Tuxes and gowns abound at any given Oscars, with familiar faces from across the industry often opting for custom luxury looks from leading fashion houses for the red carpet and the afterparties, not to mention while seated inside the Dolby Theatre for the ceremony itself. But for Adam Sandler, a different approach was taken when it came to Sunday night’s choice of attire.
At least, that was the Sandman’s move during first-time Oscars host Conan O’Brien’s opening monologue, with the Spaceman and Happy Gilmore 2 star seen pairing a $175 Aviator Nation neon blue hoodie with gym shorts. Deep into his monologue, which opened with a parody of a key moment from The Substance, Conan pointed out Sandler’s signature look.
“For such a prestigious night, it’s important that everyone is properly dressed, okay?” Conan said, then mentioning Sandler by name. After a friendly exchange of pleasantries, Conan and Adam dove headfirst into one of the funniest bits of the night.
“Nobody even thought about what I was wearing until you brought it up,” Sandler quipped after O’Brien asked what he was wearing. From there, Conan likened Sandler to “a guy playing video poker at 2 a.m.” due to his hoodie and shorts combo.
“You know what, Conan? I like the way I look because I’m a good person,” Sandler said. “I don’t care about what I wear or what I don’t wear. Did my snazzy gym shorts and fluffy sweatshirt offend you so much that you had to mock me in front of my peers?”
O’Brien then offered an apology, which Sandler declined by instead inviting everyone in the Dolby Theatre to join him for a game of basketball featuring “the guy from Nosferatu,” i.e. Bill Skarsgård. Before pretending to exit the ceremony, Sandler had “one more thing” to take care of, namely shouting “Chalamet!” in Best Actor nominee Timothée Chalamet. This, of course, was a callback to Sandler’s recent penchant for saying the A Complete Unknown star’s last name in the most Sandler way possible, a move he previously pulled at the Globes and on SNL.
Best Actor ultimately went to Adrien Brody for The Brutalist, marking the second win in this category for the actor. For the full list of this year's winners, see here.