The Oscars are filled with overly talented, creative and funny people who are no longer silent over matters that need to be talked about.

Whether it be to come right out and address the issue or use a clever innuendo and shade to highlight the hypocrisy of it all, the Oscars 2018 had plentiful of them.

It seems that even more than last year, the celebrities and personalities are letting go of their fears and politically correct personas to call out the wrongs, be it in the industry or the political sphere.

Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue itself was littered with hilarious punchlines as well as some somber comments on the current sexual harassment claims that Hollywood is slowly opening its eyes to.

Let us take a look at some of the best digs, burns or straight up insults that the Oscar 2018 brought to us:

An Awkward Red Carpet For Ryan Seacrest

The first burn would be from the E! people who while choosing to bring Seacrest to the red carpet of Oscars 2018, also decided to take a few safety measures to avoid any awkward encounters.

From the production team having a 30 second delay in their live coverage in order to avoid any embarrassing situation of celebrities not stopping by, to the turnout at E! being lower than previous, Ryan Seacrest did not have the best time at the Oscars.

The burn here is that the American Idol host was recently accused of sexual harassment by his personal stylist Suzie Hardy and his peers and even his company both are a little wary of it. Although Seacrest denied the allegations and even E! dismissed it due to ‘insufficient evidence’, there is an atmosphere of discomfort as Seacrest has not always been a very popular person in Hollywood.

Emma Stone’s Four Men And Greta Gerwig

Previously it was Natalie Portman who did something similar, however, Emma Stone went a step further and outright called out the ridiculousness of the Academy. When naming the nominees for the Best Director category, Stone pointed it by saying, ‘these four men and Greta Gerwig’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PApvceNpFAg

The shade is being put on how rarely the Oscars acknowledge women in the fields of direction, cinematography and such which are largely male-dominated. In all the 90 years of the Oscars, Gerwig is a welcome addition to just a handful of women to have even been nominated in this category, that only one woman has won till now.

Lupita Nyong’o and Kumail Najiani Threw The Best Shade

Representation truly matters and Lupita Nyong’o and Kumail Nanjiani called out the issues immigrants have to deal with when presenting the award for the Best Production Design category.

While Lupita said that, “We are the two actors who you keep hearing about but whose names you have trouble pronouncing”.

Nanjiani on other hand threw shade on how foreign names are made fun of by saying, “Actually, I have to complain… Kumail Nanjiani is my stage name. My actual given Pakistani name is Chris Pine. So you can imagine how annoyed I was when the other, the white one showed up… The real Chris Pine.”

They also clarified where exactly they are from, “We are also immigrants. I am from Kenya,” said Nyong’o with Nanjiani adding “and I’m from Pakistan and Iowa, two places that nobody in Hollywood can find on a map.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIOfmei_AzI

The immigrant issue is one that has been the talk of the country since Trump announced his bid to run for President. His entire campaign was majorly built on instilling fear and negativity towards immigrants. The travel ban along with the decision to disband DACA, an organisation that allowed a huge number of undocumented young immigrants to stay in the US and of course the infamous The Wall of Mexico, all created a really harsh environment for immigrant people.

La La Land Fiasco

The one thing on everyone’s mind besides the #MeToo movement was that a repeat of La La Land fiasco from last year should not happen.

From the Academy putting an extra-large and clear print on the envelopes to Kimmel addressing it first in his monologue by saying, “This year, when you hear your name called, don’t get up right away. Just give us a minute.”, all the digs were aimed at last year’s mess up.

Even Star Wars actor Mark Hamill took shots at the blunder from last year by muttering “Don’t say La La Land. Don’t say La La Land,” when he was opening an envelope to present some award.

Last year’s Oscars will always remain a historic one due to the big mistake that was made when announcing the winner of the Best Picture category.

In a big confusion, the actors presenting the award were given the wrong envelope, who then called out La La Land as the Best Picture. However, quickly it was found out there was a mistake and producer Josh Horowitz eventually cleared it all up by saying “I’m sorry, no, there’s been a mistake”. He then called the actual winners up to the stage, “Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture. This is not a joke. Come up here.”

Host Jimmy Kimmel Spared None

Jimmy Kimmel as the host of the 90th Academy Awards took full potshots at various deserving candidates like US President Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein.

For Trump, Kimmel said, “Jordan (Peele) is only the third person in 90 years to be nominated for directing, writing and best picture for his debut film. And what a debut it was. None other than President Trump called ‘Get Out’ the best first three-quarters of a movie this year.”

Whereas for Weinstein he said, “The academy, as you are no doubt aware, took action last year to expel Harvey Weinstein from their ranks. There were a lot of great nominees, but Harvey deserved it the most.”

“You know the only other person to be expelled from the academy, ever, was a character actor named Carmine Caridi — in 2004, he was kicked out for sharing screeners. Carmine Caridi got the same punishment as Harvey Weinstein for giving his neighbor a copy of ‘Seabiscuit’ on VHS.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bxw_1Un9S4

This essentially highlighted how the Oscars put a trivial offence like leaking a film out in the same category as the systematic and long-standing sexual harassment by one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, and gave it the same punishment.


Image Credits: Google Images

Sources: VarietyThe Guardian, The Washington Post


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