The Oscars Had Three Comedians Share Hosting Duties And They Couldn’t Figure Out Even One Decent Political Joke

Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images.

The 94th Annual Academy Awards featured three women sharing hosting duties, all of whom have proven they are capable of being wildly, hilariously funny, but somehow between the three of them (not to mention whatever support they had from the writing staff), they couldn’t manage to come up with a decent political joke.

Hollywood leans to the left — that’s beyond cliché, it’s pretty much an established fact at this point — so it’s completely unsurprising for the Oscars to make fun of conservatives. Unfortunately for Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall (and the viewing audience at home), they forgot to be funny when they were making fun of their political foes.

The roughly six-minute opening set started off with an energetic introduction by DJ Khaled, and a decent quip from Schumer: “This year, the Academy hired three women to host because it’s cheaper than hiring one man.”

When the trio tried to take political swipes at the right, however, the humor went flat.

“This year we saw a frightening display of how toxic masculinity turned into cruelty towards women and children,” said Hall.

“Damn that Mitch McConnell,” said Sykes.

“I know, I know,” said Hall. “But you know, I was actually talking about The Power of the Dog,” referring to the Jane Campion-directed film nominated for 12 awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Ha, ha, we get it. Republicans hate women and children. Whether or not you agree with that previous sentence depends on your personal political views, but the hosts’ joke was just plain lazy.

Week after week, Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost has managed to spit out a new and wacky way to insult McConnell whenever he is mentioned on Weekend Update. Jost has repeatedly shown photos of the Senate GOP Leader smiling and identified them as “Mitch McConnell, seen here authorizing the vet to put his kid’s dog to death” or “watching a child fall into the gorilla enclosure” or “watching a poor family get evicted on Christmas Eve” and so on.

It’s the same sort of theme that the Oscars hosts attempted — Republicans, and specifically McConnell, are terrible and heartless — but it’s unique and funny each time. And Jost and the SNL writers generally have to come up with these jokes with just a few days’ notice to react to the recent news they’re mocking.

The hosts wrapped their intro with one more phoned-in joke.

“We’re going to have a great night tonight,” said Sykes, “and for you people in Florida, we’re going to have a gay night.”

“Gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay!” all three chanted as the crowd cheered and clapped.

“You people in Florida.” Sigh. How about addressing the people who actually sponsored and voted for HB 1557, the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill that recently passed the Florida legislature and is awaiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) signature, instead of just attacking an entire state?

Florida is one of the most diverse states in the country with over 21 million people. We don’t all support the bill. (For the record, I’ve publicly opposed it and denounced the vile rhetoric the bill’s supporters have used to falsely defame its critics.)

Hollywood celebrities often pride themselves on their activism and support for all the right causes, well, “right” as in those they deem correct, not those on the political right. But if you are truly an LGBTQ ally, chanting “gay, gay, gay!” during a televised movie awards ceremony doesn’t really accomplish much. Lazy and pointless, not a great combo.

Sykes started doing stand-up comedy in the late 1980s and has starred in or contributed her writing talent to a long list of epically funny movies and television shows. Schumer likewise is a comic-and-writing dual threat, notably in her 2015 debut Trainwreck. Hall attracted attention with her hilarious character in the Scary Movie series and has brought her sharp wit to some absolutely delightful TV and film roles.

These women are capable of being amazingly, screamingly, laugh-until-you-can-hardly-breathe hilarious. We’ve all seen them do it, multiple times in multiple roles. Why couldn’t they do it tonight?

It’s not like there aren’t any worthwhile potential targets for jokes. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) continues to be one of the most bonkers, useless, and awful people to every be sworn into Congress. Former President Donald Trump has spent most of the past two years since losing the election spouting out a series of wild tin foil hat claims and sparring with Republicans who have dared to cross him. Even ol’ “Cocaine Mitch” has had some funny moments.

Go ahead and make fun of Republicans, Hollywood. Just try to actually make it funny.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.