The Academy Awards have been notorious for unforgivable snubs, lack of representation, and of course, dramatic unscripted moments. From John Wayne being restrained from slapping Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather to Adrien Brody forcefully kissing Halle Berry while accepting his award, the Oscars have constantly been a stage of controversy.
This year’s wins seemed to offer some hope. CODA's Troy Kotsur became the first deaf man to win a Supporting Actor Oscar while West Side Story's Ariana DeBose became the first openly queer woman of colour in the Supporting Actress category. The Power of the Dog's Jane Campion emerged as the third woman director to win in her category. Riz Ahmed’s extremely timely commentary on British Islamophobia, The Long Goodbye, also took home the award for Best Live Action Short. And yet despite these iconic wins, the 2022 Oscars will be remembered only for Will Smith’s slap. Getting into the details behind that display of hypermasculinity will be futile as the internet is already filled with tens of thousands of explanations on the same. However, the slap wasn’t the only embarrassingly low point for this year’s ceremony.
Regina Hall turned groping into a joke
For the first time since 2018, the Oscars didn’t go hostless. This time, the ceremony was helmed by not one but three hosts: Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes. While the latter still seemed to be in her A-game, Hall and Schumer’s humour led to some awkward moments. Just take Hall’s coronavirus joke for instance. When Dune stars Jason Momoa and Josh Brolin walked up to the stage to present the award for Best Sound, Hall began to pat them down from top to bottom. Hall’s comedic justification for this sudden frisking? “I had to do a test for the coronavirus”. Whether this incident was scripted or not, it is unclear but it clearly seems like a joke in bad taste. If this weren’t enough, Hall also called up Bradley Cooper, Timothée Chalamet, Tyler Perry, and Simu Liu on stage for what she called a “quick emergency testing”. The host added that these men have to remove their masks and clothes so that she could swab the back of their mouth with her tongue. The four actors had a weird laugh and returned to their seats but Hall's COVID jokes (that hinted towards nothing but objectification) were definitely uncalled for. Chris Rock's infamous "GI Jane" joke anyway has raised debates on when a joke can go too far. Regina Hall can be another case study.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi got unnecessarily interrupted by Travis Barker's drums
In the post-Parasite era, it's a welcome change to see more and more non-English films get recognised in general categories other than just Best International Feature. Nominated for multiple awards, the Japanese drama Drive My Car ended up winning International Feature as director and screenwriter Ryusuke Hamaguchi walked to the stage. Now, as loyal Oscar viewers would know, the orchestra starts playing music whenever a winner's acceptance speech gets too long. Surprisingly, the band started playing just fifteen seconds after Hamaguchi even started his speech. Blink 182 alumnus Travis Barker had showed up to the ceremony with his various tattoos and his drumsticks. While his frivolous energy always makes for an exciting performance, his loud drumming was definitely not welcome at this moment. Hamaguchi insisted that he wasn't done following which Barker paused. No explanation has been given by the Academy yet but it did play out as a disrespectful move. It's not every day that a Japanese man can win at an American-dominated ceremony like the Oscars. On the contrary, costume designer Jenny Beavan spoke for nearly two minutes while accepting her award for Cruella, with the band resorting to some gentle piano music only in the very end of her speech. Regardless of who's to blame, this gives the idea that the Academy can give a white woman all the time she can have and cut off a Japanese man within seconds.
Amy Schumer’s punchline didn’t quite land the punch
Amy Schumer's jokes often follow a "hit-or-miss" routine and the Oscars were no exception. Schumer had a great start in the opening as she mocked 47-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio’s concerning age-gap with his various girlfriends (most of whom are in their early 20s). As Schumer put it, "He has done so much to fight climate change and leave behind a cleaner, greener planet for his girlfriends. Because he's older and they are younger. Okay, you get it." But towards the ceremony's final moments, Schumer just went on to randomly add the current Ukrainian crisis, women rights, and trans representation as an unnecessary punchline. "There's a genocide going on in Ukraine and women are losing all their rights…and trans people". Some might call it a satirical glimpse at the events plaguing the world right now but the throwaway remark has divided the internet right now. Some argue that Schumer's heart was at the right place while others feel that her delivery could have been more articulate.
Regardless, this moment wouldn't be as weird as the other fiascos of the Oscar night. Talking about trans people, it's worth mentioning how the ceremony's three hosts took sarcastic jabs at Florida and Texas' recent anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation. To quote Wanda Sykes, "We’re going to have a great night tonight. And for you people in Florida, we’re going to have a gay night."
by Shaurya Thapa
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