Steve Martin, Chris Rock Roast Iowa Caucuses, Jeff Bezos, and Lack of Diversity at the Oscars
The 2020 Oscars ceremony kicked off Sunday evening with a lively comedic intro by Steve Martin and Chris Rock, who targeted topics ranging from the Iowa Caucuses, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and even the Academy’s own lack of diversity among this year’s nominees.
“A couple of years ago, there was a big disaster where they accidentally read out the wrong name, but they have guaranteed this will not happen pthis year, because the Academy has switched to the new Iowa Caucus app,” joked Martin, referring to the technical difficulties experienced by Iowa Democrats attempting to tally votes in their caucuses earlier this month with a new app.
Martin and Rock then began calling out various prominent attendees, including several former and current nominees, and then Bezos.
” Jeff [Bezos] is so rich, he got divorced and he’s still the richest man in the world,” said Rock. “He saw Marriage Story and thought it was a comedy.” Rock then asked Martin if he had “anything you want to add about Mr. Bezos?”
“No, I like getting my packages on time,” replied Martin.
The duo then turned to the lack of diversity among the nominees this year, a topic that has launched hashtags like #OscarsSoWhite in recent years and a wardrobe protest by actress Natalie Portman, who had the names of women directors who were omitted from this year’s nominations embroidered along the edge of a Christian Dior cape she wore tonight.
“There’s so many, so many great directors nominated this year,” said Rock.
“I don’t know, Chris, I thought there was something missing from the list this year,” said Martin.
“Vaginas?” said Rock, as the audience laughed and cheered.
They then turned their focus to Cynthia Erivo, nominated for Best Actress for her portrayal of Harriet Tubman in Harriet.
“Cynthia did such a great job in Harriet hiding black people that the Academy got her to hide all the black nominees.”
Martin and Rock wrapped up their intro mocking the “amazing progress” the Academy had made from 1929, when there were no black nominees, to “now, in 2020, we got one!”
Watch the video above, via ABC.
