Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I thought Jon Stewart did a fine job. How high do you want to set the bar for this kind of gig, anyway?
Oscars, yawn. Awards doled out to a-list celebrities by other a-list celebrities. Perhaps Bush should invade Hollywood and install a democratic system of selecting who gets the gold little men. Yawn.
Did we watch the same show? Jon Stewart brought exactly what you would expect of him--a detached, self-mocking attitude and some hilarious jokes. I laughed through his entire monologue and thought that a lot of the bits, which I imagine he had a lot of say in, were really good, such as Tom Hanks getting beaten with a violin, and the mock-political ads. I feel like you just couldn't wait to get to your computer and declare that the whole thing sucked, including Jon Stewart. I am not sure what you were expecting from him though. That was pretty much our guy from the Daily Show beat for beat.
Jon was good, very good. The Russell Crowe 'looking like he got into a fight' joke, that killed. I mean, his opening monologue wasn't perfect, but that's Jon. You need to watch an episode of the Daily Show sometime Ms. Wilson, as even the biggest fan of the show can tell you: the jokes don't always work.
Oh, and the Martin Scorsese/Three Six Mafia joke was priceless.
Hell, Jon was even smart enough to allow the disembodied voice of Stephen Colbert to tag along. Colbert's segments of candidate bashing were some of the funniest things in the damn show.
Reese getting the oscar is nowhere near the conspiracy you pegged it to be. Sure, we all wanted Felicity to get the award, but even Salon.com readers recognize the very small gap between Reese and Felicity, with 6 points seperating them in the poll.
Get off your g.d. high horse before it bucks you off into the mud.
It may be getting less hard out here for a pimp, but it's getting harder to tolerate alarmist A&E writers by the moment. I'm personally waiting for the most flamboyant backlash ever, should be a ball.
Cintra Wilson is to Salon what she thinks Jon Stewart was to Oscars. Booorrring.
Ahh, poor Cintra. Your night was ruined by the lack of dirty words, was it? Love to give you my phone number. I could talk dirty to you whenever you like. Actually, as a practicing foul-mouthed bastard, I rather enjoy not having to listen to it when I watch TV. Yes, I know, the world is full of pain and suffering, hate and war, but forgive me if I don't feel as if anyone is trying to disguise that fact when men in tuxedos and women in evening gowns don't scream FUCK in my face. Maybe it ruined your night, as for me, I find it kind of fucking refreshing...bitch!
If you will notice, there are links to five previous Oscar reviews by Cintra Wilson posted at the end of this article. And they all say basically the same thing. That's what I'd call "crushingly boring".
Although the description of Jennifer Lopez was spot on!
What is up with her? I thought John was fine. As someone said his Three Six Mafia / Scorsese joke made the whole show almost worth watching. And the Oscars was what its always been. Its true there really were no surprises and no scandal. But it certainly wasn't the drone fest that Cintra makes it out to be. In fact it seems like she's just writing the article to create a controversy out of nothing.
The real question is, why did Salon put her covering the oscars instead of someone who has a clue like Stephanie Zacharek? Maybe we would have gotten some interesting commentary, instead of a teenage socialite review.
I have read every one of Cintra WIlson's Oscar reviews for the past few years or so; I used to look forward to them more than the Oscars. But this year she gets everything wrong -- maybe she needs more time to revise the piece and smooth it out (the transitions, by the way, are horrible -- totally unlike her). The Oscars this year were bad, but not in the way she claims -- I think this was one case where they were so bad, they were good.
I mean: "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" gets BEST SONG? Where is Wilson's comment on that embarrassing (but hilarious and wonderful -- the high point of the evening) moment? Jon Stewart's joke afterwards - "Martin Scorcese 0, Three-Six Mafia 1" -- so great. His segments where Stephen Colbert did the voiceovers about the Best Actress and Sound Editing nominees -- so funny. Jon couldn't be completely "irreverent," as Gil Cates tried to call him in an effort to please all the boring Academy members, but he was still ten times better than previous hosts ("I want to send some love out to our troops overseas," etc. You had none of that.)
So I can't believe that Wilson only comments on the most ridiculous part of the evening -- a "Pimp" song winning -- in a boring, "why censorship?" tone. I mean, those guys with their crazy teeth and incoherent shout-outs ("thank you Jesus!" I think one of them yelled, and another followed with "Thank you George Clooney!") And Crash, a pitiful movie -- Wilson should comment more on that.
I've read her two books, I read all her articles. I am so disappointed.
His joke about pulling down the statue and letting democracy reign in Hollywood was great, as was his joke about pirating videos. "These are the people you are stealing from!" The problem was the audience's inability to laugh at itself. They wanted someone cutting edge and funny, but the joke was never to be on them. Can't have it both ways. That they laughed at Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep just proved they really don't know funny when they see it. I found that whole bit very uncomfortable. I don't like it when people say Jon Stewart sucked. How funny could he be anyway? His political ads and film montages (loved the gay cowboy montage) were stepping stones through a long and boring show. I really enjoyed them. You're right about the stars though. We used to have some tough people who were not afraid to say what they thought. Who will fill their shoes? No one, I guess. About Reese Witherspoon and P. S. Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix was better than both of them. Her performance was totally unremarkable compared to JP's.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
