| Chris Rock…Academy Awards are words most people wouldn’t put together… But this year, Chris Rock hosted the Academy Awards… It wasn’t a marriage made in Heaven…Chris Rock is one of the hippest and brightest comics working…with an intense following…but not seen by the majority of the population… He’s been seen on "Saturday Nite Live" but had a minor role…a minor role as well in the Spike Lee movie, “New Jack City”… then he honed his skills in night clubs around the country…'til it bought him "Def Jam" and HBO… his first and best special…that got him awareness from the "Hip People" and some of the East Coast media…Rock was put up as one of the hippest comics on the American scene…since his Emmy Award winning HBO show, Rock was being hailed unfairly as the “Next Richard Pryor”… America then knew they should like him in order to be hip…Much like David Letterman who also had an ill-fated appearance on the Academy Awards, many had never really seen him...Let’s hope the Academy doesn’t try the much bally-hooed “Not Necessarily the News” host, Jon Stewart…The Academy Awards are a tradition in Hollywood, for well over sixty years… it’s one of only a few traditions in America that hasn’t fallen…It is treated with reverence… The newest thing that has been added to the Academy Awards is the clothes watching segments… bought on by Joan and Melissa Rivers…The ratings and attention to the Academy Awards are still high…but not what they were…The reverence is high…but not with the youth…The networks want the youth in their demographic… In comes Chris Rock…in their minds a “Spokesman” for the hip youth… The powers that be figured add Chris Rock…get the younger crowd…but Rock and his people don’t hold the same reverence for this traditional award ceremony…Most of the audience had no idea of what he did…and continuing the cultural, age, and racial divide in America… Chris Rock is a young Minorities Act…Rock was told immediately upon accepting the job…"tone it down"…"don’t do what got you to the dance"… "Don’t muck up the tradition"… So people who liked Chris Rock tuned in to see their guy… instead they saw a watered-down version of the person they knew and were not happy with that… Those who didn’t really know what Chris Rock does found him to be rude, crude, loud, and abrasive... Chris Rock was put in a No- Win situation…and everyone was offended…Tom Shales in the Washington Post stated,"Rock was lame and mean spirited” Robert Bianco in USA Today reported that, “Rock, was neither funny nor entertaining. Loud, snide, and dismissive, he ranks as the worst host ever”… Much like an Elephant in a frog pond Rock was clearly outta place… |
