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"  Hosting the most prestigious awards show of the season is a tough gig, and while we watch the Oscars to see Hollywood&amp;#039;s biggest talents receive recognition (and what they&amp;#039;re wearing, of course), accolades are also in order for the person who can successfully entertain the room (and the world) through a long night of speeches. Ellen DeGeneres did just that, and though the show lasted more than three hours, it could have felt a lot longer without her comedic prowess. The Oscars are different than say, the Golden Globes, where it&amp;#039;s common knowledge that it&amp;#039;s a broadcasted Hollywood party. Raunchier humor (\u00E0 la Tina Fey and Amy Poehler&amp;#039;s perfect performance this year) is definitely more fitting in that situation. For this more stately night, however, some past hosts have veered too vulgar (Seth MacFarlane) while others have played it safe/slightly bizarre (Anne Hathaway and James Franco). DeGeneres struck the perfect balance, in a performance chock full of zingers, but feel-good humor as well. Here are seven times DeGeneres earned her spot among the handful of Oscars hosts we&amp;#039;d like to see again and again (Billy Crystal and Steve Martin, we&amp;#039;re looking at you, too): 1. She didn&amp;#039;t need a dramatic opening sequence to precede her monologue. This has been one of my favorite parts of Oscars past\u2014I&amp;#039;ll never forget the hilarious montage before Jon Stewart took the stage in 2006. So I was taken aback when DeGeneres immediately took the stage last night, with no bells and whistles. It turns out, she didn&amp;#039;t need the extra flash. We all laughed hysterically throughout her five minute monologue, no cool effects necessary. 2. She wasn&amp;#039;t afraid to take a shot at Liza Minnelli.   Some people would have been afraid to poke fun at a legend, even a character like Liza (though, come on\u2014she was asking for it with that hair). Minnelli might not have seemed entirely amused when DeGeneres referred to her as an impersonator in drag, but we certainly were, since the host managed to toe the line without crossing it entirely. 3. She made everyone aware that Jennifer Lawrence fell...again.   Lord knows how much pre-show rehearsal goes into the Oscars hosting gig, but DeGeneres managed to incorporate a moment that happened minutes before the curtain went up into her opening routine. It seems pretty likely that she was already planning on making fun of Jennifer Lawrence&amp;#039;s trip up the stairs during last year&amp;#039;s show, but she was obviously notified of this year&amp;#039;s red carpet spill as well\u2014and announced it for those who might have missed it. It made for timely comedic gold. 4. She said what we were all thinking about the weather. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s been a tough couple of days for us here\u2014it has been raining,&amp;quot; she said sarcastically.And I completely understand that LA has experienced some really horrible, mudslide-inducing rain in the past few days. But while those who have experienced a winter full of polar vortexes and ridiculous snow storms might appreciated the unsympathetic jab at West Coasters, because, SNOW. 5. She broke Twitter.   This was easily the best moment of the night (okay, besides Lupita Nyong&amp;#039;o&amp;#039;s flawless, tear-inducing speech). After a blurry on-stage selfie that was hilarious in itself, DeGeneres managed to round up basically everyone who matters in Hollywood for the best picture ever. She said that she wanted to break a record for the most retweeted picture ever, and she did\u2014only to shut down Twitter in the process, thanks to half a million retweets in a matter of minutes. (As of now, the pic has 2.5 million retweets, leaving the previous record-holder, aka the President of the United States, in the dust.)    If only Bradley&amp;#039;s arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap \u2014 Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014    6. She gave everyone pizza.   We love it when Hollywood&amp;#039;s finest act like normal people, but die when they hang out like normal people together. To this end, a star-studded pizza party amidst designer gowns and million dollar jewels, was basically the best thing ever. Plus, it was hilarious seeing how hungry everyone obviously was\u2014unlike the Golden Globes, there aren&amp;#039;t food and drinks to tide everyone over during the Oscars speeches. 7. She gave Idina Menzel a much-deserved pat on the back after John Travolta butchered her name. &amp;quot;Adele Dazim&amp;quot; anyone? The fact that Travolta managed to so completely mess up the name of one of Broadway&amp;#039;s most prolific stars was truly the WTF moment of the night.       But after Menzel&amp;#039;s beautiful performance of &amp;quot;Let It Go&amp;quot; from Frozen, which later earned her an Oscar, DeGeneres complimented the singer/actress\u2013taking care to enunciate her, um, actual name. It was a subtle, but necessary jab, while the rest of the world was going ape sh*t on Twitter. All in all, DeGeneres killed it. She was balanced, funny, and struck all the right chords. Thankfully, those in charge of appointing Oscars hosts tend to bring back the success stories (this was, after all, DeGeneres&amp;#039; second gig, after a great year in 2007), so it seems likely\u2014we hope!\u2014that we&amp;#039;ll see her again soon. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/news/a19022/ellen-degeneres-oscars-host/>