Jimmy Kimmel Enlists Weird Barbie To Get Him To The Oscars

By Andrew Sanford | TV | February 15, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | TV | February 15, 2024 |

Hosting the Oscars is a thankless job unless your name is Billy Crystal. Hell, you could say that about award shows in general. In the last decade, it seems like no one has had an easy time hosting anything. They go viral for the wrong reasons, take jokes or bits too far (or not far enough), and get blamed for anything and everything that could go wrong. One person who has managed to stay relatively unscathed is Jimmy Kimmel.

Kimmel will be hosting the Oscars for the fourth time when he takes the stage in March. For the most part, the reactions I’ve heard to Kimmel’s performance in the past have been primarily inoffensive. No one is praising him as they did Billy Crystal (though I’m now wondering if there were any vocal Crystal detractors back in the day). Still, I think the response to Kimmel has been a resounding “fine.”

I think Kimmel does a great job hosting. He’s sharp. There isn’t a need to make the night about himself. He’s a great, measured host who has been commanding audiences with confidence for decades. Hosting is a particular skill, and I believe Kimmel has sharpened his like a knife. That said, a little help is never a bad thing, so Kimmel enlisted the year’s best movie to get him ready.

I loved Barbie. I laughed. I cried. My eyes were filled with wonder as I gazed at a film filled with heart, compassion, and laughs. I thought I might like it, but I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. Aside from Talk To Me, Barbie was the movie that elicited the most visceral reaction from me in 2023. So, I’ll admit that I was primed to enjoy Kimmel’s Oscar prep sketch.

To get ready, Kimmel gets help from Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie. They go on a hilarious journey to the Oscars, looking at all the nominated movies on the way. It’s silly as can be and enriched by McKinnon’s commitment. It gets even better when two more cast members enter the fray. They even make a joke about Greta Gerwig getting snubbed.

I’m pretty damn excited for this year’s Oscars. I think this sketch may have made me even more excited. It was a good year for movies, and we have a host who I know will at least do a perfectly cromulent job.