The Best of the Weird, Wacky, Wild 2007 Academy Awards

Overall, the 2007 Academy Awards ranks as the most entertaining since David Letterman took to the stage to introduce Uma to Oprah. Just as I suspected she might, Ellen DeGeneres was a perfect choice for host: personable, witty and not subject to the emasculation of her sense of humor that hampered last year's host Jon Stewart. Memo to Oscar producers: Don't bother hiring political humorists as host if you're not going to allow them to be political.

Funniest Opening Monologue Joke.

In an opening monologue fairly bursting with the best examples of DeGeneres' type of good-natured, goofy humor, nothing was funnier than her comparison of Jennifer Hudson's not being voted for by America and still winding up with a nomination and Al Gore's being voted for by America. Six years into the nightmare, I think it's a good thing to keep reminding people that their will was ignored and that's why we're in this state.

Best Musical Number

Forget the performances of the nominated songs. As usual, they were all forgettable. The best musical performance of the night-the best musical performance on the Oscars in many a year-was the duo-cum-trio of Jack Black, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly bemoaning the fact that certain types of performances will never bring Oscar gold. It was a zany moment, of course, but contained more than a nugget of ugly truth. After all, is there anyone out there who really would be confused between Oscar winner Forrest Whitaker and Idi Amin? On the other hand, how many people who are even in the joke now can spot that Sascha Baron Cohen out of makeup is Borat?

Wackiest Moment

Clint Eastwood acting like an Alzheimer's patient as he both introduced and then "translated" the acceptance speech of composer Ennio Morricone. Wow.

Ellen's Funniest Mid-Show Joke

This one's easy. Her observation that Dame Judi Dench couldn't make the ceremony because she was having "knee surgery" on her eyes. Hilarious. And true?

Best Acceptance Speech