Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

The 2026 Oscars were (almost) optimistic

Host Conan O'Brien wanted the ceremony to indicate hope for the future. It only hit the mark half the time

Published March 16, 2026 9:00AM (EDT)

When Conan O’Brien made his debut as Academy Awards host last year, the comedian was tasked with the unenviable duty of grabbing hold of a world plunging rapidly into darkness and despair and lifting it back into the light, if only for one night. In March 2025, Donald Trump had returned to power, Los Angeles was just beginning to recover from devastating wildfires and Oscar discourse had reached new, angry heights. A year and some change later, the magnitude of those events seems infinitesimal compared to each day’s headline news — nothing eclipses domestic climate disasters like international climate catastrophes imposed by an oligarch sanctioning a war in Iran for fun.

But the need for levity remains. Hope is a vital yet scarce resource, and a show designed to celebrate art and the artists who make it, being broadcast to hundreds of millions of people around the world, has the potential to instill hope on a mass scale. Throw in the fact that Ryan Coogler’s historical horror smash “Sinners” was up for a record 16 awards, and genuine, defiant progress in the face of constant inhuman brutality seemed like a real possibility. Unlike last year’s show, the 98th Academy Awards didn’t buck expectations with a moving musical performance to kick off the telecast, preempting the usual opening sketch and host’s monologue. (It seems that everyone, including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has stopped pretending that “Wicked” was ever worthy of anything more than an Oscar for costume design.) Instead, O’Brien kept things light, beginning the show with an extended — if only occasionally funny — parody of the final scene of “Weapons,” dragged up as Amy Madigan’s ultra-witchy Aunt Gladys, running through scenes from each of this year’s best picture nominees.

(Kevin Winter/Getty Images) Amy........

© Salon