This year’s Oscars host Chris Rock may have maintained a diplomatic silence on the #Oscarssowhite controversy in the run up to this year’s awards, but he pulled no punches on stage as he hosted the event live last night.
Rock launched straight into the debate from the stage in his opening speech: “I counted at least 15 black people on that montage,” the comedian joked. “I’m here at the Academy Awards. Otherwise known as the White People’s Choice Awards. You realise, if they nominated the host, I would’t even get this job! Y’all would be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now.
But here’s the crazy thing. This is the wildest, craziest Oscars to ever host because we got all this controversy — no black nominees. And people are like. “Chris, you should boycott! Chris, you should quit! You should quit.” How come it’s only unemployed people that tell you to quit something, you know? No one with a job ever tells you to quit. So I thought about quitting. I thought about it real hard, but I realised, “They’re gonna have the Oscars anyway.” They’re not gonna cancel the Oscars because I quit! And the last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart, OK? I don’t need that! Kev, right there [points to Hart in audience]. Kev make movies fast! Every month! Porno stars don’t make movies that fast.
Now the things is, what are we protesting — the big question: Why this Oscars? Why this Oscars, you know? It’s the 88th academy Awards. Which means this whole no black nominees thing has happened at least 71 other times. OK? You gotta figure that it happened in the ‘50s, in the ‘60s — you know like one of those years Sidney [Poitier] didn’t put out a movie, I’m sure there were no black nominees some of those years. Say ’65, ’62 or ’63 — and black people did not protest! Why? Because we had real things to protest at the time. We had real things to protest. We were too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematographer. When your grandmother’s swinging from a tree, it’s really hard to care about best documentary foreign short!”
Rock had some harsh words for Will Smith's wife Jada, who was one of the most vocal protesters about the alleged white bias at this year's event: "Jada went mad. Jada says she's not coming, protesting," he said. "I'm like, 'Ain't she on a TV show?' Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna's panties. I wasn't invited ... Jada's mad her man, Will, was not nominated for Concussion. I get it ...'It's not fair that Will was this good and didn't get nominated!' You're right! It's also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for Wild Wild West! OK?"
Rock concluded: “If you want black nominees every year, you need to just have black categories. That’s what you need. You need to have black categories. You already do it with men and women. Think about it! There’s no real reason for there to be a man and a woman category in acting! Come on! There’s no reason! It’s not track and field! You don’t have to separate them! Robert DeNiro’s never said, ‘I better slow this acting down so Meryl Streep can catch up!’ No! Not at all, man ... What I’m trying to say is it’s not about boycotting anything — it’s just we want opportunity. We want the black actors to get the same opportunities as white actors — that’s it ... Everything’s not about race, man. Another big thing tonight — somebody told me this — you’re not allowed to ask women what they’re wearing anymore. It’s a whole thing: #AskHerMore. ‘You have to ask her more! You ask the men more!’ Everything’s not sexism, everything’s not racism. They ask the men more because the men are all wearing the same outfits! Every guy in here is wearing the exact same thing! If George Clooney showed up with a lime green tux on, and a swan coming out of his ass, somebody would go, “Whatcha wearing’, George!”
Rock’s performance seemed to be well received both by the live audience and on social media. Author Steven King was among celebrity fans, Tweeting that Rock had “killed”it in his opening speech.
cnewbould@thenational.ae
