On the edge
You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to think that Chris Rock and the motion picture Academy are doing everything they can – including fueling a trumped-up controversy – to boost ratings for tonight’s Oscars.
“You won’t believe the halftime show,” the 40-year-old comedian says with a gleam in his eye on a commercial for the show.
In other words, tune in or risk missing the equivalent of a wardrobe malfunction.
The promotional spot is supposed to be funny and provocative in the hopes of luring viewers back to the telecast, which has grown stagnant under the Whoopi Goldberg-Billy Crystal-Steve Martin rotation.
The trio has taken turns hosting since 1996, the year after the Academy took its last big risk with David Letterman, who bombed because he refused to suck up to movie stars.
The come-on is that Chris Rock is just as dangerous. He won’t perform any soft shoe and he won’t genuflect to Jack Nicholson.
“Edgy is the word that keeps coming up,” Academy executive director Bruce Davis told The New York Times. “I like to hear that people are nervous, because that means you’re more likely to watch.”
Chris Rock’s ability and willingness to make some people nervous is, ironically, what makes so many other people like him. He is arguably the most popular comedian of our time, yet his stage persona may be more than the Academy Awards can handle. And that’s why he was selected.
Rock has been feeding this hall of mirrors, particularly in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in which he dissed the Oscars, hip-hop style. He never watches, he said, asking what straight black man does? He also called all awards shows idiotic.
Matt Drudge took the bait. The conservative Internet nerd found himself defending Hollywood against the comedian’s comments, apparently not realizing Rock was trying to do his job and be funny. (Literalist headline: “Host Chris Rock Shock: Only Gays Watch Oscars.”) That’s exactly the kind of reaction that sucks in people who normally don’t bother.
At the same time, Rock and the Academy have been promising he won’t go too far. He has repeatedly said he doesn’t have to curse to be funny. But he made his reputation on HBO, where his now-defunct show and groundbreaking stand-up specials are laced with profanity and taboo subjects.
Recently, he’s been trying out Oscar-night jokes at comedy clubs, including one about Lindsay Lohan’s breasts that won’t make the air – at least not the way he told it. But there also were clean jokes in the routines.
The Academy and ABC, which is broadcasting the Oscars, have gone out of their way to accommodate Rock’s style without turning his performance into a riff on prison sex.
For a slightly built man, he takes up a lot of space, relentlessly pacing back and forth, so the stage at the Kodak Theatre will be extended into the crowd to make room for his movements and make it possible for him to interact with the celebrity audience.
And while it’s changing things up, the producers have decided that some awards will be handed out to the winner in his or her seat and some nominees will be gathered onstage before the winner is announced. It’s all intended to revive interest, which has been up and down for years.
There’s never been a worse outing than 2003, when Steve Martin hosted, “Chicago” won best picture and only 33 million viewers tuned in. Last year’s “Lord of the Rings” fest climbed to 43.5 million but failed to rival the 55 million who watched in 1998 for “Titanic.”
Rock has hosted other awards shows, namely the MTV Video Music Awards in 1997, 1998 and 2003 without untoward incident. He has studied what past Oscar hosts have done.
“It’s just basic hosting,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s like sports. You get a big lead, then you run out the clock. No one’s really going to remember some comedy set piece that you do two hours into the show.”
Just in case, though, there’ll be a five-second time delay. After all, anything can happen.
At least that’s what the Academy hopes you think.