Oh brother, the Academy president is still hung up on last year
AMPAS President Janet Yang says response to Will Smith's Oscars slap was "inadequate"
Aux News California
Perhaps Adele Dazeem put it best at the 2014 Oscars when she sang: “Let it go!” Unfortunately, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did not take that message to heart, and instead are still hung up on an entirely different Oscars performance. Yeah, you know the one. We’re speaking again of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock during the 2022 ceremony. Brace yourselves.
This thoroughly dead horse is being beaten once again by Academy president Janet Yang, who brought it up once again at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon, to a crowd that included the likes of Tom Cruise, Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, and more (per Deadline). “I’m sure you all remember we experienced an unprecedented event at the Oscars,” Yang said, as if it was possible for anyone in the entertainment industry to forget. “What happened onstage was fully unacceptable, and the response from our organization was inadequate.”
Truthfully, anything more than the ten-year ban Smith received from the event would have seemed excessive. (Smith himself resigned from the Academy before the institution made its ruling, thus forestalling one avenue of punishment.) Yang perhaps refers to the response of the Academy in the moment, which was to allow Smith to remain at the ceremony and eventually accept the award for Best Actor.
Whether or not you think the punishment fit the crime, the Academy is now totally prepared if and when some other Oscar nominee should slap a presenter in the middle of the proceedings. “We learned from this that the Academy must be fully transparent and accountable in our actions, and particularly in times of crisis you must act swiftly, compassionately and decisively for ourselves and for our industry,” Yang assured the industry’s best and brightest. “You should and can expect no less from us going forward.”
59 Comments
I’m not really sure this is “beating a dead horse” considering it’s the Academy president talking at an Oscars luncheon about the organization’s response, and how this impacts the Oscars going forward. Seems like that’s exactly where it would be still relevant to bring up. Beyond that, I’m sure Will Smith would like people to stop talking about the time he assaulted someone on stage, but the problem with being a famous person acting like a dumbass on camera is people don’t easily forget it. And considering he absolutely got off way lighter than a “normal” person would for what he did, I don’t really see why we’re concern trolling about it.
“I haven’t seen a dead horse beaten like this since Beat Picture 1973!”
As my old band director used to say: You can lead a horse to water but you can’t beat it until it drinks.He was…special.
Reminds me of what my old Grandpa said to me on the day I graduated high school, “Don’t look a dark horse in the mouth, but you can look a high horse twice in the bush”. We had him swiftly imprisoned for horse abuse.
Your grandpa was a cattle rustler, wasn’t he?
Actuary.
I thought he was in plastics.
No that’s just how he died.
Uh-huh, and all that country singer had to do was not say the n-word on camera.
Which one?
Exactly.
And I’m absolutely convinced the AV Club would have just as happily snarked their way through “Academy president fails to address open-palmed elephant in room at Oscar Nominees Luncheon” if Yang didn’t bring it up. It’s a win-win!
I don’t really see why we’re concern trolling about it.This site — a site dedicated to pop culture news — decided the day after the Oscars that there was already too much coverage of the Slap, and why didn’t we let it go already, and it wasn’t a big deal anyways (even as they churned article after article about it).A prominent actor who went on to win the Oscar for Best Actor the same night physically assaulted the host on the main stage in front of the world; you’d think that’s the kind of story the AV Club would understand was kind of a big deal… at least in the insular world that they cover.
So I don’t know the particulars behind it, but somewhere behind the scenes a decision was made as to how to handle this — bury it as much as possible and shame the people who think it’s worth discussing.
Armed guards and German shepherds will be on stage this year, huh.Bewegen Sie sich schneller oder leiden Sie unter den Folgen!
To keep Zendaya’s mom out?
I guess anything she thinks necessary to keep this tired, old event relevant. “Remember last year when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock?? Tune in to see what happens this year!”
I ‘member!
As does Pepperidge Farm.
*the Keebler Elf slaps Pepperidge Farm as hard as he can
“Keep my cookies out ya mouth!”
Everyone knows you’re an awards show junkie.
Kind of seems like you guys are as well, to be fair.
Right? Who made them cover this news if they thought it was so tired?
If it wasn’t for dead horses, the AV Club wouldn’t be beating anything.
*sing*
So join Gilligan, the Skipper too…Tom Cruise and Angela Bassett…Michelle Yeoh…and all the rest…here at Oscar Nominees Luncheon!Michelle Yeoh threatened kung-fu violence if any names were sung after hers.
That’s racist!
I agree with her. If you get up and slap the host of an awards show you should be removed from the premises. That will never change.
Chris Rock was a presenter, not the host.
Ah yes, you’re right.That makes the slap okay then!
I mean, maybe you just shouldn’t be allowed to slap anyone at an award show.
Special dispensation has been made for Michelle Yeoh, who can slap anyone she pleases.
Nice! This year for the Oscars I want to hear about nothing but the slap
Scritti Politti called…😂😂😂
“What happened onstage was fully unacceptable, and the response from our organization was inadequate.”
And she’s right. The Academy’s response was pathetic.
Truthfully, anything more than the ten-year ban Smith received from the event would have seemed excessive.
No, the ten-year ban is a joke. It’s a ban from attending the Oscars, nothing more. He should be banned from being nominated ever again.
Whether or not you think the punishment fit the crime
Of course it didn’t. By not removing Smith and allowing him to accept the Oscar that should have been immediately rescinded, the Academy announced that there was nothing wrong with what Smith did.
Eh. Get over it, its just a bunch of rich people giggling over their tea. I could say…if Smith didn’t do anything than the Academy is announcing its okay to get on stage and just make fun of women. But I think both statements are equally stupid.
Roseanne got more shit for a mean tweet than Will Smith did for physically assaulting someone on live television lol. Makes me smile, I think of this whenever people in Hollywood act like they have morals.
A mean Tweet would be something like “Valerie Jarrett, you suck”. Roseanne went in a different direction.I would have been fine with Will getting arrested though.
Maybe, but it’s still not as bad as physically assaulting someone over a joke.Plus I’m guessing if she said nothing and just bitch slapped Jarrett she would have been cancelled too.To be fair it’s not just Smith getting away with it. Cardi B admitted she used to drug and rob men and faced zero consequences to her career. And of course Jimmy Kimmel wore blackface and still has his late night show. Trevor Noah made racist jokes about indigenous people and kept his job too.
“Cardi B admitted she used to drug and rob men and faced zero consequences to her career.”
Not like the consequences your hero Tim Allen has faced over his criminal past though, right?
Right??!?!?!?
I love when people piss and moan about hypocrisy while carefully ignoring their own.
“Yang perhaps refers to the response of the Academy in the moment”She’s obviously referring to the response of the Academy in the moment, and she’s addressing a group of people who will be in attendance at the upcoming ceremony this year, so I’m not sure I understand the snarky tone of this article. She’s assuring the attendees that she understands they didn’t react the right way when it happened, and she’s letting them know that they are prepared for something like that now and that they should feel safe attending the ceremony, and that they should feel comfortable that nothing like this is going to overshadow their moment should they win.
Exactly. Considering there was a violent assault at the same industry event last year, it would be kind of weird not to address the issue.
Right? It’s funny how a lot of times AVClub newswires go for snark against all common sense. Sometimes news is just news, and if you truly think it’s “beating a dead horse,” then why did you cover it?
But then other times, there will be a story that’s batshit insane (like Lana Del Rey claiming someone threw a book about feminism at her while she was eating her lunch), and they will report on that in a completely straightforward manner with no snark whatsoever. It’s like nobody writing for this site knows when to use sarcasm anymore!
Yeah I’m not sure what the article is so upset about. Clearly the Academy froze last year when it happened, because it was so wacko and something they were (understandably) so unprepared for that they didn’t know what to do. She’s saying that this year if one of the biggest movie stars in the world comes onstage and hits a presenter moments before that movie star is about to receive one of the biggest awards of the night, they’ll have a plan for it.
Oh brother, the AV Club is still hung up on last yearAnd they’re gonna write about it as if they’re above it all. Again and again. And again and again and again.
Insisting that the world stopped and etc. comes across more as Yang trying to gaslight everyone into thinking its a more watched event. This is the new Janet Jackson boob slip.
No. It’s really not anything like that, at all
It’s probably a fear-driven response. The public thinks awards shows are kinda dumb but does tend to like when hosts make fun of Hollywood. That means to get people to watch, they need to protect the people who are making fun of them. Few people want to show up to do that if they think the Academy is going to sit on their hands when a celebrity gets offended, so she’s trying to convince someone to show up. I haven’t followed, so I might be way off, but maybe they’re trying to get Chris Rock back again—it’d make them look better and it’d improve ratings significantly.
I don’t give a shit about what Will Smith did, but I do care about the total lack of nominations for the Black-lead NOPE And The Woman King
Oh, well, stop the fuckin’ world, right
The problem is they dropped the ball the very moment that happened. Boiled down to its essence, someone came onto stage and physically assaulted another person. In any other venue, involving anyone else, that assailant would’ve been thrown out of the theater, and into a police cruiser. That’s what should’ve. happened here. Smith should’ve been escorted from the premises, and denied his opportunity to accept his award, and make the big speech. THAT would’ve been the correct, the appropriate punishment.
100
Lets not kid ourselves. For all the public denouncement of “The Slap”, the Academy president is giddy about the fact that something, anything, happened at the Oscars that got people talking for more then a day. They are bringing it up again now so people remember that happened and go “I should watch this year to see if anything crazy happens again”
How is it not relevent, that an organization promises to do better before the event starts.. Do we really want to forget that someone assaulted someone on stage in front of the world and minutes later received an award… Thats not a good thing, and im very dissapointed if you think we should just get over it.
This article is still further proof that I’m an idiot to continue to visit this cadaver of a website. The Oscars provided a forum for assault with immunity, and honored an idiot who just minutes before had shamed the entire profession. The Oscars’ response was inadequate in the moment, and has remained inadequate. If the author of the piece thinks its “beating a dead horse” to continue to revisit that shameful episode, well, the author is a fucking idiot and/or has personal issues that causes them to downplay the severity of a brutal attack.Fuck the AV club, and fuck the author of this piece. I hope no one they love is every in the position that Smith put Chris Rock and the rest of the room.
One of the newest things to hate about the modern AV Club is its inclusion of snarky phrases like “Oh brother” in their headlines.
“Still”?
You know there have been zero Oscars ceremonies since the incident, right?
Here we go…
I have to admit, if you want people to stop talking about a topic, writing AV club headlines about it is a great way to make it seem like it must be irrelevant.