When You Ask Judd Apatow to Host

I like writer-director Judd Apatow.  I don't like all his movies, I'm not sure if I even like most of them (I include in that list the ones he only produced, but didn't write or direct), though I do like many of them, and since he's made so many, that's a very good number.  But mainly, when I see that he, personally, is going to be a guest on a talk show, he's one of the few people I try to watch.  I find him very funny, open and profoundly self-effacing.  On Saturday night, he was the emcee at the Directors Guild Awards. And was totally scathing. (And for my taste, even when I didn't agree with him, hilarious.) 

Apparently, if I’m reading things correctly, he had the feed cut off to the press room for much of the speech, so that he wouldn’t feel restricted, but then gave his OK for the second half.  Reporters put their stories together from other people’s comments and tweets.

What's got most of the headlines is how much he went after Tom Cruise, though he had an unending range of targets.  Including himself.

I fully acknowledge that his full monologue won't be to everyone's taste of humor.  But it is to mine.  Here are just a few examples.  There are a ton more.

One came in reference to his own 2022 Netflix film The Bubble which had a very low viewership.  “Do you know what it’s like to work hard, and then go see the Top 10 on Netflix, and you’re behind Is It Cake?  And then you watch Is It Cake? and you realize you like it better than your movie?”

“It’s really nice what Glenn Weiss said [about thanking his family]. To my family, to Leslie, Maude and Iris, I couldn’t do what I do without you. Where are they seated? Oh yeah, they aren’t here because they don’t give a shit.“

“Our next presenter directed Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood and Licorice Pizza. He has never won a DGA award, which kind of makes me think this whole night is bullshit. Please welcome Paul Thomas Anderson."

But one in particular stood out for me the most.   It apparently got gasps from the audience, which is sort of understandable on several levels -- “I actually watched Elvis the same way that he died: asleep and on the toilet.”

Those are just a few jokes.  But here are two articles about his full monologue. They're the most comprehensive of all that I've seen. While they overlap each other with some of the same material, each has material that the other does not.

This is the first one I read here.

And this here has a lot of additional material.

For what it's worth, the winner of Best Director of a Feature Film went to Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once.  It's probably one of my two favorite movies of the years, along with All Quiet on the Western Front.  Apparently it was a good year for movies with the word "All" in their titles.