A Lot Of People Sure Want John Mulaney To Host The Oscars After His Hysterical ‘Field Of Dreams’ Rant

There were a lot of fun things at this year’s Academy Awards. There was a top shelf musical performance from Ryan Gosling. John Cena got buck naked. There was a dog. But perhaps the most leftfield bit came when John Mulaney presented the Oscar for Best Sound. During his intro, he launched into a prolonged rant about Field of Dreams — a movie that wasn’t even nominated for its sound. Mulaney’s appearance was so well-received that people instantly interpreted it as an audition to host one of the most feared gigs in the business.

Mulaney’s intro started off with a bang, which is to say a comically over-simplified story about the history of synch sound in cinema. “For years movies didn’t have sound. And then they figured it out,” he informed the crowd. He balked at those who prefer the so-called “silent” era. “These people are difficult and insane.”

Mulaney then argued that famous movie quotes are one of the great joys of movies — quotes like “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” “I’ll have what she’s having,” and “He was in the Amazon with my mother when she was researching spiders just before she died.” (The latter wasn’t really from a movie — Madame Web — but from its trailer, and the social media dunking that followed was an early sign the film would tank.)

There was another big quote Mulaney dwelled on: “If you build it, he will come.” That led into a lengthy summary of the movie that contains it, 1989’s Field of Dreams, in which Mulaney made it sound like the dumbest movie ever made. He particularly singled out the idea of “Ghost Baseball,” including its bizarre rules — like how the player played by Frank Whaley isn’t allowed to play again after he ages into Burt Lancaster to give young Gaby Hoffman the Heimlich Maneuver.

Despite his making fun of Field of Dreams, he told the crowd that he “loves” it and that “that should win Best Picture.” He added, glumly, “Though they’ll probably go with one of this year’s.”

Mulaney’s epic, out-of-nowhere summation of a movie that was actually nominated for Best Picture 35 years prior made a lot of people wish Kimmel would sit 2025 out.

So the votes are in and Mulaney is the favorite for the 97th Academy Awards. Then again, does he even want the job? Not only is it a tough gig, but it has a history of scaring off comics even after they’ve said yes.

You can watch Mulaney’s Oscar intro in the video below.

And if you aren’t sure Mulaney can hold his own at a movie awards show, just watch him and Nick Kroll kill the opening monologue at the 2017 Independent Spirit Awards: