For anyone who worried that Sunday’s hostless Oscars might open with disaster, some good news: nothing catastrophic happened. The bad news? It was still a bit . . . meh.

The night began, as expected, with Adam Lambert performing two Queen songs—“We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions”—with original Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor. It was a solid performance, and, as one might expect, Lambert’s vocals soared—but the entire thing did, admittedly, feel a bit incongruous for an evening that usually begins with some gentle industry ribbing.

That might be why the Academy then decided to trot out three legendary comedians as the night’s first presenters. Venerated Golden Globe hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, alongside their old S.N.L. co-star Maya Rudolph, took the stage after a quick movie montage.

“Good evening, and welcome to the one-millionth Academy Awards,” Fey said. “We are not your hosts—but we’re gonna stand here a little too long so that the people who get USA Today tomorrow will think that we hosted.”

And just to clarify any confusion in the room, Rudolph added, “There is no host tonight. There won’t be a popular-movie category, and Mexico is not paying for the wall.”

The comedians took a few jabs at the muddied Oscars plans that preceded this night, including the quickly scuttled plan to dole out some awards during commercial breaks. “That’s right,” Poehler said, “and we won’t be doing awards during the commercials—but we will be presenting commercials during the awards.”

And, as one might expect, the three also fired a few (very gentle) shots at select nominees, including Bradley Cooper—“Don’t worry, Bradley—after four kids, I, too, have peed myself at the Grammys”—and Roma. (“Roma’s on Netflix?!” quipped Fey, acting exaggeratedly agitated. “What’s next—my microwave makes a movie?”)

Overall, Fey, Poehler, and Rudolph’s quick riff did its job—but it was hard to ignore how truncated that job was. All told, while Sunday’s opener was certainly not the most disastrous display in Academy history, it was thoroughly safe—and for a night ostensibly about rewarding creative vision, that might be even worse.

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— See the full list of Oscar winners

— See the best-dressed stars on the red carpet

— The quick, hostless opening riff

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