• Oscars 2025 scored a hit in the laughter department.
• Conan O’Brien’s monologue landed many deft jabs.

There were streaming glitches on Hulu, puzzled viewers wondering what exactly “Anora” was and why it won five Oscars (including best picture, actress and director) and enough reaction shots of Timothée Chalamet to fill a chunk of “A Complete Unknown: The Sequel.”

Yes,

Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony had its issues, including the fact that it was, once again, way too long. Why, for instance, was there a begging-to-be-cut dance salute to Bond films?

But this year’s Academy Awards didn’t disappoint in the humor department.

First-time Oscar host Conan O’Brien landed some memorable monologue jokes and survived a dubious musical number about wasting time during the broadcast. Los Angeles firefighters got to deliver a funny bit. And iron-woman actress June Squibb was funnier at 95 than most presenters a third of her age.

In case you dozed off after Cynthia Erivo and Ariane Grande’s opening medley of songs from “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Wiz” and “Wicked,” here are the key laughs you missed.

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Conan O’Brien on ‘Emilia Pérez’

O’Brien deftly addressed the controversy over “Emilia Pérez” best actress contender Karla Sofia Gascón, whose offensive past tweets resurfaced after her nomination. “Little fact for you, ‘Anora’ uses the f-word 479 times,” he joked. “That’s three more than the record set by Karla Sofia Gascon’s publicist.”

Sad John Lithgow

Kudos for Conan’s warning to winners who droned on with their acceptance speeches: Talk too much and the camera will cut to a disappointed John Lithgow. Playing along expertly, Lithgow delivered one of the all-time great unhappy expressions. If only the producers had had the guts to use it when best actor winner Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”) threatened to push the show into four hours with his speech.

Adam Sandler called out

Adam Sandler showed up in a bright blue hoodie, basketball shorts, and a Hawaiian shirt, just so that O’Brien could berate him for going casual. “Adam, what are you wearing?” griped O’Brien. “Nobody even thought about what I was wearing until you brought it up!,” Sandler yelled angrily before storming out of the theater, but not before rushing down to the front row to deliver his last catch-phrase, “Chalamet!”

A nod to ‘The Substance’

Before his monologue, O’Brien parodied the body horror of best picture nominee “The Substance” with a filmed bit that had him emerging from Demi Moore’s back, then diving into her back again to search for his missing shoe.

O’Brien jabs at Trump

O’Brien’s biggest laugh came when he skewered President Donald Trump’s attitude toward Russian President Vladimir Putin. Noting at one point that ‘Anora,’ which is about an exotic dancer who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, already had won two Oscars, he said, “I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian.”

Ben Stiller’s jumping

In a fine display of physical comedy, Ben Stiller presented the Oscar for production design by praising its importance while getting stuck on a moving stage that, at one point, lowered so much that Stiller had to jump repeatedly to be visible.

Mick Jagger’s Bob Dylan impression

Surprise presenter Mick Jagger displayed superb comic timing before handing out the best song Oscar to “El Mal” from “Emilia Perez.” Said Jagger: “The producers really wanted Bob Dylan to do this. Bob didn’t want to do it because he said the best songs this year were obviously in the movie ‘A Complete Unknown.'” Then the limber 81-year-old did an impression of Dylan, who’s 83, while teasing, “Bob said, ‘you should find somebody younger.’ I said ‘OK, I’m younger. I’m younger than Bob, I’ll do it.’”

LA firefighters have jokes

After bringing Los Angeles firefighters onstage to honor their courage in battling the city’s devastating wildfires, O’Brien let three of them tell jokes that he wasn’t brave enough to deliver. The best zinger was Los Angeles Fire Department captain Erik Scott’s line: “Our hearts go out to those who have lost their homes. And I’m talking about the producers of ‘Joker 2.’”

June Squibb’s ‘revelation’

Before giving the makeup and hair Oscar to “The Substance” team, the delightful nonagenarian star of “Thelma,” June Squibb, told her co-presenter, Scarlett Johansson, that she actually was “Nosferatu” star Bill Skarsgård in heavy makeup. “Oh yeah, I mean half the time you see me, it’s not me. It’s Bill Skarsgård,” she quipped. “The real June Squibb is at home with a book right now.”

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at [email protected].