The Ben Shapiro Show - Ep. 260 - Oscar Night's Big Winner: Trump!

On Sunday night, Moonlight shocked America by defeating heavily favored Best Picture contender La La Land. It s no coincidence that an Oscars ceremony that opened with Kimmel tweaking President Trump ended with the Academy giving the Best Picture Oscar to Brokeback inner-city Miami. This isn t the first time the Academy has bowed to political correctness rather than quality. And this year s Oscar battle featured two battling Hollywood priorities: Honoring itself, and honoring the most politically correct picture of the year. One of the reasons Hollywood no longer rakes in the big bucks other than on tentpole features is that it sees only the profound movies as those that center on intersectionality concerns, upholding the virtue of identity politics, and the importance of art itself. That s why TV, which actually tells stories rather than getting hung up on the self-important nonsense of the movie industry, now outranks Hollywood in terms of quality. Ben Shapiro breaks down everything that happened in Hollywood on The Ben Shapiro Show and explains why it s time for Hollywood to get its act together and get back on track with making movies that tell stories that tell people stories they want to see, and not ones that tell them how important they are or that they should be. What do you think of Moonlight? What was your favorite movie that won Best Picture? What are your thoughts on the Oscars and why it was the best film you saw this year? Is it a good one? or a bad one ? What's the worst movie you watched this year ? and why you think the Oscars are better than the rest of the Oscars? And what do you have a better movie you re watching right now? Are you concerned about the future of Hollywood in 2020 and what you d like to see in 2020? You ll be sure to check out Ben Shapiro's new movie that s going to be nominated for Best Picture or Best Picture in the next few years? Subscribe to the Ben Shapiro show on Netflix? on Amazon Prime Video? Subscribe to Ben Shapiro s newest podcast, The FiveThirtyEight? Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad-free version of the show? Subscribe and review Ben Shapiro on The Five Guys Podcasts Subscribe on Podcoin Subscribe on Spare Change Subscribe on POD Castle on iTunes Subscribe on Stitcher Subscribe on PodcastOne Subscribe on Itunes Learn more from the Podchaser Subscribe on Crackle Subscribe on Pocketcast Subscribe on Your Local Podcasts Like Itunes

00:00:00.000 On Sunday night, Moonlight shocked America by defeating heavily favored Best Picture competitor La La Land.

00:00:05.000 It won for one simple reason.

00:00:07.000 Those in Hollywood decided that intersectionality should defeat Hollywood's self-aggrandizement this year.

00:00:12.000 Here's the thing about Moonlight.

00:00:13.000 It's not a very good movie.

00:00:14.000 It's interesting in the way that all character studies are kind of interesting.

00:00:17.000 It's a look at a place and at a time and at a person, but it doesn't truly uplift or soar or actually do much of anything.

00:00:23.000 It won because the Academy voters preferred not to hear another year of griping about hashtag Oscars so white, and because those same voters could feel good about supposedly slapping Donald Trump in the face with diversity.

00:00:33.000 It's no coincidence that an Oscars ceremony that opened with Kimmel tweaking President Trump, remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars was racist?

00:00:41.000 Ended with the Academy giving the Best Picture Oscar to Brokeback Inner City Miami.

00:00:45.000 This isn't to say there can't be a great movie made about a black, gay, coming-of-age story.

00:00:49.000 There can, but this wasn't it.

00:00:51.000 This isn't the first time the Academy has bowed to political correctness rather than quality, of course.

00:00:55.000 And this year's Oscar battle featured two battling Hollywood priorities.

00:00:58.000 Honoring itself, and honoring the most politically correct picture of the year.

00:01:02.000 In recent years, this battle has become pretty much the entirety of the Best Picture race.

00:01:05.000 In 2014,

00:01:07.000 Hollywood rewarded its own importance with Birdman instead of the far superior Whiplash or American Sniper.

00:01:11.000 In 2013, Hollywood rewarded the rather forgettable 12 Years a Slave instead of Gravity or Dallas Buyers Club.

00:01:17.000 In 2012, Hollywood gave an Oscar to Argo.

00:01:19.000 Yay! 0.99

00:01:20.000 Hollywood does foreign policy! 0.98

00:01:21.000 Instead of Zero Dark Thirty or Lincoln.

00:01:23.000 In 2005, Hollywood had its biggest PC off in a Best Picture fight between Brokeback Mountain, Crash, and Munich.

00:01:29.000 Capote was actually a better picture than all of those three.

00:01:31.000 One of the reasons Hollywood no longer rakes in the big bucks other than on tentpole features is that it sees only the profound movies as those that center on intersectional concerns, upholding the virtue of identity politics or the importance of art itself, rather than movies that tell people stories that they want to see.

00:01:47.000 La La Land is a far better, more watchable movie than Moonlight, but there were at least three other movies that were better than either this year.

00:01:53.000 Hell or High Water, Arrival, and Hacksaw Ridge, and all three were nominated.

00:01:56.000 That doesn't include what I thought was the most entertaining flick of the year, 10 Cloverfield Lane.

00:02:00.000 Unfortunately for those pictures, they weren't concerned with black gay children or the wonders of Hollywood.

00:02:04.000 If somebody ever makes a movie about a half-black, half-Native American bisexual transgender trying to make his or her way in Hollywood, you can hand them the Oscar right now. 0.99

00:02:12.000 And this is how you know Hollywood is dying.

00:02:14.000 Instead of telling particular stories with general appeal, Hollywood tells stories that appeal only to themselves.

00:02:19.000 They reassure themselves of their importance every single year, either by making movies telling them how important they are, or by making movies trying to show how important they are by taking on the issue of the day in after-school special fashion.

00:02:31.000 It doesn't make for good entertainment.

00:02:33.000 Which is why TV, which actually tells stories rather than getting hung up on the self-important nonsense of the movie industry, now outranks the movie industry in terms of quality.

00:02:42.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:02:42.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:02:47.000 So we'll talk everything Oscars in just a minute.

00:02:49.000 We will also be talking about the Democrats picking a new leader and what you need to know about Tom Perez, that new leader.

00:02:55.000 But first, we have to say thank you to our sponsors over at My Patriot Supply.

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00:04:00.000 Again, if you're truly concerned, you should be, about making sure your family has enough food to eat if a crisis hits, whether it's an economic crisis or a natural disaster.

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00:04:35.000 Okay, so, we can jump right into the Oscars.

00:04:38.000 So, the big winner at the Oscars last night was not Moonlight.

00:04:40.000 The big winner at the Oscars last night was Donald Trump.

00:04:43.000 That was the big winner at the Oscars last night, because Donald Trump basically could sit there and watch Hollywood make a mockery of itself.

00:04:50.000 Sally Cohn, one of my favorite people on the left of MSNBC and CNN fame, you remember her, hands up don't shoot, Sally Cohn tweeted out right before the Oscars that she hoped every single speech was political. 0.75

00:05:00.000 To which I tweeted, so does every Republican in the country.

00:05:03.000 We all want every speech to be political.

00:05:05.000 Because the more political these speeches are, the better off Republicans are, because watching all of these

00:05:11.000 All of these sort of comforted, rich, limousine liberal socialists ripping on America is really something that off-puts a lot of voters, and people react to that by voting for people on the Republican side of the aisle.

00:05:24.000 Hollywood has never driven people into the arms of the Democrats, except through kind of their subtle cultural moments, but they don't drive people into the arms of the Democrats by just shouting about how terrible Republicans are.

00:05:33.000 This is something that Hollywood gets wrong.

00:05:35.000 The stuff that Hollywood is good at

00:05:36.000 Creating story, creating character, that stuff can help convince people that Democrats are right.

00:05:40.000 But it doesn't convince people Democrats are right when Marlon Brando sends up Sachin Littlefeather at the Oscars in 1973, a Native American spokeswoman, to pick up his award and rant and rave about how America's means to the Native Americans.

00:05:51.000 Nobody voted Democrat because of that.

00:05:53.000 And nobody voted Democrat in 2003 because Michael Moore got up at the Oscars and talked about the fictional president, George W. Bush, getting us into a fictional war.

00:06:01.000 Hollywood people think that we want to hear what they have to say.

00:06:03.000 We don't. 1.00

00:06:04.000 We want to hear the stories they have to tell, but we don't actually want to hear the things they have to say because the things they have to say are generally stupid. 0.99

00:06:09.000 They don't know anything about politics, so why in the world would we listen to them when it comes to politics? 0.98

00:06:14.000 But again, Hollywood doesn't know that, so instead what Hollywood does is they think that we're watching because we want to hear their opinions on politics.

00:06:20.000 So Jimmy Kimmel just couldn't help himself.

00:06:22.000 He opened up with a bunch of jokes about Trump.

00:06:23.000 Here were just a few of them.

00:06:24.000 It's so easy to reach out and heal.

00:06:26.000 And I want to say, maybe this is not...

00:06:29.000 A popular thing to say, but I want to say thank you to President Trump.

00:06:33.000 I mean, remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist?

00:06:38.000 Braveheart in this room, and he's not going to unite us either.

00:06:42.000 Okay?

00:06:43.000 Meryl, stand up if you would. 1.00

00:06:44.000 Everybody, please join me in giving Meryl Streep a totally undeserved round of applause.

00:06:48.000 Will you?

00:06:53.000 Standing ovation for Meryl Streep.

00:06:56.000 Because she's Meryl Streep.

00:06:57.000 She's like the Beyonce of actresses. 1.00

00:07:00.000 The highly overrated Meryl Streep, everyone.

00:07:02.000 She actually is overrated. 0.78

00:07:04.000 She hasn't been good for 30 years.

00:07:06.000 And it was joke after joke about Donald Trump and how terrible Trump was.

00:07:09.000 And look how wonderful we are.

00:07:10.000 And we love Meryl Streep.

00:07:11.000 And Meryl Streep's the best, because she made fun of Donald Trump that one time at some ceremony.

00:07:15.000 And yeah, we love her.

00:07:16.000 And sure, she was in a really crappy movie, Florence Foster Jenkins, that nobody ever saw.

00:07:19.000 But it doesn't matter, because Meryl Streep, guys.

00:07:21.000 Meryl Streep.

00:07:22.000 So, yeah, he does all of these jokes in a row about Donald Trump, and we're all supposed to sit there and be like, yeah, this is great, yeah!

00:07:29.000 The real reaction is, can you guys get over yourselves, please?

00:07:32.000 Really, this is the best that you can do?

00:07:34.000 These are your best jokes about Donald Trump, calling him racist?

00:07:37.000 And calling, presumably, the people who voted for him racist?

00:07:39.000 That's a great way to alienate an audience that's already not watching any of your Best Picture nominees.

00:07:43.000 Nothing that was nominated for Best Picture this year did well at the box office.

00:07:46.000 I think the only exception, as far as a movie that did well at the box office, was Arrival.

00:07:51.000 I'm not aware of any other movie that was nominated for Best Picture this year that did over $100 million in business.

00:07:55.000 Did Arrival end up doing $100 million in business?

00:07:57.000 If it did, it was real close.

00:07:58.000 It was not a blockbuster blowout out of the ballpark.

00:08:02.000 It was a good movie.

00:08:02.000 I enjoyed it.

00:08:03.000 But all of the movies that were nominated this year, again, were seen by pretty much the people in this particular room.

00:08:09.000 And then it didn't stop there.

00:08:10.000 The self-aggrandizement of Hollywood is just unending.

00:08:13.000 Viola Davis won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Suicide Squad.

00:08:18.000 Oh, no, no, no, sorry.

00:08:18.000 It was, it was, no, not for Suicide Squad.

00:08:20.000 It was, it was for her role in, uh, what was the name of that movie?

00:08:23.000 Fences, Fences.

00:08:24.000 Sorry.

00:08:25.000 Sorry, I got that wrong.

00:08:26.000 Um, but Viola Davis, who was, I thought she was fantastic in Suicide Squad. 0.99

00:08:29.000 That's why I thought that she had to win.

00:08:31.000 So was that guy who, like, shot fire from his fingers and everything.

00:08:33.000 Anyway, Viola Davis, she gets up and she gives this speech.

00:08:38.000 I became an artist, and thank God I did, because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.

00:08:47.000 We're the only profession, the only one, that celebrates what it means to live a life?

00:08:52.000 So I was complaining before this show started today that I'm kind of tired.

00:08:55.000 You know the reason I'm kind of tired today?

00:08:57.000 Because my wife has woken up the last several mornings at 4 o'clock in the morning to go into the hospital because she is a doctor and she's in her residency, which means she's getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning to help people who in some cases are terminally ill.

00:09:09.000 Clearly the only profession that cares about living a life, that honors and celebrates living a life, is Hollywood.

00:09:14.000 And it's so just, bleh, when Viola Davis says stuff like this, the fact is, the vast majority of people in the United States work jobs where they're helping each other live better lives.

00:09:23.000 But the artists have to pat themselves on the back, and this is what I was saying at the very beginning, the artists in Hollywood have to make themselves feel important one of two ways, because otherwise they're just reading lines for a living and wearing funny costumes.

00:09:33.000 So they have to make themselves feel important in one of two ways.

00:09:35.000 One is, they make important stories.

00:09:37.000 Right?

00:09:37.000 We're gonna make a story about a black gay youth living in Miami.

00:09:41.000 Right?

00:09:41.000 That's gonna be the thing that makes us important.

00:09:43.000 Or, alternatively, we have to talk about how important we are to everybody else.

00:09:47.000 Now, I don't get on the air every morning and talk about how important my job is.

00:09:51.000 I don't, because it's either important to you or it's not important to you, but I don't have to preach how important what I do is to you, because you'll decide for yourself.

00:09:58.000 And I think that's true for the vast majority of people.

00:09:59.000 When you call a plumber, he doesn't show up to your house and go, you know what?

00:10:02.000 It's really important I fix your toilet today. 0.99

00:10:05.000 I'm the guy who stands between you and crap running over your floor. 0.96

00:10:08.000 The plumber doesn't do that. 0.99

00:10:09.000 He just goes and he fixes your stuff.

00:10:10.000 But the artist community, because they understand that people sort of see them as frivolous, they feel the necessity to go out and talk about how special they are all the time.

00:10:18.000 And this is not underestimating art.

00:10:20.000 I love art.

00:10:20.000 I love the movies.

00:10:21.000 I love books.

00:10:22.000 I love plays.

00:10:23.000 I drew.

00:10:24.000 I love the arts.

00:10:24.000 I grew up in the arts.

00:10:25.000 My dad was somebody in the arts.

00:10:27.000 My mom is somebody in the arts.

00:10:28.000 My sister is somebody in the arts.

00:10:30.000 Two of my sisters are people in the arts.

00:10:32.000 I love the arts.

00:10:33.000 They're fantastic.

00:10:33.000 You know, I write novels.

00:10:34.000 I love the arts, but

00:10:36.000 You know, art is wonderful, it's enriching, it can connect us to each other, but the utter arrogance, the true arrogance of saying the only profession that celebrate what it means to live a life, I mean, that's really astounding.

00:10:45.000 You know who else celebrates?

00:10:46.000 Like, literally everyone does.

00:10:47.000 You know who else celebrates what it means to live a life?

00:10:49.000 Morticians.

00:10:50.000 Right?

00:10:51.000 I mean, they actually put together the funeral arrangements where we remember people.

00:10:55.000 There's also something that's really, it's really high-handed about saying that only the lives we choose to honor in Hollywood are the important ones.

00:11:01.000 Like, she said in this speech,

00:11:03.000 She said, there's one place all the people with the greatest potential are gathered, the graveyard.

00:11:07.000 People ask me all the time, what kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola?

00:11:10.000 And I say, exhume those bodies, exhume those stories, the stories of the people who dream big and never saw those dreams to fruition.

00:11:16.000 And this kind of stuff goes over big in Hollywood.

00:11:18.000 Ooh, the dreams.

00:11:19.000 Ooh, the dreams.

00:11:20.000 Okay, but the reality is, the vast majority of people in the graveyard, their stories will never be told.

00:11:25.000 But they are still remembered by their family.

00:11:27.000 Their impact is still felt.

00:11:28.000 Your life doesn't end when your life ends unless Viola Davis exhumes you and makes a story about you, you know, that's not even real, right?

00:11:36.000 Unless a fictional story about a person who never existed.

00:11:39.000 No, what actually makes your life important is the friends and family around you and the way you impact the world in a better way and the way that you do honorable things for friends and neighbors and make the world a better place.

00:11:47.000 That's how you make the world a better place.

00:11:48.000 There are a lot of people who are remembered who are really evil.

00:11:51.000 That doesn't make them more important.

00:11:52.000 It doesn't make them more special.

00:11:54.000 Being remembered by people who actually matter is, I think, more important than Viola Davis remembering you.

00:11:58.000 And the idea that Hollywood is what confers value on people is really kind of gross.

00:12:03.000 I mean, another element of this, and some people liked this, some people hated it, I didn't like it, was Jimmy Kimmel did this routine where he ushered in a bunch of people off the Hollywood tour bus directly into the Oscars.

00:12:12.000 See, the whole point of this little schtick here is to demonstrate just how special Hollywood is.

00:12:16.000 It's so special that you can bring people in off the street, and then you can show them just how magical Hollywood is.

00:12:20.000 I mean, look at all these important people.

00:12:22.000 And look at all these ne'er-do-well rubes, you know, just walking out. 1.00

00:12:25.000 What an honor for them!

00:12:26.000 What an honor for them!

00:12:27.000 We brought in the peasantry off the street, and now the peasants get to hobnob with the hoi polloi. 0.99

00:12:32.000 They get to be among the stars.

00:12:34.000 See, what would have been great, honestly, and what would have been funnier, is if Kimmel had, before this, taken a bunch of the stars to visit people on their actual jobs.

00:12:41.000 They make movies about these actual jobs, but it'd be really funny to take Chris Pine, for example, in Hell or High Water, and take him to an oil derrick, and show him the people working in oil derrick.

00:12:53.000 Or it'd be really funny to take Nicole Kidman and take her down to the local plumber's union, and have her see what people are actually doing over there. 0.99

00:12:59.000 Because that would have said, okay, look, we're Hollywood, and we know what we do is kind of frivolous, and it brings meaning to some people, but

00:13:05.000 We also understand that what you do is really important.

00:13:07.000 Instead, this whole event is all about how Hollywood is super duper important to all of our lives.

00:13:11.000 And look, it's fun, I enjoy the Oscars as much as the next guy, although I admit I did not watch a lot of it live last night.

00:13:16.000 But at the same time, this sort of, this sort of, I'm going to look down on you because we're from Hollywood and we're special, it manifests itself not just in terms of general

00:13:25.000 Attitude toward the people who live in the middle of the country that are a bunch of rednecks and rubes. 1.00

00:13:29.000 It also manifests itself in terms of politics, and we're going to talk more about that in just a second.

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00:13:50.000 If you watched on Friday, we live-streamed the film so you could actually see it.

00:13:53.000 The Arroyo is a fictional film set on the southern border about the crisis that's taking place on our southern border when one rancher's land is overrun by the drug cartels, and he has to figure out what to do about it.

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The Ben Shapiro Show - March 01, 2017

Ep. 260 - Oscar Night's Big Winner: Trump!

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