Conan O'Brien Reveals the Shocking Oscars Rule That "Blew My Mind"

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The 61-year-old, who hosted the 2025 Oscars earlier this month, revealed that some of his ideas for the show were blocked due to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ strict rules about their iconic Oscars statue, which is aptly named Oscar.

“At one point, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if it’s just on the couch?’” Conan said on the March 13 episode of his Conan Needs a Friend podcast. “Let’s lay it on a really big couch and I’ll be vacuuming and say, ‘Could you at least lift your feet? Or could you at least get up and help? Load the dishwasher?’”

As he recalled, his humorous promo idea was met with the Oscars team responding, “No, no no, that can’t happen.”

“One of the people from the Academy came forward and said, ‘Oscar can never be horizontal,’” Conan continued. “That blew my mind. Like, wow, this is like the thigh bone of St. Peter. This is a religious icon.”

But the organization behind Hollywood’s biggest night didn’t just poopoo on Conan’s couch idea: According to Conan, when his team suggested they depict the trophy as a housewife in an apron serving the host leftovers, that bit was quickly shot down as well.

“No clothing on Oscar,” Conan added. “Oscar is always naked.”

While his promo ideas were allegedly not approved, they weren’t the only plans that required Conan to pivot. The former Late Night host apparently had to axe an extended version of the show’s opening sequence, too.

In a video that opened the March 2 ceremony, Conan spoofed one of the night’s winners The Substance by recreating a scene from the movie where Margaret Qualley crawls out of Demi Moore’s back. According to the comedian, the bit was meant to be much longer.

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“It was the idea that, ‘Oh, Conan’s now going to goof on all the movies,’” he explained. “It starts with me and I’m in Wicked and I’m all green, finishing ‘Defying Gravity’ or one of those songs.”

He added, “I finish it and then you cut to the next thing, which is Gladiator II and ‘clang, clang, clang’ with swords and you see that I’m a gladiator but then you notice that I’m still green. And then you go on to Conclave and you see people voting with their ballots and one of the hands is still green.”

As he explained of the canned bit, “The whole thing was that the dye wouldn’t come off and we had to shoot it in one day.”

While some of Conan’s proposals didn’t happen at the 2025 Oscars, there were plenty more memorable moments. Read on to see what you may have missed during the March 2 show.

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Emilia Pérez star Zoe Saldaña, waiting backstage to present the Oscar for cinematography, caught Sterling K. Brown and Ana de Armas presenting Best Live Action Short to I'm Not a Robot.

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The Substance's Margaret Qualley and A Complete Unknown's Elle Fanning weren't among the nominees but producers found meaty roles for both: Qualley made a slinks surprise appearance in the evening's James Bond tribute as a dancer, while Fanning helped present Best Costume Design to Wicked's Paul Tazewell.

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