Oscars? The Grouch?

It is April 10, 1967. The crowd at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium is sitting in silent anticipation for the announcement of the previous year’s best movie, and do you know what? I couldn’t possibly care less.

It the time of year again for Academy Award related excitement to be in full swing. To be honest, I rarely notice when the ceremony is imminent, and I only slightly more commonly know after the fact, which movie or which actor has won an award. After much thought, I have come up with two reasons why I have such a blatant disregard for this instance of popular culture.

First of all, movies are an art form. Like any good art, some people will hate it and some will love it. Art is not a quantitative experience like science and math. What evidence can anybody possibly provide to justify why one movie is worth a 9.8/10 and another is worth a 9.6/10, therefore making the former movie the better? I fail to see why the committee choosing the recipients of the awards is seen to have divine and definitive power over the relative quality of a movie or an aspect of the movie. Sure, it’s fine to give out awards, but just because they say that such and such a movie was the best that year doesn’t mean anything to me. I guess what I’m trying to say is that since there is no way of objectively saying that one movie was the best, the results are meaningless to me. This isn’t to say that I think that the awards are a waste of time, just that I don’t care.

Second of all, I don’t really watch enough movies to be able to have anything invested in the selection process. Movies are a luxury that come with a lack of other things to do, something that hasn’t occurred in my life for about four years. I also like to distance myself from the glamorous façade of Hollywood, and the Oscars are too gaudy for my tastes.

I have decided that at the end of each blog post I will post a joke or a quote or some extra words in the semblance of the former or latter.

Q: Where does the king keep his armies?

A: In his sleevies!