Sean Penn may have skipped the Oscars where he landed his third career win for One Battle After Another, but his character in the movie, Steven J. Lockjaw, made an appearance of sorts, getting channeled by host Conan O’Brien in a ceremony-closing pre-taped bit.
The sketch, which you can watch above, also served as a tongue-in-cheek “sign-off” as Oscar host for O’Brien, with Mr. Beast anointed as his successor.
This is O’Brien’s second consecutive year hosting the Academy Awards. ABC is not believed to have an option on him for another year, but he has been praised for his performance, so the network may be keen on getting him back.
The skit re-creates Lockjaw’s final scene in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film, in which the villainous military officer gets accepted into the secret white supremacist society known as the Christmas Adventurers Club as a member for life, only to be taken to his new office, where he is gassed to death.
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In the parody, One Battle‘s Jim Downey, reprising his role as Christmas Adventurers Club member Sandy Irvine, approaches post-ceremony O’Brien to compliment him on “a great show” and tell him that, “in fact, we liked it so much, we’ve decided to make you Oscars host for life.”
The rest plays just like in the movie, with O’Brien’s Host for Life nameplate replaced by one for YouTube star Mr. Beast as O’Brien’s corpse is hauled out of the office and incinerated.
Mr. Beast (real name James Stephen Donaldson) played along, reposting the door sign from the sketch on his social accounts and accompanying it with a zany face emoji on his IG story.
Meanwhile, O’Brien wrote, “An honor to be reunited with my mentor, Jim Downey” next to video of the bit on his IG account.