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Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 6:36 am
by mlrg
Big Magilla wrote:
Sonic Youth wrote:But the problem, Magilla - putting aside that I don't go along with your premise anyway - is that the show prepares for most jokes in advance. The speeches are not prepared in advance by the shows producers, and so they don't know that all the speeches collectively are going to be the tonal opposite of the rest of the broadcast.

I must admit, I laughed at the dress joke and the inappropriateness didn't strike me until I read DWS' comment. I get everyone's point, but if Perry took it in good spirits and Inarritu took Sean Penn's joke in good spirits, then I think we should just put it behind us, IMO.
I was once forced by HR to fire one of my best employees for passing around a sheet of "Mexican" jokes despite the fact that the woman was half-Mexican and her boyfriend, also an excellent employee, was a naturalized citizen born in Mexico.

Only in America!!!

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 4:48 am
by Big Magilla
And yet the most venom by the media seems to have been spewed at Patricia Arquette for her equal pay speeches, both in her acceptance and back stage. In the New York Magazine's recap, she received 7 of the 10 angriest responses while Sean Penn's "green card" comment received 2 and NPH's "treason" comment received one.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/20 ... -said.html

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 5:53 pm
by Sonic Youth
Edited.
I withdraw the question. Filmfan720's right. It's of very little consequence.

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 5:32 pm
by Big Magilla
Sonic Youth wrote:But the problem, Magilla - putting aside that I don't go along with your premise anyway - is that the show prepares for most jokes in advance. The speeches are not prepared in advance by the shows producers, and so they don't know that all the speeches collectively are going to be the tonal opposite of the rest of the broadcast.

I must admit, I laughed at the dress joke and the inappropriateness didn't strike me until I read DWS' comment. I get everyone's point, but if Perry took it in good spirits and Inarritu took Sean Penn's joke in good spirits, then I think we should just put it behind us, IMO.
Not to belabor the point, but this was not a prepared joke like the Snowden treason remark obviously was unless the writers had advance knowledge of what she would be wearing and that she would win. Someone made it up when she came on and someone, the show's director perhaps, should have yelled into NPH's headpiece not to use it after that speech. Frankly I didn't get the double meaning as I wasn't paying attention to the "balls" on her dress. I thought he meant it exactly the way it sounded and couldn't figure out why the hell he would say something like that.

Penn's remark was inexcusable. I don't care if Inarritu thought it was funny. In the business world he could have been fired for making such a "joke". I was once forced by HR to fire one of my best employees for passing around a sheet of "Mexican" jokes despite the fact that the woman was half-Mexican and her boyfriend, also an excellent employee, was a naturalized citizen born in Mexico.

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 5:31 pm
by Big Magilla
Sorry, I fucked up the quote. I fixed the original post. The last part was mine.

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 5:29 pm
by Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth wrote:But the problem, Magilla - putting aside that I don't go along with your premise anyway - is that the show prepares for most jokes in advance. The speeches are not prepared in advance by the shows producers, and so they don't know that all the speeches collectively are going to be the tonal opposite of the rest of the broadcast.

I must admit, I laughed at the dress joke and the inappropriateness didn't strike me until I read DWS' comment. I get everyone's point, but if Perry took it in good spirits and Inarritu took Sean Penn's joke in good spirits, then I think we should just put it behind us, IMO.
Not to belabor the point, but this was not a prepared joke like the Snowden treason remark obviously was unless the writers had advance knowledge of what she would be wearing and that she would win. Someone made it up when she came on and someone, the show's director perhaps, should have yelled into NPH's headpiece not to use it after that speech. Frankly I didn't get the double meaning as I wasn't paying attention to the "balls" on her dress. I thought he meant it exactly the way it sounded and couldn't figure out why the hell he would say something like that.

Penn's remark was inexcusable. I don't care if Inarritu thought it was funny. In the business world he could have been fired for making such a "joke". I was once forced by HR to fire one of my best employees for passing around a sheet of "Mexican" jokes despite the fact that the woman was half-Mexican and her boyfriend, also an excellent employee, was a naturalized citizen born in Mexico.
Okay, I didn't say most of this.

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 4:15 pm
by FilmFan720
I'm sorry, but this is one of the stupidest arguments we (and Twitter-verse) are having about the Oscars. Whether you think the line was funny or not, the speech was over and NPH came out with a funny quip. It was not degrading to her, or to her son, and it wasn't even directed towards her. She was wearing an extreme dress with a unique fashion choice, and he commented on it. It has nothing to do with what she said...had he made fun of her son or his death, that is one thing. It was a fashion joke. There are better arguments to be having right now!

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 3:59 pm
by Sonic Youth
But the problem, Magilla - putting aside that I don't go along with your premise anyway - is that the show prepares for most jokes in advance. The speeches are not prepared in advance by the shows producers, and so they don't know that all the speeches collectively are going to be the tonal opposite of the rest of the broadcast.

I must admit, I laughed at the dress joke and the inappropriateness didn't strike me until I read DWS' comment. I get everyone's point, but if Perry took it in good spirits and Inarritu took Sean Penn's joke in good spirits, then I think we should just put it behind us, IMO.

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 3:03 pm
by Big Magilla
Whatever the reason, it was in poor taste. Those kind of off-color jokes are more suited to the loose nature of the Independent Spirit Awards where the raunchier the better is expected, not the Oscars which is supposed to be the crème de la crème of show biz awards shows. Bette Midler joking about her boobs in 197-whatever was funny because it was a once in a blue moon remark. This year's Oscars were full of inappropriate jokes from that one to NPH's Snowden remark to Sean Penn's "green card" remark. It cheapens the show and undermines the heartfelt acceptance speeches, particularly of Dana Perry, Graham Moore, Pawel Pawlikowski, John Legend and Common, Alejandro G. Inarritu and the four acting winners, which accompanied by Julie Andrews hugging Gaga, gave the show more class than it probably deserved.

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 1:33 pm
by OscarGuy
I had to look it up. It as actually because Dana Perry had pom poms on her dress, so it definitely appears to be an issue of bad timing. However, here's an article where she discusses it: "That's adorable," Perry said with a big laugh. "I invite anyone to feel my furry balls."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... -1.2125598

So, while it may have been ill-timed, even the target of the joke, who shared her personal story, found it humorous.

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 12:15 pm
by flipp525
Kerry Washington had nothing to do with that joke. She didn't have balls on her dress.

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 4:41 pm
by OscarGuy
I haven't seen Scandal, but I believe it's a reference to the TV show, which would give the joke meaning. I didn't say it was a good joke or that it made sense, but the discussion seems to have turned in other areas towards him referencing Kerry Washington, not the winners. It was still bad timing, though, something he certainly suffered from.

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:36 pm
by Sonic Youth
Why would he say that about Kerry Washington dress? And how do we even know that?

You do have a point that he may not have heard the acceptance speech. But of course not all jokes are written ahead of time. This could very well have been off-the-cuff, whether NPH made it up himself or someone told him backstage or in his earpiece. In any event, the joke was all set and ready to go and they didn't know what Perry was going to say and NPH couldn't reign it back in, and I think you're right that he may not have heard her. So it probably wasn't anyone's fault. It just didn't look good.

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 1:12 pm
by OscarGuy
I think what people aren't taking into account is that the jokes are written ahead of time. Backstage is a mad house and it's very likely that NPH didn't hear a word of her acceptance speech so he delivered his joke without realizing what had been said before. He was also talking about Kerry Washington, not the winners.

Re: Best Documentary Short Subject

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 11:59 am
by dws1982
For what it's worth, Dana Perry had a good sense of humor about Harris's joke. She also made a documentary about her son's suicide. It's called Boy Interrupted, and it's available on DVD.