Were The Oscars Political and Insufferable? Yes,

So Sunday night, they staged the…I dunno, eightieth Academy Awards or one thing. (Okay, I truly checked, and it was the 98th awards. I used to be going for impact to show my apathy. In other phrases — performing!) It was the same old fulsome affair, where our societal betters (just ask them) interact in a prolonged panegyric bacchanalia. And it quantities to nothing.

In years past, I adopted this more ardently, but frankly, Hollywood has lowered itself to a growing cloistered sect. They have gotten an even more exclusive non-public membership, all while far fewer people are attempting to change into a member. Just look over the checklist of movies feted this yr, and it would inspire a trophy-winning efficiency for Best Shrug.

Somehow, in not too long ago increasing the Best Picture class to 10 movies, they delivered a checklist that defies recognition, failing to transfer popcorn by the gross. Have any curiosity in the telling of an Idaho logger and his household in the early 1900s (Train Dreams)? How about a Brazilian potboiler set in the Seventies that is in Portuguese and clocks in at two hours and 40 minutes (The Secret Agent)? Then there may be Bugonia, the gripping story of two conspiracy-obsessed males who kidnap a CEO of a major company, satisfied that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth. 

Yeah…this was not precisely Rocky duking it out with Taxi Driver, Network, and All The President’s Men.

Yet, even with this interest-defying slate of movies, they put on a show that managed to be even less watchable, where you may sense the TV remotes being nabbed by the minute. Even when deciding on the reasonably banal Conan O’Brien as the emcee, he shortly took his opening monologue from bland to bellicose. Before the show, he said he would steer clear of joking about the president, but this was shown to be an in-name-only pledge. 

Not long into his set, O’Brien said, “I should warn you, tonight could get political. And if that makes you uncomfortable, there’s an alternate Oscars hosted by Kid Rock at the Dave & Busters down the street.” Things only sped away from Mirthville at that level, pulling into Vacuous Valley in no time.

“It’s the first time since 2012,” Conan continued, “that there are no British actors nominated for best actor or best actress. A British spokesperson said, ‘Yeah, but at least we arrest our pedophiles.'” The crowd ate that up, clearly oblivious to the prolonged scandals in Britain of doing little to deal with the rampant rape rings. Hollywood daring to lecture anybody else on inappropriate propriety is sort of the bitter capsule to devour.

All night time, there was no scarcity of posturing on geopolitical issues, and the funniest was that the most important applause was for the densest commentary. Javier Bardem was presenting, and he couldn’t chorus from hectoring from on high. “No to war, and free Palestine,” he pronounced, inspiring a prolonged spherical of applause from the gang, clearly oblivious to Palestine sparking the battle with Israel.  

He was also praised for the show on his clothes, a literal manifestation of advantage signaling.

Javier Bardem is carrying a patch protesting the battle in Iran—“No a la Geurra,” it reads—that he said is the same patch he wore in 2003 to protest “the illegal war of Iraq.”

“And here we are, 23 years after,” he said on the #Oscars pink carpet, with another battle “[led] by Trump and… pic.twitter.com/prEqEY9Qu7

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) March 16, 2026

So let me perceive: He wore the same anti-war patch from 23 years in the past, and we’re still engaged in wars??? I’m going to tapdance effectively out on a limb right here by suggesting that, perhaps, this lapel totem just isn’t so efficient, given its failure to forestall wars. 

Another theme of the night time was censorship, which is a reasonably insipid subject delivered by media elitists. Tough to take the severity of restricted expression severely when they’re pontificating from gilded soapboxes, delivering their neutered lectures to a global viewers of lots of of tens of millions. Hilariously, they undercut their own reprimand when, in an effort to keep the runtime decrease, one winner was giving an acceptance speech, and the manufacturing silenced him. While speaking, his microphone descended into the lectern. (Trivia: The show still ran over the 3-hour runtime restrict.)

“I know we’re tight, but to retract a microphone on a man while he’s speaking… is hilarious”—Conan O’Brien at the Oscars pic.twitter.com/mmiTPE1RFZ

— LateNighter (@latenightercom) March 16, 2026

Joining in on the finger-waggling was the ever-bitter, perpetually incorrect, and hardly ever amusing comic Jimmy Kimmel. He started his presentation for Best Documentary by commenting on international locations that silence their residents – and listed off North Korea and the CBS Network. (Insert giggle → Here.) Next, the person who claims President Trump is obsessed with him, used this event as yet another medium to belly-ache about the person. Kimmel said the president is upset his spouse’s film was not nominated in the class, his lack of wit brought about by the dearth of accuracy; Kimmel was clearly oblivious that Melania was not at all eligible, given it was launched this January.

All of this posturing falls even flatter than the rankings because your complete haranguing manufacturing was undone by their own celebration. As the Hollywood Reporter obliviously announced how the “2026 Oscars Get Political: Winners and Presenters Slam Gun Violence,” the gathered Academy members promptly violated their own sermon, as they went on to have a good time the movie One Battle After Another, a movie rife with gun violence. 

Winning director Paul Thomas Anderson, during his acceptance speech, said that he made this violent hyper-resistance polemic of a movie for his kids. 

Paul Thomas Anderson’s acceptance speech for his first-ever Oscar.

“I wrote this movie for my kids, to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we’re handing off to them. But also for encouragement…” pic.twitter.com/zDXzeL7lFq

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) March 16, 2026

Here’s hoping his kids are grown up by this point. Otherwise, it is only slightly disturbing that he dedicates a movie to young ones where Sean Penn is literally shot in the face. 

This is the extent of clearly oblivious peacocking on show all night time. The people who can’t concentrate to their own lectures are going through an viewers that pays consideration to their movies at a diminishing fee. The good factor is that, given the speed at which AI is sweeping across this industry, these Oscar occasions will change into more diminished in short order.  

Editor’s Note: For many years, former presidents have been all speak and no motion. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the risk from Iran once and for all.

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