My Obligatory Oscar-related blog post
Nathan's Obligatory Oscar Post
Hey You Guys,
So the critical consensus seems to be that Jon Stewart's hosting of the Academy Awards hovers (to borrow the terms of my all-time favorite movie Elizabethtown) somewhere between a failure and a fiasco.
Well I say fuck the consensus. Also, Fuck Crash.
It increasingly looks like the only Oscar host Hollywood and television critics condone is Billy Crystal and that's probably because he's incredibly safe. He is a creature of Hollywood. Studio heads can sleep safe in the knowledge that despite Crystal's exceedingly mild satirical jabs at the end of the day he'd probably gladly sacrifice his children's internal organs if it meant Steven Spielberg would direct his script for "Father's Day Too".
Also I'm pretty sure that if Crystal hosted this year's Oscars it would consist nothing of Bruce Villanch-penned gay cowboy jokes. And I'm not just talking about the banter and the monologue. I'm talking about the whole ceremony. No awards would be given unless the winner promised beforehand to awkwardly deliver at least one Villanch-penned Brokeback crack.
But folks like Chris Rock, David Letterman and Jon Stewart frighten Hollywood because they're outsiders and Hollywood suspects that behind their barbed one-liners lies not Crystal's desperate eagerness to be loved but rather a genuine, deep contempt for Hollywood and the grotesque annual orgy of unearned self-love that is The Academy Awards.
I interviewed Matt Groening recently (forthcoming Matt Groening A.V Club interview plug holla!) and he talked about how back in the day he derived a lot of satisfaction from knowing that The Simpsons made the right people angry but that at a certain point The Simpsons got so big that even its cultural enemies had to profess affection for it lest they appear fatally out of touch. I think Jon Stewart has reached that level of fame as well.
The suits who run Hollywood may not get Stewart but their grand-children tell them he's all the rage on their campus and that they'll look like old fuddy duddies unless they embrace the unstoppable momentum of the Jon Stewart movement. See also this year's best song winner, which I have a hard time imagining the Jack Valentis of the world pumping in their hoopties while riding derrrtty, sipping on some syzzrup and smoking a fat blunt. So the Oscars hire Jon Stewart to bring a Daily Show vibe to the Oscars and then are disappointed and frustrated that he bought a biting Daily Show vibe to the Oscars. They'll go to the trouble of having him host the Oscars but draw the line at laughing too enthusiastically at his material or inviting him back.
Well I think he did a fantastic job. And I think the Colbert-narrated attack add spoofs were highly fucking sterical.
As for the rest of the show well, I'm glad a lot of very worthy favorite ended up winning and enraged by Crash's ultimate victory and by the grotesque parade of pretentious, self-important speeches made about The Art Of Cinema and its power to uplift the human condition.
Seriously, Hollywood's like a high-priced prostitute who thinks she merits sainthood on the basis of going to church once a year. The Oscars are the place where Hollywood annually orally gratifies itself in appreciation of the one or two percent of its output each year that actually bothers to try and say something substantive about the world we live in.
It's all a little depressing. Doncha think? So what about you, my beloved readers, what do you think of The Oscars?