Jimmy Kimmel is ripping the Barbie parody band-aid a full month before the Oscars.
The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host dropped a five-minute short on Monday night, directed by JKL‘s Will Burke, hyping his March 10 gig emceeing the Academy Awards — re-creating many Barbie sets and reuniting four of its castmembers in a spoof that finds a hapless Kimmel trying to make his way to the Dolby Theatre. “Since the dawn of time, men have been getting lost,” says a voice-of-God Helen Mirren, spoofing her own narration of the Margot Robbie feature. “This is the story of one such dum-dum.”
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With the help of “Weird Barbie” Kate McKinnon, who gives a stellar delivery of the famous Carnegie Hall joke, Kimmel speedily re-creates much of the film’s road trip sequence — swapping in the cartoonish Barbie settings for vistas from best picture nominees — before landing in Hollywood where McKinnon’s “Weird Wagon” becomes a clown car of cameos.
First, there’s supporting actress nominee America Ferrera. “It’s literally impossible to host the Oscars,” Ferrara tells Kimmel, in a spot-on riff on her speech from the film. “You have to be extraordinary, but somehow you’re always doing it wrong. You have to make fun of people, but you can’t make too much fun of people. You have to give everybody enough time, but you can’t go long. And you are the center of attention, but no one cares you’re there. You can never show off, never fail, never show fear. No one ever says thank you, but everyone has something critical to say online. If it goes well, nobody says anything. If it doesn’t, it’s all your fault.”
Fellow nominee Ryan Gosling is the last to join, mocking the post-awards show In-N-Out trend before Kimmel informs him that burgers are only for winners. “Oh, well that’s not gonna happen,” says Gosling, in character as Ken. “Good thing Greta’s got [best] director in the bag.”
Gerwig, who is up for best picture and adapted screenplay, was of course the most talked-about omission among this year’s nominations when she did not get a slot in the best director category. When informed of his mistake, Gosling and company begin to scream.
The entire sequence is so long and thorough, it almost seems like it could have opened the show itself. And that show, as Mirren is quick to emphasize before the promo comes to a close, is airing slightly earlier this year.
The 96th Oscars air March 10, on ABC, at 7 p.m. ET and 4 p.m. PT.
