Reply #24: That's exactly how I felt about his performance.

[LizW]

He was nervous at the beginning, and who wouldn't have been?

But he got going and relaxed and it was fine. The "window" of expectations for him was extremely tiny. If he had been as outrageous as he is sometimes on his show, some of the reviewers would have been aghast and called him inapropriate. If he was too restrained, he would have been called boring and a sellout.

As for how it played on tv, remember that you can't always hear crowd reaction (Howard Dean?) The crowd could have been howling and we might not have heard it. Also, lots of Jon's "funny" is in facial expressions and gestures, which don't necessarily come off well to a huge live audience in a theater.

I really think overall he hit the mark. He was mostly funny without being insane, he teased the celebs without being too mean, he got in one or two good political digs, and he was gracious and didn't try to steal the spotlight. I'll bet the Oscar producers are pleased.