Telecast Discussion

[mlrg]

For those who followed formula 1 back in the eighties and nineties the death of Ayrton Senna had a huge impact. He crashed during a race that was being broadcasted live. I witnessed the crash live on tv. May 1st, 1994

[Big Magilla]

The Challenger incident didn't register as dramatically with me because it happened while I was at work, but yes, that would be pretty traumatic as were the deaths of Princess Dina and JFK, Jr. but those two things were reported after the fact and not shown live as they were occurring.

[OscarGuy]

Don't forget the Challenger disaster, which I and many others in my age cohort, may have seen live while sitting in a school classroom. I'd say that's a pretty significant event that Magilla didn't mention. And then there was the day we were wandering Walmart and saw the news that Diana had been killed in a car crash. I'd say both are pretty surreal moments, though that one was at least just news and not something we witnessed first hand.

[Big Magilla]

I hope nothing seen happening live on television approaches the horrors of 9/11, but the aftermath of the Simpsons murders before that and the Watts riots before that were horrific in their own way. Before that you would have to go back to the JFK assassination and the follow-up assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald which was captured live. Like the "slap seen around the world" that was one of those things that was difficult to process in real time which is the only thing that can account for the absurd standing ovation accorded Will Smith.

What happened at the Oscars doesn't come close to the horror of those other incidents which resulted in death and/or destruction, nor does it come close to the daily horrors we see of what is going on in Ukraine. It is, however, an example of toxic male behavior that has no place in polite society. AMPAS needs to condemn it in no uncertain terms and make whatever changes are necessary to ensure that this kind of behavior is not repeated going forward. In that sense, it should bring on the third biggest change to Oscar presentations in my lifetime following the elimination of stand-ins for winners after Sasheen Littlefeather refused Marlon Brando's Oscar fifty years ago, and the change from "and the winner is" to "and the Oscar goes to".

[Mister Tee]

it's the craziest thing I've ever seen on television.

I guess you were just a bit too young to feel the full impact of the night O.J. jumped into his white Bronco. That's the closest I can come to this: it was something you just could never conceive of happening, and there it was, right in front of your eyes.

In fact -- while I certainly don't want to make any close analogy of this event to a double-murder -- there is one similarity: the person whose action shocked us was the last one in the world you'd have expected to be involved with something like this, because he'd always seemed, above everything else, so nice. This is where your being a bit young when O.J. happened might get in the way of your feeling fully what many Americans did: you wouldn't have had all the years of his smiling face -- breaking records in the NFL, later running through airports on car rental commercials -- playing in your head. I remember Cynthia Tucker, a Black editor from the Atlanta Constitution, making the obvious point that the shock of the murder wouldn't have been nearly so great if, say, Mike Tyson had been the one involved. O.J., like Will Smith, was universally known as a nice guy; that's what made what happened such a deeply jolting thing. And contributes to why a lot of us just can't process this.

[Heksagon]

I did not know this. I haven't seen "Summer of Soul" or any other awards show [this season], though.

"I was ecstatic that I was the 3RD South Asian to win that night - after Riz and Aneil Karia won earlier in the night for The Long Goodbye. 3 South Asians winning on the same night - that’s never happened before! And it’s meaningful! It’s history!"

I'm tempted to tweet to him that it happened in 2008, when musicians Gulzar and A.R. Rahman, and sound mixer Resul Pookutty won for their work on Slumdog Millionaire.

[Franz Ferdinand]

Jada looks terrific with her hair like that and I never thought it was a fashion statement or a movie role.

I wouldn't call it the most shocking thing I've ever seen on TV (I watched the events of 9/11 with a much worse feeling) but it was definitely a blast of Lynchian unease, surreal and ultimately appropriate for an Oscar night.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with a take on just how much wrong Smith did: https://kareem.substack.com/p/will-smit ... Z6kGjBQR3k (apologies for the URL mess)

[Big Magilla]

I didn't know anything about Jada's condition either. When I first saw her bald head earlier in awards season I thought she might be suffering from a disease but when no one said anything, interviewing her on the red carpet like nothing was wrong, I figured either it was for a role or a fashion statement. When I heard Chris Rock's joke I briefly thought that must be the case before all hell broke loose.

[Big Magilla]

They asked him to leave, and he refused, reportedly saying "try me" so they let him stay and the other A-listers sitting near him thought it would be a good idea to give him a standing ovation when he won? Something is seriously wrong with these people. Meanwhile Chris Rock's show in Cleveland or wherever he's performing just added an extra show because of the demand for tickets due to the publicity so at least it's the "good guy" who's benefitting financially from this.

As for Will Smith, he is reportedly worth $350 million so he won't go broke if in the worst case he doesn't get to make any more films.

[Reza]

From the Wall Street Journal

"Breaking: The Academy said it asked Will Smith to leave the Oscars after he slapped Chris Rock, and the actor refused. The organization has initiated disciplinary proceedings against Smith that could include suspension, expulsion or other sanctions."

Side note one: It's apparently assumed that, because Jada mentioned her condition on Instagram, not being aware of it is like not knowing who's president. News to Twitter: you live in a bubble, where you know a million things most people don't.

Side note two (and I have to credit someone on AwardsWorthy for this): Does anyone even recall that Regina Hall made a joke about Lebron's receding hairline only about two hours earlier? Which is every bit as much a physical condition as Jada's (and, from what I understand, one about which Lebron is quite sensitive), but has been viewed as joke-worthy my entire lifetime -- anyone who suggested that jibe went too far would be laughed to oblivion.

So much of this is depressing, and all too typical of our current debased culture.

Yeah, I didn't know about her struggles to be honest.

Neither did I. I'm not on Twitter but am on Instagram where she apparently announced her condition. But why on earth would I follow her on Insta? I mean who IS she, really.

By the way she looks incredibly sexy bald. So in context to what happened and not knowing about her "condition", which I'm sure many were unaware of, this whole drama on her part comes off reeking of self importance and desperately seeking attention.

[Sabin]

Okri wrote
I did not know this. I haven't seen "Summer of Soul" or any other awards show [this season], though.

I have no idea if he would’ve gone to that joke had The Slap not happened (maybe he would’ve) but I don’t blame him for going for the joke in the moment.

[Okri]

I did not know this. I haven't seen "Summer of Soul" or any other awards show [this season], though.

[Sabin]

Okri wrote
"Breaking: The Academy said it asked Will Smith to leave the Oscars after he slapped Chris Rock, and the actor refused. The organization has initiated disciplinary proceedings against Smith that could include suspension, expulsion or other sanctions."

So... that's bad.

I have no idea what's going to happen next but I've noticed a strong contingent of handwringing from white Hollywood liberals that's a bit over the top. Judd Apatow railing against Will Smith on twitter about how he could've killed Chris Rock feels... let's just leave it at suspect. But I don't blame them. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen on television. I'm struggling to think of anything that really comes close. Hollywood is fully of white liberals who largely in the business of producing comforting fantasies and there was nothing comforting about that night.

I don't support taking away his Academy Award. The AMPAS just doesn't have the moral ground to do that. My solution is they should take whatever path towards making this whole thing go away with a slap on the wrist as possible. I would support suspending his membership for one year. However, yeah, it is NOT a good thing that he refused to leave the ceremony.

I just want this thing to go away but I understand why it won't. Number one, it's the craziest thing I've ever seen on television. And number two, it's engulfed social media in a way that has produced some truly wild takes. I'm staying out of it, but I've heard people saying that Chris Rock's jokes are akin to harm and violence and that Will Smith was correct to do what he did to stop the continued humiliation of black women in the public sphere. It's become a perfect storm of how social media above all else forms partisan lines due to cult of personality. After hearing about toxic masculinity and The Protector myth, it flips on a dime with one group when it concerns someone who's in their favor like Jada. It's very flimsy stuff, especially considering the number of avenues that Will Smith could have taken including dedicating his speech to discussing wife instead of forgetting her, or (if he must) going up on stage, taking the mic, and calling out Chris Rock for that joke and doing it non-violently.

Sorry for the rant. It's just astonishing to me. I would have absolutely no problem widening the dialogue out to address possible dangers about making jokes about people's looks, about an imbalance in public perception that black women face... all of it. But I also believe it is possible to fuck up so bad that the original offense no longer matters. That's what Will Smith did. It was a historic fuck up. I don't think it can be understated.

[Okri]

From the Wall Street Journal

"Breaking: The Academy said it asked Will Smith to leave the Oscars after he slapped Chris Rock, and the actor refused. The organization has initiated disciplinary proceedings against Smith that could include suspension, expulsion or other sanctions."

Side note one: It's apparently assumed that, because Jada mentioned her condition on Instagram, not being aware of it is like not knowing who's president. News to Twitter: you live in a bubble, where you know a million things most people don't.

Side note two (and I have to credit someone on AwardsWorthy for this): Does anyone even recall that Regina Hall made a joke about Lebron's receding hairline only about two hours earlier? Which is every bit as much a physical condition as Jada's (and, from what I understand, one about which Lebron is quite sensitive), but has been viewed as joke-worthy my entire lifetime -- anyone who suggested that jibe went too far would be laughed to oblivion.

So much of this is depressing, and all too typical of our current debased culture.

Yeah, I didn't know about her struggles to be honest.

[Sonic Youth]

Since the Great Issue rages on, a few thoughts:

Which is only an issue at all for a small fraction of the American population. Considering that less than one in twenty Americans saw the broadcast in the first place, most people in the country are still probably unaware of what happened.

There's this thing called YouTube.

ETA: A few Facebook friends were complaining the next day with "We should be talking about Coda's breathrough win! Or Jane Campion's historic win, or Tony Kotsur's or Ariana DeBose's. The first deaf actor just won an Oscar, we sbould be talking about that! No, everyone wants to ignore all that and talk about the Will Smith punch. Really? Seriously?" I said, "Maybe because more people have seen the punch than they have any of those movies that won those Oscars."