David Letterman calls his 1995 Oscars hosting gig an 'explosion of excrement'

When David Letterman hosted the Oscars in 1995, his gig was received so poorly that he revealed people shouted that he had “ruined the Academy Awards” at the airport.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he reflected on what it was like bombing at the awards show - calling his turn as emcee an “explosion of excrement.”

The upcoming Oscars will mark the 25th anniversary since Letterman’s notorious hosting gig, which saw him deliver a now infamous Oprah Winfrey, Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves joke early into his monologue - setting a disastrous tone for the rest of the evening.

He explained that even when he was asked to host, he was “never enthusiastic” about taking on the role but was convinced to do it by his agent.

Even prior to the show, he had a premonition that he would bomb. He said, “Almost immediately after accepting, I started to realize, “Oh, geez, what if this doesn’t go well?” And then, within a month, I had an awareness that, 'Oh, by the way, this isn’t going to go well.' And it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Letterman revealed that he had a “bunch of jokes” that he had “iron-clad rote memorised”, however his opening Oprah-Uma joke was a last minute addition.

He explained that Rob Burnett, the former head writer of The Late Show, had come up with the “tremendous, tremendous idea”.

He said, “[The idea] was to go out and, “Hi, thanks, welcome to the show,” and then go right to introducing Oprah to Uma, and then it was going to be paid off by having them say hello to Keanu... I said, “This is great, this will be perfect, this will supersede the jokes, this will loosen everybody up!” Because unusual names — we have three!”

However, the joke fell flat on its face at the ceremony. At the time, he opened the show and said, “I’ve been dying to do something all day and I think we can take care of this.”

Striding across the stage, he said, “Oprah. Uma. Uma. Oprah.”

After introducing them to one another, he then continued, “I feel much better. Have you kids met Keanu?”

Based on the clip, it looked like Letterman knew he had bombed in that moment as immediately after delivering the joke he let out a small groan.

Letterman defended the idea behind the joke, saying it was a “solid idea” that he would do again if given the chance.

However he felt it failed due to a lack of “preparation”, as he couldn’t locate Oprah, Thurman or Reeves - plus he hadn’t informed the camera crew that they would need shots of the actors reacting to him.

He explained, “So I get out there, and I can’t find Oprah. Rob had said, 'She’s stage left. You’ll find her.' 'OK.' 'And Uma is the equal position to the right.' 'Well, easy enough. Left and right.' I get out there and I can’t find Oprah, and then I can’t find Uma, and I gave up looking for Keanu. So the whole thing was like a crazy man,” he said.

Throughout the show, he continued to reference the failed joke which he said was “pure survival instinct” and said that he was “perspiring” in his suit.

Letterman called it an “embarrassment” and revealed that when Burnett and another Late Show producer saw him afterwards, he “browbeat” the producer into calling the hosting gig “great” - a moment he described as “the first time in my life, I’ve gotten someone to lie to me about my own performance.”

One of the lowest points for Letterman was when comedian Steve Martin, who he said he idolises and loves, cracked a joke at his expense.

Letterman recalled, “He said, 'I really enjoyed Dave’s opening monologue.' And then he said, 'But then again, I also like cleaning up after my dog.' And I just thought, 'Oh, my God, Steve Martin hates me.' And I felt horrible about that.”

It appears Letterman may have misremembered Martin's words, as the comedian actually said, "David Letterman's monologue I thought was really funny tonight. Of course, anything would have seemed funny following Arthur Hiller."

Arthur Hiller was the president of the Academy Awards at the time.

Letterman described the humiliation as “when your body turns on itself” and said his “personality was attacking itself.”

Despite Letterman’s poor performance, he was asked two more times by the Academy to host the Oscars - both of which he turned down.

However, he said he now found “the whole thing delightful”. He said, “I’m alive. I went on to have a family. I didn’t have to leave and change my name and live in remote parts of Montana. So now I find it fascinating.”

He also joked he could potentially be the reason why the Oscars had recently decided against choosing a single host for the night, instead opting for a number of actors to collectively host the awards.

The Academy released the upcoming list of presenters for 2020 yesterday, which include Zazie Beetz, Timothee Chalamet, Kelly Marie Tran, Mark Ruffalo, Gal Gadot, Mindy Kaling and Julia Louis-Dreyfus to name just a few.

Referencing the single host format, Letterman joked, “Maybe I’m the one who killed off the whole thing!”