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!
Yup.
Not really much of a surprise...
Nope.
Sip
Sip
So do you think this means Cameron will have the clout to make Lazer Cats 5?
I HOPE SO!!!
Quote of the night in my house goes to my 9 year old nephew who saw Robert Downey Jr and said “Tony Stark is there? Awesome!”
I know that Fantastic Mr. Fox was absolutely amazing but I’m really glad Up won Best Animated. Up makes my younger brother cry every time he watches it (and let me add that he’s an 18 year old high school lacrosse player). If it can touch him and his jocky friends I feel that it deserved to win.
COP ROCK~~~!!! YES!!! Someone *else* remembers it!
Have to disagree on 30 Rock. This past season was easily it’s worst. I’m not a fan of Glee either but I believe that 30 Rock did not even deserve a nomination this year. It’s sad because it used to be one of the bright spots in my week, and now I don’t even notice if I miss an episode.
hahaha. love the comic. i just watched that skit last night on hulu!
Also noticed how pissed Tobey Mcguire was when he lost out to Jeff Bridges for Best Actor-Drama.
I’m actually glad Glee won. Even though it’s first season hasn’t even ended, the story that was presented was, although a little uneven, fantastic overall. 30 Rock has been going downhill for me since the beginning, and I can’t quite figure out why. I’m generally a fan of intelligent comedy, but the show just hasn’t made me laugh like it used to.
I will take this moment to lament the fact that comedy and musical always get smashed together at the Globes. While Glee had a lot of funny moments, I would have trouble calling it a comedy, but since it had music featured prominently, it is no longer allowed to compete with the other dramas. I just don’t get it.
I was shooting for Fantastic Mr. Fox as well, but I guess in the end Up is just a better movie. But hopefully this’ll be the year that Up gets a Best Picture nom, letting Fox take the Best Animated Oscar.
Good for The Hangover taking Best Comedy, but I can’t see it taking any Oscars. I just don’t think it’s a good enough movie (in other news, where’s In The Loop in all this?).
I never really thought that actors enjoyed plugging their work at award shows. To me it seems like something they are forced to do, so I don’t hold it against them and think of them as classless.
Forced to do? Thaaaaaat’s kind of a stretch.
If they were being forced to do it, you’d see celebrities plugging their movies before reading the nominees before every award.
I mean, it happens at the MTV Music Video Awards. That’s the only time I really see it abused.
“Also noticed how pissed Tobey Mcguire was when he lost out to Jeff Bridges for Best Actor-Drama.”
No, lol, but Jason Reitman’s expression when he lost to James Cameron was hilarious.
I was personally rooting for The Princess and the Frog to win best animated feature. That’s without a doubt my favourite of the very strong animated films this year. I loved Up (as well as the un-nominated Ponyo), but The Princess and the Frog has had a longer-lasting and bigger effect on me, especially since it brought back the great Disney animation that hasn’t been seen in a while.
But, overall, I’m pleased with most of the winners, especially Waltz. They might as well just give him the Oscar right now, because no other actor came close to his work last year.
I enjoyed watching the calebrities that appeared legitimately smashed such as Felicity Huffman presenting and if you watched red carpet interviews before the ceremony, you could see Julie ROberts was GONE! lol
So what will Cameron do next? Each of his movies seem to cost significantly more than the previous and Avatar was incredibly expensive. Will anybody loan him the money to make another obscenely expensive movie, I mean he is bound to have a flop eventually right?
I love Ricky Gervais. I wouldn’t call him classless. The British have a long standing tradition of taking credit for what they’ve done and not being afraid to point out when they have done something. Americans look at it as “classless” or “boastful,” but I didn’t see it, so I suppose I can’t comment. It doesn’t sound like he made a big show of it though.
I didn’t mean to suggest that Gervais was a classless person. But I thought plugging your show at the absolute last minute and then dashing away from the podium was a pretty classless thing to do.
Gervais plugging his show at the end didn’t bother me that much because it was part of a running gag throughout the show.
What did bother me was Avatar & James Cameron winning Best Picture Drama and Best Director. Avatar is beautiful eye candy full of a cliched & sub par story. Don’t get me wrong; I loved Avatar & it will be the reason that I get a BluRay player but it was just not worthy of the acclaim it received last night. Worse yet, this sets him up, once again, to win the Best Picture & Director Oscars. I’ve already conceded all technical awards to Avatar but any other awards should be reserved for better scripted & acted films with substance. Good movies haunt my thoughts long after I’ve seen the movie, but Avatar was here & gone from my head like shots at a bachelor party!
Because facial hair is the bomb dot com. I’d love to see you rock a beard sometime. The ladies think they’re suave and the dudes think they’re prestigious. You just can’t go wrong with a beard.
I’ve tried growing a beard in the past, Joshy. It comes in patchy and Cami hates it.
I think it makes roguishly handsome. But that’s just a lie I tell myself.
Yeah I figured that was the case. At least you tried though. It’s the effort that counts.