The Academy Awards and Jesusland

Jon Stewart


Caught some of the Academy Awards last night. Some takes on the show.

• The “gay themes in traditional Hollywood westerns” montage was hilarious. Reminded me of the new Willie Nelson song, Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other. Some of Willie’s Brokeback inspired lyrics:

Well there's many a strange impulse out
on the plains of West Texas;
There's many a young boy who feels things
he can't comprehend.
A small town don't like it when somebody
falls between sexes,
No, small town don't like it when
a cowboy has feelings for men.

Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other
Say..what do you think those all saddles and boots was about?
There's many a cowboy who don't understand the way
that he feels towards his brother,
And inside every cowboy there's a lady
who'd love to slip out.

Inside every cowboy? :^)

How did the Village People miss out on writing those lyrics back in their YMCA day? And when did Willie start using Dr. Seuss rhythms and rhymes? "Frequently secretly," said Sam I Am, "I like to eat green eggs and ham."




Don't think the good folks down at the Baptist Church will be singing Willie's song with their kids in the car on vacations. Probably not many Brokeback DVD rentals from that crowd either.

• It’s Hard Out There for a Pimp won best song. Wow. When they announced that award you could hear evangelicals all over Middle America clicking off their TVs.

Pimp seems like just the latest example of the kind of “grinnin’ and shufflin’” black minstrel show that so much of hip hop has become. Just throw in a lot of the “N” word and the “F” word and posture like a ‘gangsta’ so whites can enjoy watching 'immoral' and 'inferior' black men. Guess there's a very good living in 'coonin' so it's hard to blame the young men who do it.



I loved it that the Academy forced Three 6 Mafia (that can’t actually be the group’s real name, can it? :^) to remove the “N” and “F” words for the performance and made em change “bitches” to “witches.” Funny stuff. Does anybody wonder why so many people I talk to overseas think American blacks are all gangsters and spend most of their time calling each other “nigger”?

• Crash the best picture? I sort of liked it though it rang a little false and over the top to me. Of course, I don’t think more than 1000 people combined saw all the best picture nominees this year :^), so maybe that explains the surprising victory. If you want box office go with American Pie and leave the grown up stuff for obscure film festivals.

• Got a kick out of Jon Stewart. I’ve watched the Daily Show regularly since it started and I love his ability to lampoon political blowhards with a measure of self-deprecation and class that’s usually absent in his ‘targets.’

• In retrospect, you wonder if the whole thing was a kind of joke at the expense of the citizens of “Jesusland” from the coastal cultural elites. Seemed like most of the movies with nominations were about homosexuality or violence or racism or the threat of political and cultural homogeneity and corruption. Oh, and a drug addicted country singer. All of it hosted by a Jewish, east coast, Harvard educated political satirist. Just a thought :^)