Yet Another Pitch for the Oscars

Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph had not even finished their pre-documentary short film comedy bit when people were tweeting that they should host the next Oscars. They are wrong. The next Oscars should not be hosted by Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph. The next hosts of the Oscars should be Tiffany Haddish and Meryl Streep.

To my knowledge, Streep has never hosted a show, nor has she even hosted SNL. Always one to get another notch to her belt, I think she would readily agree to host. Nominated 21 times since 1978,  she is as much a mainstay of the ceremony as the golden statue. At the 90th, Kimmel constantly used her not only as a prop, but as a way to gauge audience engagement. She deserves to finally make the jump from soft punchline to puncher. Would she be a  good host? Who knows. But millions would show up to see.

Tiffany Haddish we know would be a good host. She is high octane fun. She can riff on anything, and is able to bring a massive amount of energy to everything she does. She was the highlight of the Oscars, even before they began. She is a proven host, on SNL. She would also be a win for diversity, as she would be the first black woman to host who isn’t Whoopi Goldberg.

The question would be, can they work off each other. There is a massive danger to having two hosts, or even two presenters. Presenters can never really land their jokes, as they are at many times drama actors who don’t often work with each other, asked to tell a back and forth joke on live television that they’ve only rehearsed a couple times. It’s always stilted and never lands correctly.

The only people that can pull it off are Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who have worked together and co-hosted an SNL segment for a lengthy period of time. They’ve developed live on-air chemistry. Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph are both accomplished comedians. However, they have not done a lot of work together, and that showed. Rather than a natural back and forth, there was a certain amount of space between jokes; you say your joke and then wait for me to say mine. Rather than have them slowly develop their two-person act, put Haddish and Streep together.

This is not to say that Haddish and Streep would work better together than Haddish and Rudolph, though Haddish has said many times that Meryl Streep is going to, quote, “be her mama.” Rather, the inimitable dichotomy that the two would present would be amazing to watch. Streep would stand there, a marble pillar of the industry. Haddish, the rising star, would swirl around with the energy and hope of youth. They would not need to play off each other. Haddish would tell the jokes and riff off of everything in sight. Streep would just have to say a few quips and tell a couple of stories about Tom Hanks.

The old and the new. Black and white. Serenity and excitement. A bridging of generations. A healing of a nation. All of this is possible, at the 91st Oscars ceremony, hosted by Tiffany Haddish and Meryl Streep.