Roughly halfway through the broadcast ( which we live-blogged with reckless abandon ), during a break between Oscars being handed out, O’Brien delivered a perfectly timed quip referencing Kendrick Lamar’s now-infamous Super Bowl LIX halftime show performance.

Shortly after it aired, comedian and writer Skyler Higley—a former writer on Conan’s self-titled late-night show and a member of the team of writers Conan assembled for his Oscars gig—tweeted his thanks to the Academy for keeping the joke in,

Conan O’Brien was funny, witty, heartfelt, and sincere. He’ll go down as delivering one of the best Oscar opening monologues in history. Oh my god please let Conan O’Brien host every Oscars ceremony from now on