And the Oscar for best Academy Awards host goes to … nobody!

[Update: The 2020 Oscars will have no host.]

The original plan, of course, was for the comedian Kevin Hart to preside over Sunday night’s awards, until he was dropped for his history of homophobic tweets. So instead of a comedian delivering a monologue, there was a mini-medley from Queen — whose original singer, Freddie Mercury, was celebrated in “Bohemian Rhapsody” fronted by the former “American Idol” contestant Adam Lambert.

So began this hostless, in-a-hurry Oscars, itself a longtime institution moving forward and putting on a show without the public face it started with.

And as it turns out, Hart — or whoever might have replaced him — was hardly missed.

That the Oscars managed a watchable show, much less the brisk, entertaining one we got, was a surprise. The Academy spent months stumbling down a red carpet lined with rakes, deftly stepping on each one. Besides the Hart fiasco, it announced a new category for best popular picture, then retracted it. It shunted four awards to the commercial breaks, then un-shunted them.