Did UM watch the Oscars?

To answer the question on everyone's mind, I have to emphatically say, sort of! As a disclaiming aside, yes, I am a big Jon Stewart fan. I might as well say it now, since the fact that I am a Jon Stewart fanboy would only become painfully obvious should I continue blogging past this week, and I'll probably be accused of jacking his style for my own writing. Although, a probability analysis on whether liberal-leaning mid-20 year old bloggers from Vermont like Jon Stewart would probably come out at 99.9% likely, so it's not like it's not like a Dewey-over-Truman surprise on this topic anyway.

So I'll gracefully defuse the situation now and say that I dig his stuff, and anything that seems ripped off is just an homage to his greatness. Ok, the greatness thing goes a little far, as I'd actually be bummed if his head got as big as Kanye West's is now (though I still love your music Kanye, you're my boy!). And Stewart certainly won't be on Rolling Stone with the crown of thorns anytime soon like Kanye, to quote Stewart, that might seem awkward. But since part of Stewart's shtick is to be self-deprecating in public, if he did get a huge head, probably the only ones who'd know it would be the poor production assistants who fetch capuccinos and sort M&Ms. Anyway.

Back to the burning question. I watched some of the Oscars, trying to catch the big awards and Stewart's shtick, and wishing I had Tivo. Tivo would be great for the Oscars, you could skip all the commercials, and 2/3 of the show that you have no interest in (Any of the song performances, any of the technical awards, the President of the Academy, etc.), and just be able to see Stewart's repartee and the big awards.

It seems like they've definitely been cutting down on the running time, as I remember it going past midnight in recent years, but it still seems like you could cut more and not miss anything. You could chuck sound mixing and editing, and probably 4 or 5 other things that the average viewer can't discern and don't have an opinion on. I can have an opinion on whether Philip Seymour Hoffman was good, but unless King Kong sounds like a chicken, the sound guys have done a good job in my opinion. So it just means I'm watching guys thank everyone they work with for things that I couldn't tell you if they did them awesomely or not. In a word, compelling!

One question, how was Don Knotts not in the In Memoriam segment? Did he not die within the calendar constraints to quallify for this Oscar season? There's no good answer to this.

In reading all the reviews of the Oscars today, I wish we could agree on whether the show and Stewart were even good or not. Some reviewers thought Stewart was bad, and his best joke was his Cheney-Bjork joke. I liked the joke if for no other reason than when and how else are you going to get the chance to work the Devil (a joke, put the gun down!) and Bjork into the same joke? And others thought Stewart was great, with future invites and a late-night network talk show slot imminent in the next few years. And that the Bjork joke was the lamest. So apparently, humor is subjective.

From what I saw, he was good, with a few witty lines ("pair of talented of brothers: the Baldwins"...burn) but nothing absurdly great or anything. Like most hosts most years, he was restrained, poked fun and livened up the crowd pretty well, and managed not to come off as completely selling his soul. So kudos for that. As a positive, he was good at deflating some of the self-importance of the whole ceremony: "Art is a ray of light into the blackness of life" and all that. Get over it, you're making costumes for movies, get a sense of humor! So overall, Oscars - bloated and boring, Stewart - good job, and I'm definitely pulling a Larry McMurtry at the next black tie function I go to...if I wear pants.