Kevin Hart says you won't ever see him opening up the Oscars as the host, because while he's fine doing standup in packed arenas and stadiums -- he says a theater full of A-listers is a tough room for comedians.
It's been 5 years since Kevin stepped down from the gig after old homophobic tweets surfaced, but that's not why he's advising other comics against the job ... instead, he's referring to something Jo Koy might've learned the hard way.
Kevin tells Sky News the Oscars got it right one year -- 2019, the year he backed out -- by using a bunch of personalities to cohost the ceremony throughout the evening, but they haven't gone back to that formula.
He admits he'd have an advantage hosting award shows, because he has so many established relationships with the guests -- but he says for others, it's a grind.
Basically, he says the days of comics hosting award shows, at least comfortably, are over Jo Koy might agree with that after his jokes about Taylor Swift and Barbie's "big boobs" bombed at the Golden Globes.
Kevin had Koy's back, though ... saying there's too much pressure now on what's considered jokes and what's not.
Jimmy Kimmel's returning for his fourth stint at the Oscars this year ... he's been relatively tame so far, so we'll be watching to see how his fresh batch of jokes go over.
BTW, we got another big-time comedian to weigh in on Jo's handling of the job -- namely, Anthony Anderson ... and he seems to be in alignment with Kev here on how tough of a gig these types of award shows are.
As he told us at LAX this week ... you get with your writers and do the best you can with the amount of time you're given. In Jo's case, he says he had about a week before showtime. Noted!