Conan O’Brien paid tribute to The Substance before his opening monologue, emerging from Demi Moore’s back (and losing a shoe) before walking on stage.

O’Brien is a “four-time Oscar viewer,” as the announcer said, and a first-time host. He welcomed the crowd to “Hollywood’s biggest night that starts at 4 in the afternoon”

“A Complete Unknown. A Real Pain. Nosferatu. These are just some of the names I was called on the red carpet. I think two were fair,” O’Brien joked. He poked fun at all of the Best Picture nominees, from Wicked to Conclave.

“I didn’t want it to end, and luckily it didn’t,” he said of The Brutalist, which has a brutal 3-hour-and-35 minute runtime.

He joked about Karla Sofía Gascón’s publicist having a frustrating awards season, but the crowd cheered when he announced when she was attending the ceremony that night.

“If you’re going to tweet about the Oscars, remember — my name is Jimmy Kimmel,” O’Brien joked.

He announced that he would be implementing new rules to keep the Oscars running smoothly.

For one, he noted, if a speech went too long, the camera would cut to John Lithgow in the audience looking “not angry, but slightly disappointed.”

He threatened to show an old headshot if they still didn’t get off the stage.

Later, Adam Sandler was shown in the audience wearing a hoodie and gym shorts. O’Brien asked him to leave, and Sandler invited the audience to join him for basketball afterward. He gave Timothée Chalamet a hug, exclaiming his last name, then left, to thunderous applause.

O’Brien then shifted to a more serious tone, announcing that the award would not just honor celebrities but also “hardworking men and women behind the camera” who are “devoted to a craft that can, for moments, bring us all closer together.”

“The magic, the madness, the grandeur and the joy of film worldwide is going to be with us forever,” O’Brien said, before promising to run a tight ship. He then broke into a song about not wasting time.

Over the next few minutes, he brought out the sandworm from Dune: Part Two to play chopsticks on the piano and a dancing Deadpool.

“We’re four minutes over,” he said before moving on with the show.