Chris Rock at the 2016 Oscars: ‘You’re damn right Hollywood’s racist’
Oscars host Chris Rock opened the show on Sunday night with an opening monologue that tackled the controversy about the lack of black acting nominees head-on.
“Is Hollywood racist?” he asked. “You’re damn right Hollywood’s racist.” Rock qualified his comments by saying that the industry was not “burning cross racist … it’s a different type of racist”.
The host then told a story about attending a fundraiser at the White House, and telling the President that his fellow – white – showbiz guests “don’t hire black people and they’re the nicest white people on earth; they’re liberals.”
Their prejudice, he continued, is “sorority racist, like ‘We like you, Ronda, but you’re not a Kappa.’”
Rock concluded: “We want opportunity – give black actors the same opportunities as white actors. That’s it. Leo gets a great part every year. What about Jamie Foxx?”
However, Rock also mocked Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, high-profile boycotters of the event. To a roar from the audience, Rock said: “Jada got mad, she said she’s not coming. Doesn’t she have a TV show? Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties – I wasn’t invited!”
He added: “You get mad that Will was this good and didn’t get nominated” [for his role in Concussion]. “It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20m to do Wild Wild West.”
Rock had begun his monologue by pointing out that he could “count at least 15 black people” in the opening montage, before welcoming viewers to the Oscars, “otherwise known as the White People’s Choice awards”.
Rock added, in a reference to last year’s host: “If they nominated hosts I wouldn’t even get this job so you’d be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now.”
The comedian went on to make direct reference to the many calls for him to resign in protest from the hosting job, saying, “‘Chris, you should boycott, you should quit’ – how come it’s always unemployed people that tell you to quit something?” Rock joked: “I thought about it really hard but they’re not going to cancel the Oscars because I quit, and the last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart.”
As Hart laughed in the audience, Rock pointed out how prolific Hart is, saying, “Porno stars don’t make movies that fast.”
Rock added that it was strange so much controversy had attended this Oscars when, presumably, many of the previous ceremonies had been all-white.
“It’s the 88th Academy Awards which means this whole no-black-nominees thing has happened at least 71 other times. You got to figure that it happened in the 50s, in the 60s, one of those years Sidney [Poitier] didn’t put out a movie, and black people didn’t protest because we had real things to protest at the time. We were too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematographer. When your grandmother’s swinging from a tree it’s really hard to care about best documentary foreign short.”
Referring to the wave of protest against police brutality against black people in the US, Rock added that, this year, the In Memoriam section should be “black people that were shot by the cops on the way to the movies”.
He joked that the Oscars could have specific black categories, saying: “You have men and women, there’s no real reason for there to be a man and woman category in acting – it’s not track and field; you don’t have to separate them. Robert De Niro’s never said, ‘I have to slow this acting down so Meryl Streep can catch up.’” Rock sarcastically suggested one of the new categories: “Best black friend – Wanda Sykes for the 18th year in a row.”
Rock concluded by taking aim at another controversy, the #askhermore hashtag protesting against women being asked only about their outfits on the red carpet.
Said Rock: “You’re not allowed to ask women what they’re wearing any more. Everything’s not sexism; everything’s not racism. They ask the men more because they’re all wearing the exact same thing. If George Clooney came in a lime-green tux with a swan coming out of his ass they’d say, ‘What are you wearing George?’” Guardian
PULLING NO PUNCHES: CHRIS ROCK’S 10 BEST OSCARS JOKES
1) ‘Why all the protests this year? This is the 88th Academy Awards and I’m sure this has happened at least 71 times before. I’m sure there were years in the ’50s and ’60s where black people didn’t get nominated. But we had better things to protest. We were too busy getting raped and lynched to care who was up for best cinematographer. When your grandma is swinging from a tree, It’s kind of hard to worked up about best foreign film.’
2) ‘Is Hollywood racist? You’re damn right. But Hollywood is sorority racist. It’s like, ‘We like you, Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa.”
3) ‘Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. ‘I wasn’t invited! ‘It’s not an invitation I would turn down.’
4) ‘This year, the In Memoriam package is just going to be black people who were shot on their way to the movies.’
5) After the broadcast returned from a commercial break; ‘And we’re black.’
6) On the pressure to not host the Oscars: ‘I thought about quitting. I thought about it real hard. But I realized, they’re going to have the Oscars anyway. They’re not going to cancel the Oscars because I quit. And the last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart.’
7) On progress on diversity in Hollywood: ‘Things are changing. We got a Black ‘Rocky’. Some people call it ‘Creed’ but I call it ‘Black Rocky.’ It takes place where white athletes are as good as black athletes. ‘Rocky’ is science fiction. There are things that happen in ‘Star Wars’ that are more believable than ‘Rocky.’
8) ‘I’m here at the Oscars, otherwise known as the White People’s Choice Awards. If they nominated hosts, I wouldn’t even be here right now. Y’all would be watching Neil Patrick Harris.’
9) ‘It’s not fair Will was this good in Concussion and wasn’t nominated. It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for Wild Wild West.’
10) ‘My favorite actor in the world is Paul Giamatti. Last year he’s whipping Lupita, this year he’s crying at Easy E’s funeral. That’s range.’
