With silent film The Artist dominating the proceedings, it’s fitting that the funniest moment of the 84th annual Academy Awards came in the form of a wordless gesture: The Descendants co-writer and Community star Jim Rash, ridiculously jutting out his leg in imitation of Angelina Jolie, who’d purposefully displayed her right gam while presenting the Best Adapted Screeplay trophy to Rash, Alexander Payne, and Nat Faxon.

And while there weren’t too many surprises on the night — save for Viola Davis losing to Meryl Streep in the Best Actress race — the telecast as a whole chugged along professionally and amusingly under Billy Crystal’s veteran watch. Here are my picks for the Five Most Memorable Moments of the 2012 Oscars, along with a list of the major winners!

Handing out the Best Visual Effects prize with Ben Stiller, Stone was so fearlessly zany that it elevated what could’ve been a dubious bit of shtick into something unexpectedly entertaining. ”Let’s not rush it: We should have some banter where you act cocky and I shut you down and you say I look pretty and I say ‘No chance funnyboy!’ and everybody laughs at you but you seem okay with it,” Stone breathlessly noted as she tried to brainstorm ways to spice up her first Oscar moment. But when the Zoolander actor told her “You don’t want to be the presenter who tries too hard,” Stone turned wonderfully icy. “What, like the guy who would dress up in full Avatar makeup or something? Or a green motion capture unitard or Joaquin Phoenix? I am surprised you’re not in a Planet of the Apes outfit,” she huffed. To which Stiller, who’d in fact rocked all those looks at Oscars ceremonies past, responded, “Wasn’t ready in time.”

Animated voiceover work allows a fat woman to play a skinny princess, a white man to play an Arabian prince, and a black man to play a donkey or a zebra, deadpanned Rock. And don’t believe actors who tell you how hard the job is, he added, noting that working for UPS or stripping wood are much more grueling professions. Rock then went on to hilariously describe the “easiest job in the world”: going into a sound booth, being fed lines like “It’s time to go to the store” or “It’s getting dark outside,” and earning $1 million. Here’s hoping some smart Oscar producer has already booked him for a much more strenuous role: Emceeing the 2013 ceremony.

It would’ve been delightful enough simply seeing the six hilarious stars of Bridesmaids — McCarthy and Byrne, along with Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Ellie Kemper — get gussied up and get their due on cinema’s biggest night. But McCarthy and Byrne, presenting the award for Documentary Feature, got the biggest laughs when a “heckler” interrupted their spiel by shouting “Scorsese!”, forcing the duo to whip out their mini vodka bottles and swig.

“When they called my name, I had this feeling I could hear half of America going ‘Oh no! Oh come on, why? Her. Again. But, whatever,” laughed Streep, collecting the Best Actress statuette for The Iron Lady. She then went on to thank her husband first (so her gratitude for him wouldn’t be drowned out by the orchestra, and he’d know “everything I value most in our lives, you’ve given me”); her longtime hair and makeup artist Roy Helland (a fellow winner during the ceremony for his work on The Iron Lady), who’s worked with Streep on every movie she’s done since Sophie’s Choice; and her friends and colleagues for “an inexplicably wonderful career.” A lovely and emotional climax to the evening — even for those of us who kinda wanted Viola Davis to win.