Apparently the night still haunts Letterman.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/movies/david-letterman-oscars.html
And Letterman repeated failed punchlines during his show all the time.A joke would flop hard, and he’d look over at Paul every couple jokes and say the punchline again and laugh. Sometimes, if it flopped especially hard, he’d repeat it all through the show.“Known only as Rosita.”That’s probably why he doesn’t remember repeating it. It was second nature to him.
There was also that montage of celebrities acting out Letterman’s “Hey! You wanna buy a monkey?!” scene from Cabin Boy.
but if oscar hosting not bad (maybe) people not hate-watch oscars (hate watch still count)
I think part of the response is that audiences assumed that David Letterman would be particularly good at hosting. I think we see that a lot with hosts in a post-Bob Hope/Johnny Carson world – “Oh, he’s a funny talk show host. Surely, he will be good at this.”
yeah, it’s going to take some time to process but ultimately, i think, doable. This was 25 years ago, right?
It wasn’t bad at all, but it fell flat on a humorless self important audience that was there to be feted. Now, you can watch Ricky Gervais or Tina and Amy take the absolute piss out of people at the Golden Globes and everyone laughs, but they have NO sense of humor at the Oscars. He was hilarious, mostly, sometimes a bit lame, but they sucked the air out of all humor with their reactions.
I remember Scott Aukerman praising that joke but I think he miscreditted it to Steve Martin.
It was the only Oscars ceremony worth watching…
It’s actually the only one I’ve ever seen
DAVID LETTERMAN DID A FINE JOB OF HOSTING THE OSCARS AND PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T LIKE IT DON’T UNDERSTAND COMEDY!John Stewart did a good job, too.
ah so it’s a matter of simple ignorance. can you please point me to the wikipedia page that contains the information required to turn my appraisal of his performance into gold? i’m currently stuck at “hackneyed and desperate”.
I kind of agree? It isn’t this massive trainwreck people seem to insist it was. The tabloids had a field day because he did his 11:30/12:30 humor in primetime and had no sense of decorum for the moment but again, that’s literally why they asked him to host. He feels embarrassed by it because it flopped hard in the media but given the weird ‘Snow White’ episode from a few weeks ago…Eh, this was fine.
Considering the Oscars is one giant circle-wank, I enjoy it when hosts like Letterman and Stewart can let some hot air out of the proceedings.
Letterman seems to dislike most celebrities, so I don’t know why the Academy was surprised when he showed up to the year’s most dense concentration of celebrities and pissed all over the place.
I don’t get the feeling Letterman dislikes celebrities. I think he dislikes the stupid puffery that attaches itself to celebrity and enjoys deflating it. Even then, if he *really* hated it, he’d have stopped letting people on his show just to promote their latest movie.
That’s always been my take on Dave as well, and I’ve been watching him since 1985 as a kid. He is not impressed by your celebrity and will take you down several notches while somehow making you feel good about yourself. It’s crazy how the Tonight Show went from Carson/Leno/-redacted-/Fallon instead of Carson/Letterman/Conan. WTF.
When Anna Paquin came out to present Supporting Actor, he noted that she won an Oscar when she was 11. “You know, when I was 11 I could drink a gallon of root beer in under a minute.”
See, that’s fucking great!
I really enjoyed it, but I dunno, I was told in another thread that I don’t have a sense of sarcasm or something so…..
I like how Letterman is now playing the frail old man to cover for all his past indiscretions. I hate when celebrities and entertainers start acting all nice and innocent when they get old. It’s like, I know who you are ya behind that facade ya fucker.
Letterman had a series of philandering episodes and kept being a philanderer….I’m not exactly seeing the issue with him being 73…I’m pretty sure that qualifies him for an actual frail old man now. I’m not celebrating his philandering ways but he isn’t Cosby….
Here. Take this dolly and use it to show me where the bad man touched you.
At least one bit was funny. From memory: “And one of the films this year is called Eat, Drink, Man, Woman. Which happens to be how Arnold Schwartzenegger asked out Maria Shriver for the fist time.”
I got more out of Sadie, the dog that spins when you applaud than I did out of the Lion King musical number.
I didn’t watch this when it aired but honestly Letterman is the only thing that would ever get me to watch the Oscars.
Oh fuck off, it was genius.
That hoop dreams shade is blistering.
I’ll just leave this here.
wtf lol
I liked it, because I liked David Letterman at that time, and I thought he did what he was comfortable doing, and I thought it was hilarious, and who gives a hoot what the critics thought?
Uma, Oprah, oh YES!
My God! Was that a quarter century ago?
Letterman did a pretty good job, and he was pretty damned funny. His Oscar appearance only has a bad reputation because Hollywood types (and their pet scribes) are used to being treated with the seriousness & respect that they wrongly think they deserve.
Everything needs to be seen in context. Compared to subsequent awards shows the 1995 Oscars doesn’t look half bad! Remember when Robin Thicke’s marriage imploded after the disgraceful MTV music awards show performance in 2013?
Second case in point. Ricky Gervais. Letterman was cheerfully irreverent. Gervais was downright hostile.
The best part about the implosion of Robin Thicke’s marriage was how he tried to save it by making his own Can I Borrow a Feeling?
I grew up watching Letterman.I’m honestly not sure what the point of this article is.Maybe it’s “let’s take down everyone”.Maybe it’s “let’s fuck everyone”Maybe it’s, Jesus, I don’t even know anymore. Give it a rest.
it’s an obscure botanical reference and you look like fools for not getting it
I understand WHY people didn’t like, as a whole, the Letterman hosting gig (Uma-Oprah went on too long), but I saw it live and thought he was often very funny. That said, the show surrounding him, which was framed as a salute to comedy, was pretty lame — particularly the musical numbers — and you could see his material as being too small for the room. Just ONE dog that spins when you applaud?
It’s kind of like how, looking at some of the presenter bits at the ‘89 show, there’s some witty material there — Billy Crystal got the host gig for ‘90 pretty much because he killed with his intro to a tap dancing tribute — and an amazing lineup of presenters (for example, this is to date the ONLY time Jeff Goldblum presented an Oscar, and he did it alongside his then-wife Geena Davis AFTER she won Supporting Actress the same night). Best Picture even went to a big hit movie! But all anybody remembers is Rob Lowe and Snow White.
It’s been a long time but I still think he didn’t do as bad as most people (including himself) seem to think he did. I watch the Oscars every year, and I couldn’t tell you a single joke the host made on the last broadcast (I can’t even recall who the host was, but I’m sure it will come to me). But to this day I still remember his “Would you like to buy a monkey?” video, or his introducing Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon by saying “Be careful– they’re probably pissed off about something,” or his quipping to Tom Hanks, “It would have killed you to wear a tie?”
It was just the wrong venue for him. He always did better in a smaller venue, where he can focus down on little things, like how certain names or words sound funny. I never cared for Leno, but candidly I thought “Late Night,” with it’s smaller studio and lower wattage vibe, always seemed to suit him better than his 11:30 show. Ditto Conan O’Brien, who of course was done even dirtier by NBC.
And while the Oscars love some degree of sarcasm or self-deprecation, successful hosts still, on a fundamental level, are still in awe of all the glitz and glamor. Letterman just isn’t, which may very much be to his credit, depending on your POV. But it just felt unenthusiastic, which is not the vibe you want for a four hour show.