If only Bob Hope and Johnny Carson could come back from the dead...

Seriously, besides Billy Crystal and onetwo-time host Steve Martin, most Oscar hosts have suffered in the face of high expectations and the reality that they couldn't unleash their full force of funny over an audience full of mostly humorless industry types. Dave Letterman got eaten alive despite a performance most home audiences (well, me) thought was hilarious. Chris Rock dared to actually try to be a tenth as daring as he is in his stand-up act and he was called "insulting" by his non-fans and "boring" by the people who liked him. Ellen DeGeneres was so benign she put people to sleep.

Which is why I wonder why Jon Stewart would accept the Academy's reported invitation to host the ceremony again next year. When he hosted in 2006, he got decidedly mixed reviews, from people who liked his performance to folks like Nikki Finke, who said that Stewart bombed.