David Fagin
Brie Larsen won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in the movie “Room.” It was one of the show’s highlights. (Photo: ABC)
As far as the usual desperate-for-laughs awards shows go, I have to say, the 88th Academy Awards ceremony did a great job of holding one’s interest. Unless, of course, you’re a staunch GOP supporter.
Diehard Republicans must have thought they were watching the Oscars on MSNBC.
Seeing icon after icon use their moment in the sun to dismantle and denounce everything from gay marriage bashers to global warming deniers had to be extremely painful. #Chuckle
As for the show itself, whether or not you approved of host Chris Rock’s scathing opening monologue, you have to agree, biting the hand that fed him took some serious chutzpah.
Rock’s calling out of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith was even more awesome.
But Rock’s joke about PWC auditors and little Asian and Jewish kids, caused a Twitter blow up over the Asian kids. Yet, no one was upset about the Jewish kid?! #WTF? #JewishLivesMatter
Some folks, like The Daily News’ Shaun King, thought he went too far–lynching grandma?–but, hey, ya gotta compete with cable!
Not to be overlooked, the Academy execs definitely deserved some credit. They must’ve known they were gonna take a beating and seemed to roll with it.
If they didn’t, I would’ve given anything to be in that control room last night.
Of course, the telecast being on ABC, they just had to get GMA’s Michael Strahan in there hamming it up with the nominees back stage. #Mistake.
I don’t know about you, but the “pre-game” stuff is just getting ridiculous.
I get the whole “reality” thing. The more back stage stuff you show these days, the more “We The Audience” are supposed to feel a part of it, blah, blah, blah.
But, how much more “pre-show” can you go?
I wouldn’t have been surprised if Strahan took the camera and stepped into Charlize Theron’s hotel room shower. And the improvised banter was just awful.
Watching the ex-defensive lineman trying to get Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling to play off each other, like some type of black-tie Abbott and Costello, was just painful.
The most awkward moment of the evening had to go to CNN”s Stacey Dash.
Her appearance ushering in Black History Month, which turned out to be an unfunny nod to Jack Black, as well as an attempt to poke fun at her anti-Oscar stance, fell flat on its face.
If I didn’t know any better, I would say the entire segment “blackfired.”
Honorable mention goes to Sam Smith who thought he was the first openly gay performer to win an Oscar. Ever hear of Elton John, Sam? Ever hear of Google?
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“Spotlight” winning Best Picture was the most shocking thing of the night, bar none. Next was seeing just how short Kevin Hart really is.
I mean, c’mon! Standing next to ABC’s Lara Spencer on the red carpet, the pint-sized comedian looked like he followed Mike T.V. through Willy Wonka’s Shrink Ray.
I kept waiting for the towering blonde to pick him up and put him in her purse.
Lastly, kudos to Leo for finally taking one home! Whether or not you thought his performance in “The Revenant” was Oscar worthy, you have to admit, there’s few actors around today with DiCaprio’s body of work who don’t possess a golden statue.
I thought was nothing short of spectacular, especially given the fact it took them over a year and a half to film the picture.
Beyond that, his interwoven acceptance speech mixing gratitude with a warning about global warming was brilliant and poignant. Honorable mention to Gaga and the sex abuse survivors. Classy.
David Fagin is a New York writer, producer and musician. His resume boasts an incredibly diverse range of contributions, from top news sites such as Salon, AOL News, Yahoo and The Huffington Post to a wide-range of humorous entities such as The Onion, The Muppets, Comedy Central, Dennis Miller, and Howard Stern. He is fascinated by technology and social media and the seemingly love/hate relationship we have with the changing world. He is also a food snob.David Fagin
The funniest moments of the night were not on the Oscars. Jimmy Kimmel’s blew the Awards show away with his post-Oscar show.
Kimmel’s hilarious Trump sketch, featuring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, was nothing short of brilliant.
Follow that up with a classic “Batman vs. Superman” parody featuring the actual stars, as well as several hilarious cameos from Matt Damon and it made the Oscar jokes look like, well… Oscar jokes.
I vote for Kimmel hosting next year’s telecast. And bring your writers with you, Jimmy.