Comedian Chris Rock who entertained the guests at Oscar Night has brought a new tone to the Oscars
Chris Rock says at Oscar Night: "Sit your asses down!"
Comedian Chris Rock who entertained the guests at Oscar Night has brought a new tone to the Oscars and many executives and sponsors of the Academy Awards hope it will lure back a bigger, younger TV audience to Hollywood's biggest night. Using his sharp tongue, Chris Rock, who is Afro American, gave provocative mood to the show with a monologue that was politically charged and racially aware while seeming, at times, to veer close to profane.
Rock, who drew controversy weeks before taking the Oscar stage by suggesting that he and most other African Americans had little reason to watch the awards, opened Sunday's show by acknowledging the record number of black performers vying for acting honors this year. "We have, like, four black nominees. It's kinda like the Def Oscar Jam tonight," Chris Rock enthused, in a reference to the HBO comedy series "Def Comedy Jam," a springboard for many black performers. While flirting with network censors in his choice of words as he urged the star-studded studio audience to take their seats, the opening minutes of the broadcast bore no signs that ABC was forced to bleep put any of his remarks.
The sharp-tongued comic drew some of his biggest laughs with jabs aimed at President Bush, the involuntary star of Michael Moore's scathing documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11." Rock noted that Moore's film, though shut out of the Oscar competition, was breaking box office records at the time Bush was running for re-election. "Can you imagine applying for a job, and while you're applying for that job there's a movie in every theater in the country that shows how much you suck in that job?" Rock said. "It would be hard to get hired, wouldn't it?"
Citing "another movie nobody wanted to make this year," Rock turned to Mel Gibson's blood-soaked homage to the final hours in the life of Jesus, "The Passion of the Christ."
"I saw 'Passion of the Christ. Not that funny, really," he joked. "Nobody wanted to make 'Passion of the Christ,' man. Come on. They made six 'Police Academies' and can't make one 'Passion of the Christ.”
The passionate host of this year Academy Awards show is a new tendency in Hollywood. More laughter and fun with a comedian who uses millions of TV audience to tell them provocative things, touching politics and high ambitions, is a new way for the Academy Awards. Will it go on with this style next year? The chances for this are high.
