The five most awkward moments from the Oscars

List Hai Toh Hit Hai

The Oscars are back, and this year’s Academy Awards had many firsts, and we don’t just mean the choice of winners. If you’ve crawled through your social media feed, you’re already updated on the onstage altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock. But the event hosted by Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall was a ceremony packed with unceremonious exchanges. From intentionally confusing siblings to be a couple to objectifying male actors for a laugh, this was an event that would be remembered for years, but for reasons beyond the winners.

So for today’s episode of List hai toh hit hai, we’re revisiting 5 Oscar moments that were just as awkward as Will Smith laying a tight one across Chris Rock’s face and perhaps, just as inappropriate as the G.I.Jane comment that triggered it.

1. Amy Schumer confuses Kirsten Dunst for a sit-filler

First up, Amy Schumer’s crowd work at the event could be dubbed as anything but politically correct. One of her most inappropriate digs at the Oscars found her scampering into the audience to heckle the esteemed guests. Do note, this was shortly after Will Smith’s public display of rage when the audience was already in a tense and awkward mood. Schumer’s targets were The Power of the Dog actors Jesse Plemons and his wife and co-star, Kirsten Dunst. Schumer introduced the Oscar-nominated actress Dunst as a ‘seat filler’ and commended her on the job and even asked her to “visit the washroom” while she took her seat to break into a banter with Plemons. While the setup for the joke was not entirely offensive, Schumer’s execution seemed forced and Plemons’ unenthusiastic reaction took the wind out of the gag.

1. Amy Schumer on the Ukrainian war

If Sean Penn’s threats of melting his Oscar trophies if Ukrainian President Zelensky wasn’t allowed to voice his concerns at the Academy Awards is anything to go by, one knows that Hollywood is serious about their stand on world affairs. But Schumer’s one-cent-worth on the war in Ukraine shot with a smug face and disinterested manner, seemed particularly in poor taste. While wrapping up her audience exchanges, Schumer suddenly broke into“…and there is a genocide going on in the Ukraine and women are losing their rights, and now please welcome last year’s winner, and trans people, for actor in a leading role Anthony Hopkins.” Now, this is why those operating the teleprompters should hold their drinks till the afterparty.

The sudden and fleeting reference to the war in Ukraine was glaringly misplaced, and addressing ‘trans people’ was perhaps a bizarre pivot from women’s rights being infringed. Sadly, she dashed through the segment like a zombie on antibiotics, leaving the audience at the event and the rest of us watching at home, equally confused and uncomfortable.

1. Leonardo DiCaprio’s allegedly young girlfriends

Earlier in the show, Amy Schumer took a dig at Leonardo DiCaprio implying that he prefers to date young women. While this may seem unobjectionable, the construct of the joke could imply the vast difference between their ages and also that some of DiCaprio’s female friends might just be underage. Building up the gag like an elaborate ruse, Schumer said, “What can I even say about him, he’s done so much to fight climate change and leave behind a cleaner, greener planet for his girlfriends.” Jokes about DiCaprio’s young girlfriends have been around and noted comedians such as Ricky Gervais have managed to pull off some of the best with a straight face. But Schumer botched up the execution yet again and perhaps, went a little too far, almost implying that DiCaprio dates women who may just be a little ‘too young’.

1. Objectifying male actors

Regina Hall’s segment where she objectifies male actors who are single cannot be faulted for its execution. It did induce a few genuine laughs, even though there would have been an uproar if the roles were reversed and a male host objectified single female actors. However, the segment veered into ‘creepy territory’ when she invited Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa onstage to present the next set of awards. The joke centred around Hall ‘compelled’ to perform an aggressive ‘pat-down’ on both Brolin and Momoa as part of the ‘procedure’, which bordered on the lines of Hall groping both actors rather inappropriately. Even though both went along with it, they did not appear too thrilled and the gag left many feeling positively unsettled.

1. Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal

The worst joke of the night belonged to Schumer, again. In one of her monologues, she said, “We’re honouring a lot of couples here tonight — Jada and Will Smith, Penélope and Javier Bardem, Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal.” Dubbing siblings Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal as a couple could pass as unobjectionable, especially going by how the night eventually panned out. But Schumer made it worse by uttering the words. “It’s a night for lovers,” possibly implying incest. A joke that only Jamie and Cersei Lannister would appreciate and one that could actually be worse than Chris Rock’s G I Jane comment about Jada Pinkett Smith that triggered the onstage violence.

Well, that's the OTTplay List hai toh hit hai episode for today, until the next podcast it's your host Nikhil signing out.

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