I’ll admit it: After 5 years of watching nearly each main—and infrequently minor—award present for work, I’ve gone from a starry-eyed superfan to a little bit of a cynic. I nonetheless love the pageantry and purple carpet silliness (and the excuse to textual content everybody I find out about inane superstar gossip), however after COVID-induced delays, the rise of the hostless present, and the latest glut of hosts who made me want their exhibits had been hostless (sorry, Jo Koy), it’s simply been…an extended few years for your complete idea.

The exception to this miserable rule, although, is what’s generally referred to as the business award present. Moreover the Governor’s Awards—the place John Mulaney just lately made some wonderful jokes about AA—the annual Movie Unbiased Spirit Awards are maybe the perfect instance of this largely untelevised style, and Mulaney and fellow comic Nick Kroll made them genuinely enjoyable and edgy as cohosts in 2017 and 2018. (I nonetheless take into consideration the next joke, on the latter ceremony, relating to the scourge of sexual misconduct by males in Hollywood: “Final yr, everyone well-known died. This yr, everyone well-known needs they had been lifeless.”)

The 2024 version of the Movie Unbiased Spirit Awards, which passed off in Santa Monica on Sunday, was hosted by Saturday Night time Stay alum and Shrill star Aidy Bryant. And whereas I’m undoubtedly biased as an unabashed Aidy stan (Aidiac? Bryantologist?), I can truthfully say that she turned the night time into one in all my favourite award exhibits I’ve ever watched. Moreover being very humorous—she and Could December star Charles Melton carrying what can solely be described as “sexy shirts that includes one another” was a uncommon viewers cutaway gag that really labored—fittingly for a former SNL star, she was additionally in a position to roll with the live-performance component of the gig with out radiating the nervous and clammy power of a less-experienced performer. Watch her opening monologue for your self and thank me later: