In his Oscars opening monologue tonight, host Conan O’Brien wasted no time getting to the big-stakes global controversies of the day: AI, world strife and, of course, Timothée Chalamet.

“Security is extremely tight tonight,” he said. “I’m told there are concerns about attacks from both the opera and ballet communities.”

The cameras quickly cut to a smiling, white-suited Chalamet in the audience.

The quip came after O’Brien was seen in a quick pre-taped bit in which he appeared as the white-faced, red-haired Aunt Gladys from Weapons, played ping-pong with Chalamet, crashed Hamnet, F1 and Sentimental Value, sang “Danny Boy” with the Sinners gang and got animated with the Kpop Demon Hunters – all while being chased by the Weapons crazed kids.

If there was low-hanging fruit for this monologue moment and first-joke honor, Chalamet was it. Nominated for Best Actor for his lead performance in ping-pong pic Marty Supreme, Chalamet has been Topic #1 on chat boards, late night comedy shows and daytime talkers since his podcast comment that nobody cared anymore about ballet and opera. Chalamet’s comments, of course, drew backlash, and more recently backlash to the backlash.

But L’affaire Chalamet wasn’t the only quicksand O’Brien, in his second consecutive stint as host, was willing to approach, and he did it all with a skill and wit that quickly banished any fears of a sophomore slump.

MORE TO COME…