During the 2024 Oscars, comedian John Mulaney presented the Academy Award for Best Sound.
While this easily could have become a monotonous moment in the broadcast if left in the hands of another presenter, Mulaney turned this one of the most memorable segments from the show.
The comedian began by talking about sound design as a concept before eventually detouring to a non-sequitur about the 1989 film Field of Dreams. It was a masterful summary of a beloved baseball movie that, in retrospect, has a plot that makes no sense at all.
John Mulaney explaining the entire plot to Field of Dreams instead of presenting his category at the Oscars lol. king pic.twitter.com/5q98HfH5ur
— Spencer Althouse (@SpencerAlthouse) March 11, 2024
Here is just a sampling of Mulaney had to say:
“Or what about the moment in Field of Dreams when we hear: ‘If you build it, he will come.’ And then Costner does it. He builds a baseball field. Or I guess he doesn’t build it. He mows down corn and then there is a field and then he’s like: ‘I’m going to watch ghosts play baseball.’ And the bank is like: ‘You want to play your mortgage?’ And he’s like: ‘Nah, I’m going to watch ghosts play baseball.’ And then he finds James-Earl Jones, who wrote The Boatrocker, which I thought was a real book deep into my 20s.”
Mulaney continued providing even more details about the film (and his suspected rules about “ghost baseball”) and it was so perfectly silly.
It was also yet another reason why Mulaney is considered a favorite to eventually replace Jimmy Kimmel as the host at the Oscars in the future.
