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The Academy Awards and the carousel of its ever changing hosts are back in the news with the confirmation that actor-comedian Chris Rock will be the host of the 2016 Oscars ceremony, eleven years after he last anchored the show. The video above is his opening monologue from the 2005 show, when he managed to court some controversy by taking digs at Hollywood and especially joking about the lack of representation of Black actors. He can probably crack that joke again.

The comedian was credited for making the ceremony more edgy even as a few critics decried his hosting. The New York Times review of Rock's performance read, "this was not the sort of gentle, in-crowd humour that had been provided in years past by Billy Crystal or Steve Martin, and members of the audience seemed shocked, with Oprah Winfrey staring, her mouth agape, at Mr. Rock’s bald, if funny, critique of the industry."

His joke on actor Jude Law's omnipresence in films of the time famously drew a rebuttal from Sean Penn and became the scandal of the 2005 ceremony. The joke was "Who is Jude Law? Why is he in every movie I have seen in the last four years? Even if he's not acting in it, if you look at the credits he makes the cupcakes or something."

Following Rock's act the Academy Awards' hosts increasingly have become more irreverent. But the 2005 ceremony still rocked (pun unintended) the highest ratings, until the Ellen Degeneres' 2014 return as host.

Rock is one of the few comedians to have a second go as emcee for the ceremony, the others are Jon Stewart (2006, 2008) and Ellen Degeneres (2007, 2014).The 2016 Oscars will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on February 28, 2016.