best of those I've seen

good and funny. can keep the audience entertained without being obnoxious. he did some funny movie takeoffs.

Hilarious and did a great job of entertaining between the awards.

He was the best host...he is a master at variety type shows and he got it right.

He is definitely my favorite past host. His most recent presentation was terrific especially the opening skit. He's consistently funny with witty commentary, without succumbing to the same old, tired material.

He takes the job to new level and has made it hard for everyone else who's followed. His opening segment is always brilliant and he is funny, genieal and smooth. It's too bad he's never been able to channel this type of create genius into his film career.

The master. Period.

His song parodies were VERY funny!

Probably the best host ever! He was very witty with out being dumb(uhum Chris Rock). Definatly the master.

Billy Crystal is funny no matter what he does, one of my favorite comedians...

overrated

Billy Crystal is my all time choice for the best host the PTB who make such decisions for this long-winded show have ever had the luck of hiring. Forget about his great timing, excellent delivery, and hilarious material. The most impressive thing about Billy Crystal, when it comes to hosting this show, is that he understands the meaning of the word host. A host welcomes his guests, speaks to all of them, makes sure everyone feels at ease and is having a good time. This is something that most, if not all of Crystals predecessors knew by training if not by instinct. In fact, up until everything in the world started to become a political/personal issue, when it came to the fine art of hosting anything from a family cookout to the Oscars, most people were able to recall this simple definition. Billy Crystal has managed to be both a successful entertaining host and still throw in a few political/current event barbs. Through his talent and skills as an entertainer, he managed to find a happy medium. His points were well taken and probably did more to heal differences. Others seem more determined to rip the wounds back open just to stare at the bloody mess. The real difference between Billy Crystal and this years pathetic option said to be an attempt to drag in a younger audience isnt really all that stunning; Billy Crystal starts off with a respect for his audience. If I were under the age of 25 I would resent being thought of as someone who could not appreciate that fact.

Guess he is pretty good, relative to others. But some of those musical pieces were embarrasing to watch.

Yes, all 3,000 times (lol)...

Billy Crystal is the gold standard to how other hosts get measured these days. Though he hasn't been acclaimed every time he's been up to bat, he has typically hit homeruns for the Oscars.