What didn’t Tiffany Haddish work into her cold open and monologue for the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards?!
Black Panther, Girls Trip, Cardi B (complete with “Bodak” baby bump) — in the first five minutes of the ceremony, she managed to squeeze in some of the most game-changing pop culture moments of the year while cracking up the audience in the process.
Haddish nailed her first responsibilities as the evening’s hostess from the jump: she seamlessly worked her Girls Trip castmates Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah into a tweaked clip from Black Panther that involved an unexpected (and awesome) throw to TLC’s “Waterfalls.” She then took the stage in a white evening gown inspired by Cardi’s pregnancy-revealing look on Saturday Night Live while putting a personal spin on “Bodak Yellow.”
“These is rented/these is not my size/these toes turning blue” is the most awards ceremony-appropriate update for Cardi’s biggest hit (though we sincerely hope Haddish’s feet aren’t killing her already).
She name-checked a few of the evening’s famous guests, with nominee Michael B. Jordan getting some special attention: after oggling the Black Panther villain and insisting he could get a girl pregnant with a single glance, her own belly popped, filling out the maternity cut of the Cardi-inspired gown and eliciting cackles from Jordan and the rest of the crowd in the process.
Nothing was off limits, and she proceeded to riff on the Stranger Things kids, comparing them to a gang (“I know that curly-haired one got a shank in his hair right now!”), hitting on Chris Pratt (“I got a galaxy you can garden!”) and even playfully jabbing at herself before moving on with the show (“Usually when a black girl talks this much on MTV she just got Catfished”).
It’s official: she’s a natural at this hosting thing, and the rest of the night is sure to back that up.