#OscarsSoYesterday: The 5 Takeaways From The 2022 Oscars

For the first time in recent history, I did not watch the Oscars live. It’s always weird watching the awards show from halfway around the world at sunrise time. So this time I said I’ll take a break, unplug and watch it later in the day. Most of the ceremony felt quite routine, but then came the WTF moment which has seemingly taken over the internet and our collective fascination.

While I’ll surely get to that, I wanted to highlight the 5 takeaways from this year’s Oscars and why the whole telecast felt, in Hilary Duff’s words, “so yesterday.”

Takeway 1

Three Hosts Are Not Better Than One Host but Any Host Is Better Than No Host (Barring Anne Hatheway/James Franco).

I was super stoked when the Academy announced Regina King, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes as the co-hosts for this year’s Oscar ceremony. In particular, Sykes, as she continues to be one of the most underrated comedians of our time, and frankly, she should have been given a solo hosting years ago. Having said that, it was a welcome return to have hosts hype the audience and keep the show moving. But much like in years past, the hosts continue to be underutilized. Why have three hosts and then have them disappear for hours at a time? Oscars and award shows, in general, have this problem where they max out the hosts in the first 20 minutes and then we hardly see them. Hats off to Schumer for returning and finally acknowledging the WTF moment towards the tail end of the ceremony.

Takeaway 2
The Taped Awards Segments Saved Little To No Time

Controversial since announced, what almost every person saw coming happened at the show. Awkwardly superimposed post commercials, we saw the “previously handed out” awards play out at 2x the speed (if this is the goal, maybe Oscars should move from ABC to Netflix!). You couldn’t tell if the audience reactions were real or stock footage. You couldn’t tell if the speeches were whole or cut off. Frickin’ Riz Ahmed won an Oscar! He was a Best Actor nominee just last year for his brilliant performance in Sound Of Metal and now his Oscar moment felt so cheap, so fast. Ultimately, the reasoning for the decision by the Academy felt pointless because the show was as long as any other year, and given that so much of the best material that stays with us are the acceptance speeches, this is most unfortunate.

Takeaway 3

This Isn’t The Grammys

The Oscars felt thrilling this year with the nominees for Best Original Song lined up the way they did. With Beyonce, Billie Eilish and Encanto up, it seemed to make sense on paper to make the night all about the music. But at the end of the day, The Grammys have their night and the Oscars are supposed to be about the movies. Did we really need Megan Thee Stallion jumping onto the non-nominated song but smash “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”? And if so, shouldn’t that have been the opener? Let’s not even get into the ‘In Memoriam’ segment where the celebration of life basically overpowered the tribute that was meant to be there for the lives lost in the past year. I’ll say this: it was a bit weird to have “heavenly” music commemorate so many artists who are not of that faith. Oscars, don’t do this again.

Takeaway 4

Pair Up Presenters That Make Sense!

Tracie Ellis Ross and Shawn Mendes presenting an Oscar together was probably one of the most awkward and head-scratching moments of the entire night for me. The bit wasn’t one-bit funny; I don’t know why Mendes was even there and they literally took time away from winners being played off by the music. Do the Oscars really think any 19-year-old girl is tuning into the Oscars to watch Mendes present an award with the Mom from Black-ish? I appreciated the fact that some anniversary reunions happened and they handed out awards; maybe continue that trend in the future? Having said that, special kudos to Lady Gaga and Liza Minelli who ended the show handing out Best Picture and Gaga’s “I Got You” to Minelli as she struggled with her lines was hands down the classiest moment of the evening. Maybe Gaga as host in 2023?

Takeaway 5

WTF moments only happen on Live TV!

Will Smith is going to have to pay a price for the slap heard around the world (or at least the web). I must admit, I was most offended by the fact that Chris Rock made a joke in 2022 about “GI Jane”. What’s up with the Oscars trying everything under the sun to make the show feel young and hip, except the jokes are all so old? Does anyone under 40 even know Demi Moore or the film Rock was referencing? Ditto for Schumer joking about Leonardo DiCaprio’s girlfriends? The Academy needs to realize that DiCaprio is now Jack Nicholson and literally for the demographic you’re chasing, he’s old and people really don’t care.

As far as the Smith-Rock incident goes, it was plain stupid. There has already been a ridiculous level of outrage and I absolutely get it. What Smith did was reckless and man-childish, yes, it is an “assault” and one should never get to that point no matter how triggered. But we do realize the bigger we make the moment that has already been patched up between the two (and Rock is not pressing charges as many wished for him to), we do realise that that one slap has reinvigorated talk about the Oscars.

Whatever our opinion, Smith just handed the Oscars what Janet Jackson did for the Halftime show. “Nipplegate” made the Super Bowl halftime show an event again as folks tuned in to see what would happen. For a timeframe when the younger generation has the attention span of a TikTok video, the slap fit perfectly into that, becoming a meme that’s likely to gross that many more millions of hits and views than King Richard or most Best Picture nominees did.

At the end of the day, the Oscars continue to struggle to figure out what it is. And that remains the problem. Rather than be present in the moment, like the hosts said they’d do (but of course they disappeared after saying that), the show continued in their past patterns of pandering, shaking up the formula with weird new segments (btw, that ‘Fan Favorite’ segment was pure embarrassment!), and most importantly feeling so yesterday! We’ve finally reached a point where we are celebrating a diversity of stories with a diversity of actors and talents also represented. It’s time the show felt relevant again, or else all that’s left aren’t claps but a slap.