Western Standard - March 28, 2022


The gross display of the Hollywood elite on Oscar night


Episode Stats

Length

6 minutes

Words per Minute

197.68132

Word Count

1,222

Sentence Count

85

Misogynist Sentences

2


Summary

Will Smith assaulted Chris Rock at the Oscars, but that doesn t excuse the assault, or the way Chris Rock handled it, and the way the Hollywood elite handled it. It shows us just how disconnected and cloistered the Hollywood Elite are from the rest of us.


Transcript

00:00:00.160 So, let's talk about Will Smith. We got it. It's the top of the news. Let's talk about the Academy Awards.
00:00:04.800 And the Academy Awards last night were interesting for the first time in years, but for all the wrong reasons.
00:00:11.120 The annual spectacle has been experiencing a steep decline in viewership for years now,
00:00:15.780 and much of that's due to people tiring of the celebrities using the stage as a pulpit to righteously lecture us
00:00:21.520 over the latest social justice cause of the week.
00:00:25.100 We watch, or at least we used to watch, in order to see the top people in the realm of movie production recognized
00:00:30.400 and awarded for the best products of the year that they've produced.
00:00:34.440 It's a huge industry, and it's a craft that takes talent and tremendous work to excel in.
00:00:39.280 We don't, however, really care what their political views are, though we still get constantly barraged with them.
00:00:44.300 Now, the spectacle last night, if nothing else, showed the world, though, just what an odd, disconnected,
00:00:49.600 cloistered, entitled world the Hollywood elite live within.
00:00:53.320 So I'm going to play a clip of what happened, for those who haven't seen it yet.
00:00:57.400 And I'm going to warn you, there's some graphic language in it, and it's about a minute.
00:01:01.020 You know, take a second to turn on your device if you don't want anybody to hear Will Smith's expletive-laden tirade.
00:01:06.260 But, you know, it's going to be hard to rant further if you haven't seen actually what has happened,
00:01:09.780 and I'm sure you've been hearing people talking about it all morning.
00:01:11.840 So here we go.
00:01:12.860 Who's got the hardest job tonight?
00:01:15.400 Javier Baudin and his wife are both nominated.
00:01:18.960 Now, if she loses, he can't win!
00:01:25.920 He is praying that Will Smith wins.
00:01:29.160 Like, please, Lord!
00:01:32.720 Jada, I love you.
00:01:34.200 G.I. Jane 2, can't wait to see it.
00:01:36.340 All right?
00:01:42.800 That was a nice one.
00:01:44.840 Okay, I'm out here.
00:01:47.120 Uh-oh.
00:01:47.840 Richard?
00:01:52.100 Oh, wow!
00:01:54.460 Wow!
00:01:56.960 Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me.
00:02:01.120 Keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth!
00:02:05.720 Wow, dude!
00:02:07.380 Yeah.
00:02:07.840 It was a G.I. Jane jump.
00:02:09.800 Keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth!
00:02:14.880 I'm going to, okay?
00:02:18.560 So I can, oh, okay.
00:02:22.460 That was a greatest night in the history of television.
00:02:26.660 Okay.
00:02:28.480 Okay.
00:02:28.920 Now, wasn't that something?
00:02:38.380 What a bizarre moment.
00:02:39.460 And it is too bad, because, I mean, I think Chris Rock is hilarious,
00:02:42.500 and Will Smith is a fantastic actor.
00:02:45.320 But it shows these guys, again, they aren't in the real world with the rest of us, guys.
00:02:48.820 So let's break this down a little.
00:02:50.240 I mean, Chris Rock went over the line.
00:02:51.620 He made fun of Will Smith's wife with a joke about her alopecia,
00:02:54.920 a condition that causes a person to lose all of their hair.
00:02:57.180 It was crude, and it was uncalled for, and it was the wrong place for it.
00:03:00.400 I mean, this wasn't a celebrity roast or a small stand-up gig.
00:03:04.060 Now, all that said, it didn't justify Will Smith's getting up on the stage and assaulting him.
00:03:07.940 Oh, I know, it was just a slap, but it was a single, hard-hitting, open slap,
00:03:12.440 and rather than beating him to a pulp, it was still an assault.
00:03:16.180 Humanity never ceases to disappoint me,
00:03:18.240 but one positive development we've had in the developed world
00:03:20.600 is a total intolerance for physically assaulting somebody.
00:03:23.960 It's simply not considered acceptable, nor should it be.
00:03:26.640 Now, Smith could have reacted a number of ways,
00:03:29.240 whether it's walking out of the show, shouting from the floor,
00:03:32.080 or simply ignoring it and talking with Rock and the show producers after the show.
00:03:36.100 Whether he was in a bad mood or had a head full of Colombian marching powder, who knows?
00:03:40.340 His judgment was poor, though, and the spectacle was sad.
00:03:43.100 Whether we like it or not, people look up to the Hollywood elite as role models,
00:03:46.480 and they really should stop.
00:03:48.240 The elites of Hollywood, for the most part, are spoiled, entitled liberal children
00:03:51.360 who should only be taken seriously when they're practicing their arts in the entertainment field.
00:03:55.060 They have little exposure to reality, and as we can see, very little grip upon it when they encounter it.
00:04:00.480 Now, some people have been trying to portray Smith's act as being chivalrous.
00:04:03.760 I mean, perhaps that was the intent, but it still doesn't justify an assault like that.
00:04:07.600 Society, for the most part, has moved beyond that sort of action.
00:04:11.080 Rock shouldn't be let off the hook either.
00:04:12.780 I mean, what the hell was he thinking going with that personal joke in a primetime performance?
00:04:18.240 Again, though, it demonstrates that disconnect and self-centered view from celebrities.
00:04:21.980 Rock was only thinking about making his mark on the show,
00:04:24.220 not about how it would impact a person on the other end of the joke.
00:04:27.060 Some people think this might have been a purposeful publicity stunt.
00:04:30.120 I wouldn't put it beyond the clowns in Hollywood, but I doubt it in this case.
00:04:33.080 I mean, they're even calling some people, they might take away Smith's Academy Award in this.
00:04:38.220 And they didn't get good ratings out of it, guys.
00:04:39.980 I mean, if it was staged, they cut it in the United States.
00:04:43.280 People didn't see that.
00:04:44.280 The only people who saw it were in Australia and Japan.
00:04:45.980 They're all seeing it after the fact.
00:04:47.300 It was a very terrible job if, indeed, it was staged.
00:04:50.420 But if anything, it's boosted YouTube's ratings.
00:04:52.980 The Academy Awards show dumped Kevin Hart a couple of years ago over some tasteless tweets he did.
00:04:57.280 But now they have hosted a physical confrontation between two privileged celebrities.
00:05:02.300 They really need to get their priorities straight if they want to claim that virtue-signaling high ground they're always pursuing.
00:05:07.960 Normalizing assault is not a good development here.
00:05:11.100 Keep this debacle in mind the next time you see one of these celebrities telling us how we're supposed to live and consume energy
00:05:16.100 and how we're supposed to eat, vote, and govern ourselves.
00:05:18.840 These people are not to be taken seriously.
00:05:21.160 And we should really stop giving them ink for anything aside from their work in entertainment.
00:05:24.900 Though I know I'm giving them attention right now.
00:05:27.240 They're here to entertain us and distract us from the world for a little while.
00:05:30.340 They're not here to educate us, and we shouldn't let them try.
00:05:33.380 Ricky Gervais said it all too well when he eviscerated them while hosting the Golden Globe Awards for what I'm sure has got to be his final time.
00:05:39.620 I won't insult you with an attempt at his accent, but I will quote it.
00:05:42.820 This is what he said as he got ready to give the awards.
00:05:45.060 So if you do win an award tonight, don't use it as a platform to make a political speech.
00:05:50.380 You're in no position to lecture the public about anything.
00:05:53.080 You know nothing about the real world, and most of you have spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.
00:05:57.740 So if you win one, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent and your God, and fuck off, okay?
00:06:03.760 It's already three hours long.
00:06:05.420 Now let's get on to the first award.
00:06:07.280 I can't close it any better than he did back then.