Why I'm skipping the Oscars this year

Townhall.com ^ | 13 January 2006 | Ben Shapiro

[DoughtyOne]

I never was a big fan of the Oscars.  Even as a kid it used to rub me the wrong way watching folks heap praises upon themselves.

Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda are two more reasons why I don't watch.  Seriously, it wasn't enough that they were praised for their work, they had to use the bully pulpit provided for presenters or acceptance speeches to denegrate our nation or damn Israel.  These folks actually thought I gave a s--t what they thought.  Who needs em?

Then there's the oversaturation of the awards type programs.  There used to be two or three awards programs per year.  Now there seems like 52.  Every time you turn around, some entertainment group is rolling over in the self-gratification wallow.  Puleeeeeease!

As much as the entertainment people seem to think otherwise, theirs is not the group that drives America.  Dads and Moms do.  Give an award to the best coal miner last year.  Show me the home-school mother of the year.  Let me see a guy or gal whose made personal improvements sure to enhance their families or communities.

As a nation, we really do spend too much time slobbering over people who work in the entertainment industry.  Entertainment Tonight, Extra and other programs feed the gasping masses a steady stream of which starlet just broke out in zits.  Does anyone really care when one of these folks breaks up for the 36th time?  Am I supposed to care that one of them names their out of wedlock child Brickbat?  Is it really national news when one of them is arrested dead drunk behind the wheel?  Do I care that they just got out of rehab for the sixth time?  H E double L no!

Here's a note to the entertainment industry.  Folks, I don't find it entertaining to watch people act out homosexual scenes or lifestyles.  As a segment that represents between 1 and 3% of our populace, why must the other 97 to 99% of us watch what can only be termed as one of the most disgusting displays we could imagine?  It's not entertaining to watch an efeminate male do much of anything.  It's not enticing to watch a dyke female do much of anything.  I'm a heterosexual male, and most of us identify with folks like us.  Most women identify with the heterosexual female.  Where's your audience folks?  What the hell are you thinking?

Believe it or not the arts can actually be a positive enhancement to a society.  Can anyone say today that the arts are a positive enhancement to ours?  Overall, I'd say they are not.  Of course there are exceptions, and I appreciate them, but overall the entertainment industy does not attempt to be uplifting, no just the opposite.  Even movies marketed to children must have the subtle or not so subtle adult humor thrown in.  One ponders if there is a single mind in the children's oriented entertainment industry that can fathom that parents might actually take their children to a movie, just to see "them" enjoy it.

If the entertainment industry would like an award, I'll suggest one that might actually be worthwhile.  It's the Clean Up Your Act award.  At this time in our nation's history it wouldn't bell all that hard to earn one.  Allmost anything would be an improvement.  Yes, I'd like to see them win some of those and I'd actually tune in to watch.

[Brilliant]

I skip the Oscars every year.

[originalbuckeye]

I like to watch to see the dresses. That being said, I'm never that interested in the the show after the red-carpet parade. I got it a long time ago...it's just them giving awards to themselves.

[originalbuckeye]

I like to watch to see the dresses. That being said, I'm never that interested in the the show after the red-carpet parade. I got it a long time ago...it's just them giving awards to themselves.

[Allegra]

I just bought the bootleg of that movie today. I'm looking forward to watching it.

(I'm not trying to rip anybody off. It's the only way we can see releases that haven't gone to DVD yet.)

[mewzilla]

You'll love it. Hopefully you got the Bugs Bunny cartoon, too. It's the one where Bugs tries to get a little penguin back home. Awwwww. They don't make toons like that anymore.

[Milhous]

Chris Rock taught us last year that ONLY GAYS WATCH OSCARS.

[wizardoz]

the Oscar telecast is the gay superbowl

... and I can't tell the players from the cheerleaders.

[aquila48]

"Skipping it this year? Heck, I can't remember the last time I even watched the thing."

Or actually gone out to see a movie. I've become allergic to anything having to do with showbiz!

[RushLake]

"There are two I would like to see on DVD--Downfall and The Great Raid."

Both of them are well worth the time. I saw them both in the theater last year. While waiting to get into The Great Raid we were treated to the ranting of a couple of '60s libs carrying on about the evils of the Iraq war. They were looking forward to seeing "Raid" because it portrayed a bad side of America, our failure to rescue the POWs sooner. I reminded them that their boy FDR was the president and his priorities were elsewhere during that era.

[longfellow]

"Oscars,.... What's that??"

[Jack Deth]

Hi, GeorgefromGeorgia:

The last time I sat and watched the Oscars, "Patton" was the big winner.

Jack.

[shagbark]

the last award show I watched was in 1975. When the awardees were tripping all over each other praising the communist victory in Vietnam. Can anybody beat that?

[HHFi]

I also prefer movies with birds to movies with birdbrains. If you liked "March of the Penguins," check out another great documentary from 2005, "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill." All the parrots in my house give it two claws up. It just came out on DVD. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BB1534/qid=1137360403/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6876502-3190446?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130

[Clintonfatigued]

If Hollywood wants to stay in buniness, they'd better get off their silly soapboxes and stick to entertaining us.

I know a lady who watched "Brokeback Mountain" to see what all the fuss was about. She said that the music and scenery were beautiful, but otherwise it was DULL, DULL, DULL!!!

If it wins Best Picture, there's no doubt that these awards are given out for reasons not related to artistic merit.

[HP8753]

Oscar who??? ;-)

[Publius6961]

I wrote this column about 30 years ago.
I just didn't share it...

[x]

Still, Hollywood had to take a shot at mainstream America, and they found their vehicle in "Philadelphia," throwing their honorary liberal activism award to Tom Hanks for his weak performance as a dying AIDS-stricken gay lawyer in "Philadelphia." Unbelievably, Hanks' cheesy hospital-bed routine beat out Liam Neeson in "Schindler's List" and Daniel Day Lewis in "In the Name of the Father." "Philadelphia" is, clinically speaking, a maudlin, ham-handed attempt at social commentary.

Yeah, but the "dying guy" thing had a lot to do with it. More than anything political it's the "Rain Man," "My Left Foot," "Shine" syndrome -- alter your appearance enough, play someone with a serious enough disease or condition and you're on track for an Oscar. The next year they gave it to Hanks again for "Forrest Gump" -- a conservative picture, but a "Rain Man"-like role.

Of course the awards are nonsense. The Academy basically gives the award out in recognition that at some point the actor or actress has done or will do quality work, even if they aren't at their best or the best of the year in the particular movie that they win the prize for.

[Cedar]

If the other networks and cable stations are really smart, they'll broadcast the movie "Patton" or do a live concert of the Eagles or Toby Keith while the Oscar show is on the air.

Those networks would surely pull in a big audience -- lots of folks don't want to watch the Oscars and just look for something better. Put on a big special, and they would get the viewers.

[HHFi]

Yeah, but the "dying guy" thing had a lot to do with it. More than anything political it's the "Rain Man," "My Left Foot," "Shine" syndrome -- alter your appearance enough, play someone with a serious enough disease or condition and you're on track for an Oscar. The next year they gave it to Hanks again for "Forrest Gump" -- a conservative picture, but a "Rain Man"-like role.

My wife is an actress and I've done a bit of it, too, and worked in the theater. Any actor will tell you that the hardest thing to do is comedy, but they never reward comedians because the good ones make it look easy (think of how effortless Cary Grant made his roles seem, but try to imagine anyone else doing them half as well). Putting on a lot of prosthetics and drooling and stuttering is the easiest way to get cheap sympathy, but it always wins awards, even though the actors voting on the Oscars should know better. That's why people like Chaplin, Keaton, the Marx Brothers, etc., always get honorary Oscars when they're over 80 or dead instead of getting them when they're doing their best work.