Kevin Hart and a Crisis of Oscar's Own Making
Saturday, January 5, 2019 at 4:18PM by Nathaniel R
If you don't have anything nice to say... don't say anything? No, no, but we must. The Film Experience has been uncharacteristically mum about the will they or won't they, would he and does he still, why'd she say that, and who next D-R-A-M-A surrounding the 'Kevin Hart no not Kevin Hart but maybe NO not Kevin Hart again' Hosting duties of the 91st Academy Awards.
A quick heavily editorialized summary and some Oscar hand-wringing.
Chapter 1. December 4th. Kevin Hart hired to host.
Chapter 2. December 5th. LGBTQ people and their allies complained about his extremely obvious homophobia as evident in unfunny jokes about gay people or gayness including a threat of physical violence if he caught his son playing with dolls...
Homophobia and misogyny are bosom buddies, you know.
Chapter 3. December 6th. Kevin Hart is asked to apologize and refuses to...
claiming he already has and why should he apologize again and publicly quits the gig while both half apologizing (even though he said he wouldn't which is why he was quitting -- huh?) and claiming to be the victim of the twitter mob.
Chapter 4. The next week or so. Lots of people express feelings ranging from "good riddance" to "oh come on you can't make jokes about anything anymore!" to "are we never going to forgive people for past sins anymore?" hand-wringing, and many other types of complaining including "Racist firing! They'd never do that to a white guy" (which, you know, screw fact-checking since the last time a famous person was fired from Oscar night duties it was very white Brett Rattner, who was let go for the same exact reason of homophobia -- if you need a memory jog as a lot of people clearly do, he said "rehearsal is for fags" while discussing his Oscar night duties and the shit hit the fan)
Chapter 5. The rest of December. A weird period of prolongued silence in which everyone wonders why no host has been announced to replace Kevin Hart.
Chapter 6. January 4th. Kevin is interviewed by Variety and claims "it's done" when pressed about doing the Oscars but hours later Ellen DeGeneres sticks her "Relatable" gay spokeswoman neck out there, not really reading the gay room (since she's part of the comic industrial machine) interviewing Kevin Hart and vocalizing that she has spoken with the Academy and they're open to still having him. She supports Hart getting the job.
Chapter 7. January 5th, Today. No sooner had the DeGeneres interview spread than we were back to Chapter 4 and everyone was angry again, partially because DeGeneres called everyone who objected to Hart having the job a "hater". And Kevin Hart starts playing the victim card again reasserting that is an "attack."
Honestly, this is exhausting.
And it takes the focus away from what the Oscars are about which is, contrary to that Ellen interview, in which she explicity states that the night should be about him (WTF?), THE MOVIES. This is not a complicated perspective. Anything that distracts from the movies or makes fun of people who watch movies or what not should have no place on the show! But since movies are not what we're focused on at the moment (sigh) let me just say two things that might not seem compatible but actually are.
1. I believe in forgiveness and I fear that outrage and shaming culture and the scorched-earth 'you're cancelled' mentality that has so infected public discourse and politics in this country is highly problematic because it lacks compassion and empathy which is strange and self-defeating because a lot of time what's motivating this very righteous anger is hateful behavior that demonstrates a monstrous lack of compassion and empathy (i.e. sexual assault, rape, harassment, racism, homophobia, misogyny etcetera)
2. Fuck Kevin Hart!
See, there's no need to forgive someone who isn't remorseful and whose every apology is half-assed and so obviously prefaced with an annoyed 'but what about me?!?' selfishness. How does forgiving and excusing such behavior help? Kevin Hart has shown no real understanding of why his jokes about physical violence towards gay behavior (among others) are offensive. Every "apology" has also painted him as the victim for losing a job he wanted. That is not an apology. That's smoke and mirrors. That's 'please ignore this thing I did because I want this other cool thing.' Both Ellen and Kevin had real opportunities here to dig into how homophobia happens and sticks around, a real chance to explore how people grow and change and why they should. Instead they made it all about Kevin, the victim.
Violence and discrimination against the LGBTQ community have never gone away, despite much social and legal progress over the 50 years since the Stonewall riots. One of the reasons they persist is that homophobia is normalized and condoned by so many people, including the Academy but we'll get to them in a minute. It's not impossible to change course and to stop being homophobic. A ton of people do it all the time. Gay people have to do it when they come out and work through the internalized homophobia they've grown up with in a homophobic culture. Many people who know gay people personally have also made this journey and are better off for it because... wait for this shocking life-hack...it's more joyful and rewarding to love and accept your children/friends/siblings/coworkers/neighbors than to hate and judge them!
As much as Kevin Hart is not the victim here and saying so is missing the point altogether, there is a small, nay miniscule, and underdiscussed way that he is a victim. He is a victim of the consequences of the Academy's inability to get their shit together and accept what they're about and understand who they should be trying to serve.
Kevin Hart should never have even been offered the job in the first place and the fact that he was (despite common knowledge about his comedy) is yet another example of the Academy grasping at straws to solve a problem that they think exists which really doesn't (the popularity problem we've discussed before.) Despite being the #1 awards show on Earth (still, 91 years later) they have let themselves be entirely convinced that they are "irrelevant" despite the facts. And they're continually obsessing over how to get people who don't care about the Oscars to watch the Oscars while ignoring the desires of the people who LOVE the Oscars and look forward to watching all year. Why turn off your most loyal audience with these anti-movie decisions (like axing creative awards on air, dumping the lifetime achievement awards, etcetera) for the sake of an audience that doesn't like you to begin with. If you love Kevin Hart but don't care about the Oscars are you really going to watch because he's hosting? No. There are DOZENS of ways you can enjoy Kevin Hart without bothering with a show you don't care about. There are comedy specials and movies by the dozen. And you won't have to wade through acceptance speeches by other celebrities to enjoy him.
Rather than thinking about what kind of people watch the Oscars -- pop culture savvy types, old people, movie buffs, awards show junkies, celebrity gawkers, the gays, women, etcetera -- they're thinking "Kevin Hart is a popular comedian!" So what? It should only be about whether or not the person is right for the show. Movie stars who are funny and/or entertaining have in the past proved to be the best option for the show (think Whoopi Goldberg, Hugh Jackman, Billy Crystal, Bob Hope, etcetera) so on this one surface level maybe Hart seemed like a good option. He is a movie star who is funny (or perceived to be at least, to each their own) but was he ever the right pick? Didn't anyone at the Academy ever think 'hmmm, maybe homophobic comics aren't right for a show that the LGBTQ community is loyal to... especially not after we already fired a guy for saying fag and lost our host that year, too, because he was loyal to the guy'.
But the Oscars are a mess. Or, as Mark Harris so eloquently put it on Twitter
How agonized and sour the Academy's relationship with its own show has become."
In short, and to wrap this up, we care very little about Kevin Hart but we care a lot about the Oscars. We wish that the Oscars did, too.
P.S. One final random thought. The problem of finding the right Oscar host -- a job that few people want given the intense workload, public scrutiny, and the small payout (for celebrities at least) that reportedly comes with the gig --could be entirely moot if the Academy realized they don't really need one, but this is not the world we live in. The Academy needs needs needs. They never seem to realize that they are already enough.
Reader Comments (58)
It feels like John Bailey has been a disaster as Academy president - the Kevin Hart debacle (it is far too late for a decision on a host regardless), the "popular film" Oscar, the relegation of certain Oscar presentations to commercial breaks, the #metoo controversy... and all in less than a year. I want Cheryl Boone Isaacs back.
HHGeek for the win.
I heard someone suggest Bill Hader the other day and thought that’s not a bad idea. He’s funny, but not political and he’s an insane movie fan.
Perhaps Disney could create an animatronic Bob Hope or Johnny Carson? There is always Oprah
Suzanne: totally agree, The academy has been making one disastrous decision after another. Get a new person in charge - pronto!
Graham Norton is a great idea. How is that guy not bigger in the States?!
Nathaniel, excellent post. Co-sign every word. The Oscars don’t need to beg for it. They have been and always will be fuckable.
Just get three or four charming movie stars to do the honors. Jokes are not required. Class and gravitas are. Period.
I'm happy Hart is not hosting. Not because he might be a homophobe but because he just isn't funny.
And Ellen is more than entitled to support him. She obviously thinks he isn't a homophobe and that is her right. Whoopi Goldberg supported Mel Gibson and claimed her 'friend' was not a racist. People are entitled to their opinions. If you disagree with them , disagree in a CIVIL manner.
Lets not be like trumptards who burn their NFL membership cards because some black players are peacefully protesting by kneeling.
And finally - Ellen probably didn't mean it but the Awards are to HONOR THE MOVIES. It is NOT all about the host. What a silly thing to say - but I still admire her.
Now lets get back to more important issues. The BAFTAS are coming and then the big one - the ACADEMY AWARDS!
And I pray that Driving Mr Shipley or Bohemian Rhapsody don't win Best Picture. There are 6 other films - and all of them are far more deserving than these 2.