Henrick Vartanian
By: Henrick Vartanian —
As if we need to go on about how bad this year Oscar’s telecast was and how James Franco, for whatever reason, didn’t seem all that bothered during his hosting of the over-hyped ‘back patting’ movie fest, Oscar writer Bruce Vilanch recently offered his two cents during a chat with NY Magz’s Vulture.
In his unflattering remarks about Franco’s hosting the Oscars, Vilanch believed, that perhaps, the Oscar nominated actor did not grasp the scope of his responsibilities: “I don’t think he realized how big a deal it is to do it until he was actually confronted with it. I think he thought he would kind of … I don’t know what he thought. I thought maybe it was a performance-art prank, and then I realized he sincerely wanted to do it. But it’s outside of those guys’ comfort zones. The only people who know how to host those shows are people who get up onstage every night and say, ‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. A funny thing happened … ‘ Or people like Bette [Midler] who get up and sing all night and tell stories.”
In response, Franco posted a message on Twitter, saying, “Bruce, he let me down,” and attached a photo of him pictured with Villance, with words inside “though bubbles” drawn on the photo. He quickly took the photo down, but then, re-posted it again on his Twitter page. Franco also posted a few videos after his Vilanch tweets, including a video of his cat!?
Needless to say, James will not be hosting the show next year; and we don’t mind since we can’t take another show lasting 127 hours – sorry James.
However, both sides missed the real issue here: where were the jokes? What was funny during that tired telecast? The intro where the hosts are inserted into the famous nominated film clips was previously done, and outlasted its appeal after the first few years. The jokes were lost on the audience, not only because James or Anne Hathaway were so incompetent in selling them line-after-line, but the fact that they were just not funny.
That’s no surprise given the world we live in. What else is to be expected in this dumb PC (politically correct) world where Ricky Gervais‘ perfectly funny jokes at the Golden Globes were called “mean spirited”? The Oscars, that’s what!
When the function of comedy and its humorously unapologetic observation of our daily lives with its serious issues becomes this restricted, Bruce Vilanch and and an army of funny men will find themselves cornered, writing the bland “safe” stuff that became this year’s Oscars.
On that note, let’s call it a pricey experiment for both parties and a complete waste of time at the expense of all its viewers, and move on.