At the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, 2026, host Conan O’Brien opened the ceremony in character as Aunt Gladys, the unnerving figure played by Amy Madigan in Weapons. The cold open raced through scenes from nominated films before children chased O’Brien onto the stage; Madigan later won the supporting-actress Oscar for the role.
How the cold open unfolded
The Academy’s announcement of the 98th Oscars named O’Brien as host and set the live ABC ceremony for March 15, 2026. The Associated Press’s account of the ceremony describes the opening sketch beginning with O’Brien as Aunt Gladys, appearing to the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage.”
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O’Brien joked about the makeup, saying he looked like “Bette Davis with lupus.” The sketch then moved through scenes from that year’s nominated films. In one gag, subtitles carried a Norwegian-language joke: “I can’t believe I learned Norwegian for this.” The bit ended with children chasing O’Brien onto the stage, according to AP.
Why Aunt Gladys was a fitting Oscars character
Aunt Gladys is Amy Madigan’s character in Zach Cregger’s horror film Weapons. Putting that unsettling figure into a fast-moving tour of the nominated movies created the sketch’s central contrast: a horror character dropped into the ceremony’s celebration of the year’s films. The Los Angeles Times report on Madigan’s win notes that O’Brien’s parody passed through scenes from titles including Sinners and the animated film KPop Demon Hunters.
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The joke also acquired an awards-night echo: Madigan won the supporting-actress Oscar for playing Gladys. The opening’s character parody and Madigan’s award were separate moments, but the win made the role at the center of the sketch one of the night’s celebrated performances.
The cold open was not the live monologue
The pre-recorded-feeling opening sketch and O’Brien’s onstage monologue were adjacent, distinct parts of the broadcast. TheWrap’s coverage of the opening describes O’Brien starting with the Aunt Gladys sketch and then moving into his live monologue. Keeping the two separate matters: the film-character costume, soundtrack, nominee-film detours, and chase belonged to the cold open, rather than the monologue that followed.
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What is known about the sketch’s reception
The available accounts describe what happened in the opening, but they do not provide a named measurement of the cold open’s audience, viewership, or reception. The Academy’s 2025 announcement cited 19.69 million viewers and 104.2 million social interactions for the 97th Oscars; those figures concern the prior ceremony, not the 2026 broadcast or this sketch.
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