Your ability to understand or appreciate today’s comic relies entirely on whether or not you watched Saturday Night Live this weekend with host Sigourney Weaver.
If you’re at all confused by the punchline, watch this video to be brought up to speed.
As you can see, I’m really aiming for jokes that will stand the test of time after this video’s viral status has faded.
I think I may have accomplished making this comic both topical and obscure at the same time.
Of course, last night was The Golden Globes. Usually I don’t pay too much attention to the Golden Globes because I don’t really care what the Hollywood Foreign Press has to say about, well… anything! But I was interested to see how Ricky Gervais would handle himself as host and was also looking for some kind of trend in terms of what movies might be nominated for Oscars this year. I was particularly interested in the latter considering that the Academy has opened up the field for Best Picture to 10 nominees. Could The Hangover’s win for Best Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical have any bearings on Oscar nominations? We have to wait and see, I guess.
Incidentally, I live-blogged the event last night and you can read the entire transcript here. I’m using an application called Cover It Live which allows readers to participate in the conversation. I think it went really well. We had a really strong turn out despite very little advance notice. So I will definitely have to promote the fact that I’m live blogging for the Oscars.
If you don’t want to read two hours of snark, here are some of my highlights and lowlights from last night’s show.
- Mo’Nique’s acceptance speech – Maybe I’m just over the hype Precious has generated for itself, but the speech that others found uplifting, I found self-important and a pretentious way to start the evening.
- Martin Scorsese wins the Cecil B. DeMille Award – I kind of thought Hollywood was finished giving Scorsese gold watch awards after The Departed, but their montage of his films made me want to sit down and watch every single one of them in order – even Kundun. Of course, then they had to ruin it by making it a big advertisement for Shutter Island. Aw, who am I kidding? I’ll still go see it. It looks like a great Hitchcockian thriller and I was smitten listening to Scorsese talking about film preservation. Seriously!
- Glee wins Best Television Series – Comedy Or Musical – Sorry, I’m not a fan and you’re not going to convince me that Glee was any better than 30 Rock this season or any other. Where was all the love for prime-time musicals when Cop Rock was on the air?
- Ricky Gervais as host – I thought he got in a good dig on Mel Gibson as someone who “likes to have a drink from time to time,” but found him classless for plugging his HBO series at the end of the show before dashing away from the podium.
- Up wins Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Score – Motion Picture – I was legitimately thrilled when I saw Up win for Best Animated Feature… until I remembered Fantastic Mr. Fox was up for the same role. (Maybe I should flip my last two picks for the Top 10 of 2009…) There was no disputing Michael Giacchino’s win for Best Original Score – one of the most emotional and effective of the year.
- Christoph Waltz wins Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role for Inglourious Basterds – Another gimme. If Waltz doesn’t win a Best Supporting Oscar, I’ll be shocked. The man speaks 4 languages in his performance!
- Jason Reitman looked pissed when he lost Best Picture to Avatar – Go back and watch the tape. He looked livid.
- James Cameron speaks in Na’vi – During his acceptance speech for Best Director, Cameron came precariously close to the pretentiousness that killed any remaining good will I had for Titanic after his boastful “I’m the king of the world” Oscar acceptance speech in 1998. Also note that he didn’t thank any of the fans who helped push Avatar to nearly half a billion dollars in box office domestically.
- Robert Downey Jr. wins Best Actor – Comedy or Musical – I was convinced Matt Damon would win for his work in The Informant! That’ll teach me to bet against RDJ, who delivered one of the most entertaining speeches of the night.
- Jeff Bridges wins Best Actor – Drama – Another upset, as I was sure George Clooney would win for Up In The Air. I had a cursory interest in seeing Crazy Heart. Now it’s at the top of my “must see” list.
- Beards – Between Jon Hamm, Christoph Waltz sporting beards and William Hurt looking like Rutherford B. Hayes, what was up with all the facial hair last night?
Anyway, that’s my take on the Golden Globes. Did any of you watch last night? What did you think about the broadcast? What were your favorite moments? What were your least favorite moments. Leave your comments below!