The Oscars

Will Smith exhibited such a low level of behaviour I may never watch again. Just pathetic..He should be banned from all future Is ar ceremonies and stripped of his Oscar. If your a comedian, u better beware. It's a demonstration of rules for some and no rules for others. The way to vote is not the watch any of his films and to avoid the Oscars unless they take action.

I really wasn't sure if I would wind up watching the full Oscars broadcast this year.

Due to my job situation and various other factors (including a severe lack of enthusiasm toward most of the nominees), I felt that this might be the year that I break tradition and sit one out, making it the first ceremony since 2012 that I, alas, had to forgo. Not that this felt like a huge loss; I mean, when you read that the presenters include the likes of Megan Thee Stallion and DJ Khaled, that should tell you exactly how much you ought to care about the Academy Awards at this point. (I even forgot to mention Questlove in my review of last year's show, and how he now "DJs" the Oscars because they've really gotten that desperate for broader, younger viewership.)

Truth is, I ultimately did skip the show. And... wow! Wow, did I pick the wrong night to sleep in! I don't need to bore you with all the various takes on the Chris Rock-Will Smith altercation and Jada Pinkett Smith, but I can definitely say that this has been one of the most eye-opening moments of discourse in Twitter history -- in terms of the sheer number of people telling on themselves in such a short while:

We now know precisely who has a proclivity to justify battery (or even hissy-fit slap fights) and which excuses they may use. We know who to mute for their readiness to use a moment like this to lecture us on "black on black violence", "toxic masculinity" (depending on which aisle you're in, but that lens really doesn't seem to get used much when the punches are dealt in the name of a woman's honor, which is even funnier), and even Vladimir Putin somehow. We know whose media comprehension is still intact enough that they could see Smith, our hero, laughing along at Rock's joke before suddenly running up to do what I've admittedly wanted to do to Chris Rock ever since his claim that voice acting is inherently "easier" than "real" acting. We know who has sacrificed objectivity for Smith family fanboyism, that Jaden might not be the most unstable member of said family after all, AND that this was apparently "staged" all along to garner press, boost ratings, and also distract from the war in Ukraine ergo we're ALL suckers. Lastly, we know who's smart enough to just make baldness/cuckoldry memes out of the whole thing.

As of this writing, I feel like the deranged takes have only just begun. And really, all I wanna do tonight is focus on the few things that didn't suck about the ceremony:

• Jessica Chastain taking the time to attend the non-televised awards out of respect for her colleagues on the film The Eyes of Tammy Faye, whose Hair and Makeup award was handed out during this pre-taped segment. This was an inordinate display of empathy towards the "plebs" on the part of a Hollywood celebrity, but it's still deeply hilarious that certain, "less important" awards were removed from the live telecast in an effort to shorten it -- something that didn't actually happen. In fact, this was the longest Oscars ceremony since 2018. Are you even really that surprised?

• Troy Kotsur winning Best Supporting Actor for CODA and giving a damn fine speech. Yuh-Jung Youn, another treasure and the winner of last year's Supporting Actress prize (Minari), had also learned sign language for the announcement, making it all the more moving. I dunno, it's just nice to be reminded that there are people in the film industry who just, like, aren't complete sh-t, you know?

• The unintentional morbid hilarity of the upbeat music choice for the "In Memoriam" segment.

• Bringing in half of the galaxy-brained duo behind "WAP" during the performance of "We Don't Talk About Bruno" because, like I said, this is the level of desperation ABC's at.

Those are the only real moments of note that I can think of right now. Thank you so much for reading this half-review! Remember to take good care of yourself and to be happy that the show at least wasn't being hosted by Ricky Gervais, or Will Smith might've "had to" straight-up go full Tsar Bomba on his ass.

Oscar, 94, was found dead today from unnatural causes. Having been on life support for many years now, the once prestigious awards night for artistic and technical merit in the film industry, died from complications of no longer being regarded by many as the most significant awards in the entertainment industry worldwide. That all came to an end today as the Oscars stopped celebrating the arts and the achievement in cinema. It had now turned into a sheltered celebration for the selected elite. Although it is important that the Academy Awards showcased the talent from diverse communities and helped educate and influence the film world, it failed not to include a large faction of the film community which remained vacant from its award night for several years. Although the night before Oscars death, the Academy Awards received more news coverage in its 94 year existence, it had nothing to do with cinema or the arts. Instead, the only relevant exposure Oscar received in the last ten years was when something went wrong. Whether this be a slap, naming the wrong film or just being political, Oscar has been losing its way and its audience for decades. Although Oscar was a night for the Hollywood system to give itself a pat on the back for most of its life, Oscar had many memorable moments with several films and performances. Sadly, Oscar had slowly been losing its audience for over the last thirty years. Knowing this was effecting its life, Oscar stayed the course and chose not to change its way. To compete with ratings, the funeral will be televised and the event will not be open to the general public. In care of flowers, please make a donation to any independent filmmakers that works outside of Hollywood.

Has there been a show that's been so shallow, awful, and boring that the only noteworthy thing was when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock and cussed him out for mentioning his wife? That's right.

Everything about this show was a disaster. From the planning, from the meddling, from the awful writing, and the slap which I'm sure was not work or scripted in any ways.

The worst bit about the writing is when they called animated movies "Kiddy" and "Movies that only children should watch". This is not only an insult to any animator, animation company, or animation fan, but it's just stereotyping animation as a kid's medium... when it's not. There are animated movies made for adults as well, which I guess the writers never knew about. If this was satire, then it's not funny.

Overall, I don't think the Oscars will EVER improve after what happened here, and it's sad when a slap is more noteworthy than the rest of the SHOW. So much for it being "The greatest night in the history of television!"

I am old enough to remember when The Oscars were all just about movies and rewarding the best in cinematic achievements from the year prior, not trying to preach politics, tell bland and rather cringe inducing jokes that anybody could write or say without seeing a dime for it, and certainly not display the kind of unprofessionalism that your Will Smith did live in front of millions of viewers by getting up on stage and slapping Chris Rock just for a joke. The two new categories, fan favorite and best moment or something along those lines, feel like something you would expect from the MTV Movie & TV Awards, but not the Academy Awards, and neither were even very well thought out either. Probably the only highlight of the program was Kevin Costner's speech before awarding Best Director, if only the rest of the program was like that, at least Sir Kenneth Branagh and Sir Anthony Hopkins also understood the mission and tried to keep things short and professional.