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Oscars 2023: Jimmy Kimmel teases the Oscars, makes fun of ‘the slap’

The teaser for the Oscars featured Jon Hamm, Charles Parnell, and Billy Crystal.


Senior Writer
FEBRUARY 15, 2023 3:18 PM EST

The Academy Awards are right around the corner. Jimmy Kimmel is back to host, completing the job for the third time, and has released a new teaser that references “Top Gun: Maverick” and last year’s iconic slap.

The Oscars teaser is mostly built around “Top Gun: Maverick,” which was one of the most profitable films of the year and earned six Academy Award nominations. In the clip, Kimmel talks to Jon Hamm and Charles Parnell, who are reprising their roles in the film as Cyclone and Warlock, and tells them that he wasn’t expecting to be asked to host the Oscars again.

“We asked a lot of people before you,” says Hamm, who proceeds to list out all of the celebrities who were asked to host and said no, including Steve Martin, Steve Carrell, Steve from “Blue’s Clues”, and more. “That’s just the Steves,” says Hamm.

The clip also references the infamous Will Smith slap. “ABC has tasked us with finding a host who is unflappable and unslappable,” says Parnell. “That’s good because I can’t get slapped — I cry a lot,” says Kimmel.

Jimmy Kimmel has hosted the Oscars twice before, in 2017 and 2018.

“Being invited to host the Oscars for a third time is either a great honor or a trap,” said Kimmel when he first confirmed he was hosting this year’s Oscars. “Either way, I am grateful to the Academy for asking me so quickly after everyone good said no.”