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If the bookmakers open a market on who will be stepping into Eddie Murphy’s Oscar-hosting shoes at such ludicrously short notice, Billy Crystal would surely have to be the favorite. After all, who else could comfortably enter the job with just over three months to go until the 84th Academy Awards? Consider: Crystal has hosted the biggest show on TV no fewer than eight times (between 1990-2004) and is as synonymous with the event as Bob Hope. (Ask your parents.)
What’s more, the star-studded audience always laps up his schtick. A simple cameo turn at this year’s show (where he paid tribute to the all-time hosting leader, Hope) got Crystal a standing ovation before he opened his mouth. Roger Ebert said that even though Crystal came onstage around two hours into the show, he got the first laughs of the broadcast. And it was on Crystal’s watch that the Oscars began a tradition of digitally inserting the host into the film montages. For that simple joy alone, Crystal should be welcome back whenever he darn well pleases. And as another Oscar hosting alum, Steve Martin, memorably said, “Hosting the Oscars is much like making love to a woman. It’s something I only get to do when Billy Crystal is out of town.”