The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

[CaptinEO]

This seems to be the prevailing sentiment on Twitter too, and I was going to come to this thread to say the same thing.

The number as shown in the movie had so much potential to translate to the Oscars stage, in part because the staging in the movie is already pretty theatrical. Disappointed we never heard some of the song's best parts (Dolores' whisper rap, Camilo's song, and the entirety of the polyphonic mashup we hear at the end of the song).

Oh well. At least we got an amazing performance of Dos Oroguitas.

Such a missed opportunity. It's a great broadway style number and they missed the whole big reprise at the end.

 

[CaptinEO]

Still waiting to see the TV ratings for Disney's ABC-TV Oscars broadcast this year.

It didn't help that the violent physical assault of host Chris Rock by a clearly unhinged Will Smith happened late in the show. If they were trying to create interest in a dying concept, keeping the mentally unstable physical violence until the third hour doesn't help. Run the violence from the mentally deranged folks at the start, so people tune in quickly and bump your ratings!

Also, I absolutely love that Will Smith was allowed to calmly take his seat after his violent assault. And then 20 minutes later get called up to accept Best Actor.

Can you imagine if the guy running the Dolby Theatre snack bar had walked up and smacked one of the hosts on stage? Or if a Floridian had gone up onstage and slapped Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes after they made fun of them for the way they vote in state elections? Those folks would be deep, deep, deep inside the Los Angeles County Jail by now.

I find the whole thing somewhat disturbing, the joke about his diseased wife, and then the attack, and then everyone just ignoring the fact someone was literally assaulted on stage.

Isn't Hollywood always boasting about how they are the moral high ground and the good guys? Then they see an assault happen in front of them and no one does anything.

Will Smith should've been kicked out of the venue and talked to by the police. The Academy thinks this behavior is OK?

Sure, let him hang out in the event after attacking another human being and committing a crime. Great idea Academy.

What's next year's brawl going to be?

 

[TP2000]

I find the whole thing somewhat disturbing, the joke about his diseased wife, and then the attack, and then everyone just ignoring the fact someone was literally assaulted on stage.

Isn't Hollywood always boasting about how they are the moral high ground and the good guys? Then they see an assault happen in front of them and no one does anything.

Will Smith should've been kicked out of the venue and talked to by the police. The Academy thinks this behavior is OK?

Sure, let him hang out in the event after attacking another human being and committing a crime. Great idea Academy.

What's next year's brawl going to be?

None of it makes sense. Even for Hollywood. They've completely lost any ability to lecture anyone about anything.

Who Americans choose to vote for. Fossil fuel use. Physical violence. Any mention of basic morality of any kind.

The three hostesses kicked off the show by making fun of Florida voters, but never mentioned Putin or Russia.

And the stupidest part is that they held the physical assault until the very end, after Nielsen had already captured their low ratings for the night! Idiots.

 

[No Name]

Happy Earth Hour everyone!

I just turned on all the lights in the house, plus all the extra outside lights, and started a load of laundry and the load of dishes in the dishwasher I'd been saving all day. Now I'm going to watch a Blu-Ray on the biggest TV in the house.

Doin' my part!

This is villain behavior.

 

[CaptinEO]

None of it makes sense. Even for Hollywood. They've completely lost any ability to lecture anyone about anything.

Who Americans choose to vote for. Fossil fuel use. Physical violence. Any mention of basic morality of any kind.

The three hostesses kicked off the show by making fun of Florida voters, but never mentioned Putin or Russia.

And the stupidest part is that they held the physical assault until the very end, after Nielsen had already captured their low ratings for the night! Idiots.

I have to agree. All the baloney about being the better people, while selling out to human rights abuse countries like China, having millions of trees killed to make posters for their movies, materials
mined to make discs for their films to sell.

And now an assault happens in a room with thousands of these actors and directors and no one does anything. Then the guy committing the assault gets an award 30 minutes later and talks about love.

 

[Californian Elitist]

 

[Californian Elitist]

I can’t with y’all.

 

[ParkPeeker]

Regarding the encanto live song, sure we didn’t get the broadway esque polyphony, but it was a nice surprise to have Megan thee stallion pop up and do an oscar tailored rap. It totally makes up for the non broadway type ending, cause fun surprises like this are what makes live performances more exciting, hearing a variation of something that you may have already heard ad nauseammmm.


Regarding Will Smith, he reacted impulsively, and went too far. But Chris Rock did an insensitive joke about Jada and her Alopecia, and he had already done jokes on the Smiths before. Also the Penelope joke beforehand was sexist, idk if anyone picked up on that cause it’s normalized to find the dynamic he framed for the joke as funny. I don’t know, I don’t feel mad at Will Smith for what he did even though he went too far after Chris went too far

 

[Sir_Cliff]

I find the whole thing somewhat disturbing, the joke about his diseased wife, and then the attack, and then everyone just ignoring the fact someone was literally assaulted on stage.

Isn't Hollywood always boasting about how they are the moral high ground and the good guys? Then they see an assault happen in front of them and no one does anything.

Will Smith should've been kicked out of the venue and talked to by the police. The Academy thinks this behavior is OK?

Sure, let him hang out in the event after attacking another human being and committing a crime. Great idea Academy.

What's next year's brawl going to be?

This has been a surprising issue for me as I didn't think it would be as polarising as it has been, so it does seem to have exposed some kind of divisions usually hidden beneath the surface.

Watching it live (and uncensored over here), the most remarkable part of it was that Will Smith was able to just sit back down and be applauded, greeted with hugs, standing ovations, etc. by his celebrity friends for the rest of the night. We've just had a few years discussing people looking the other way and ignoring bad behaviour by the rich and famous, and it kind of looked like we were watching that play out in real time. Maybe it's just me, but that was the most striking thing about the whole incident.

His acceptance speech also seemed pretty toxic to me. Again, though, I have been surprised to see how many people online at least seem to find something admirable in his sense of "protecting" of his wife. Also didn't love Chris Rock's jokes, but it seems a dangerous precedent to me if we normalise the idea you can just get up and hit a comedian if they make a joke that is insensitive or you don't like.

Again, though, this really seems to be seen very differently by different people which must say something.

 

[Phroobar]

I think it is all pretty much standard behavior for Will Smith if you read his autobiography. The guy is a workaholic. He makes some pretty dumb decisions sometimes that cost him big time.

Will

The instant #1 New York Times bestseller! “It's the be…

www.goodreads.com

 

[TP2000]

I have to agree. All the baloney about being the better people, while selling out to human rights abuse countries like China, having millions of trees killed to make posters for their movies, materials
mined to make discs for their films to sell.

And now an assault happens in a room with thousands of these actors and directors and no one does anything. Then the guy committing the assault gets an award 30 minutes later and talks about love.

It's almost as if it's satire. Or a funny article in The Onion or Babylon Bee. But it's real. On live TV.

You could not make up this level of insanity if you tried.

Watching it live (and uncensored over here), the most remarkable part of it was that Will Smith was able to just sit back down and be applauded, greeted with hugs, standing ovations, etc. by his celebrity friends for the rest of the night.

Wasn't it bizarre? I hadn't stared slack jawed at the TV like that in many years. One of the weirdest and most bizarre spectacles of awful human behavior I'd seen play out on national TV ever.

Will Smith sucker-slapped a man for saying words. Workplace violence rules apparently don't apply in Hollywood.

His acceptance speech also seemed pretty toxic to me. Again, though, I have been surprised to see how many people online at least seem to find something admirable in his sense of "protecting" of his wife.

Will Smith is quite clearly not well. He and his wife have a very publicly, um, tenuous relationship. You want to feel badly for him, but the fact he laughed for the first few moments until he noticed his wife was upset, then stormed on stage and hit the man hosting the Oscars for a GI Jane joke and then seemed to have a small emotional melt down in his front row seat just makes you afraid for your safety if you are sitting near him.

His acceptance speech was utterly bizarre. You could kind of see his career flashing before his eyes as he tried to claim he was a protector of women. Or something.

Just when you think the Oscars couldn't get worse... And yet, this all played out in the last half hour of the show, after the TV ratings had already tanked for the night!

 

[CaptinEO]

It's almost as if it's satire. Or a funny article in The Onion or Babylon Bee. But it's real. On live TV.

You could not make up this level of insanity if you tried.



Wasn't it bizarre? I hadn't stared slack jawed at the TV like that in many years. One of the weirdest and most bizarre spectacles of awful human behavior I'd seen play out on national TV ever.

Will Smith sucker-slapped a man for saying words. Workplace violence rules apparently don't apply in Hollywood.



Will Smith is quite clearly not well. He and his wife have a very publicly, um, tenuous relationship. You want to feel badly for him, but the fact he laughed for the first few moments until he noticed his wife was upset, then stormed on stage and hit the man hosting the Oscars for a GI Jane joke and then seemed to have a small emotional melt down in his front row seat just makes you afraid for your safety if you are sitting near him.

His acceptance speech was utterly bizarre. You could kind of see his career flashing before his eyes as he tried to claim he was a protector of women. Or something.

Just when you think the Oscars couldn't get worse... And yet, this all played out in the last half hour of the show, after the TV ratings had already tanked for the night!

It's very odd that Will Smith and his wife capitalize on their bad relationship with a podcast. They know its bad when they turn it into an entertainment product.

From the clips I've seen I'd agree theres some kind of mental illness going on. Lots of issues, not sure if its fame or money or both that does that to people, but certainly seems different from my definition of normal.

The joke that the oscars joke writer made for Chris Rock was absolutely in bad taste, but the walking up, slapping, then sitting down and yelling? So odd to me.

I'm sure he was in the moment, but most women don't want a man to punch someone for their "honor". He should've said something towards Chris about his wife's condition and left it at that, the slap was what made him look bad.

 

[Californian Elitist]

It's very odd that Will Smith and his wife capitalize on their bad relationship with a podcast. They know its bad when they turn it into an entertainment product.

From the clips I've seen I'd agree theres some kind of mental illness going on. Lots of issues, not sure if its fame or money or both that does that to people, but certainly seems different from my definition of normal.

The joke that the oscars joke writer made for Chris Rock was absolutely in bad taste, but the walking up, slapping, then sitting down and yelling? So odd to me.

Mental illness?

 

[CaptinEO]

Mental illness?

Yes. Even the way he talks about himself it reminds me of a friend I had when he become schizophrenic in his 20s.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Not afraid for your safety…

 

[Californian Elitist]

Yes. Even the way he talks about himself it reminds me of a friend I had when he become schizophrenic in his 20s.

Schizophrenia, wow. So he’s possibly hearing voices in his head. Okay.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Both Chris Rock and Will Smith were wrong for their actions. Smith shouldn’t have gone up there on that huge stage and punched Rock on live tv. But the way some of y’all are talking…

I sense another temporary hiatus coming soon.

 

[CaptinEO]

Schizophrenia, wow. So he’s possibly hearing voices in his head. Okay.

That's correct. It was very sad. He had a type of messiah complex that came as a result of it. He was convinced he was responsible for accomplishments in world history (some of which occurred before he was even born) and told everyone he was God.

Very sad situation.

 

[CaptinEO]

The way Will calls himself the protector of women and families was just like the comments this friend of mine would make.

He is even crying over it. He is serious when he says this stuff and believes it.

Not trying to make fun or light of mental illness and I'm not a doctor, just my observation from someone who has seen this type of behavior.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Wasn't it bizarre? I hadn't stared slack jawed at the TV like that in many years. One of the weirdest and most bizarre spectacles of awful human behavior I'd seen play out on national TV ever.

Will Smith sucker-slapped a man for saying words. Workplace violence rules apparently don't apply in Hollywood.

I don't know if it was just me, but I kept waiting for something to happen in the room and it just... didn't. He just kept sitting there front and centre for the rest of the show apparently laughing and having a great time, almost like the king of ceremonies while all his celebrity friends rallied around him. It was very weird.

Again, it really felt like they were trying to show on live television that the rules that apply to the rest of us don't apply to celebrities.

Will Smith is quite clearly not well. He and his wife have a very publicly, um, tenuous relationship. You want to feel badly for him, but the fact he laughed for the first few moments until he noticed his wife was upset, then stormed on stage and hit the man hosting the Oscars for a GI Jane joke and then seemed to have a small emotional melt down in his front row seat just makes you afraid for your safety if you are sitting near him.

His acceptance speech was utterly bizarre. You could kind of see his career flashing before his eyes as he tried to claim he was a protector of women. Or something.

It was a strange and kind of disturbing speech. If I had a partner who talked like that I would run a mile and try and get my children away from them. They can do what they want with their marriage I guess, but his view of his role in the world and particularly in relation to women was quite something.

I've been trying to figure out quite why it was so shocking to watch unfold. I think one aspect of it is that it is disturbing to see how quickly the line between a very genteel evening and violence (even if not that extreme) dissolved, which suggests how thin that line is more generally. Another aspect is that Will Smith must be one of the most famous people in the world and he has a particularly genial and laid back public persona. You rarely see the mask slip for individuals like that with your own eyes, but it felt like we did last night.