A brief thought on the Oscars

One of the lead stories I saw about last night's Academy Awards telecast was how ratings were down from last year. In the linked story, there was this quote alleging host Jon Stewart may have contributed to that:

But Stewart, who built his career skewering politicians in general, and the Bush administration in particular, may have been a turnoff to some older viewers and to those in the nation's heartland.

"This year, when I saw Jon Stewart come up there, I had no interest at all in turning it on," said Allan Poturalski, 46, an investment management executive in Toledo, Ohio. "I don't like the way he bashes and condemns the administration."

So Mr. Poturalski was otherwise excited to see whether the "gay cowboy" movie or the "gay writer" movie or the "liberal media" movie or the "race relations" movie or the "Jewish retribution" movie took the big prize? Really?

~

And now that Crash has won Best Picture, I feel compelled to implore all the people forwarding the Brokeback Mountain jokes: Please stop.

Find someone who can cleverly poke fun at Crash, and forward that (if you must).
I am not such a person. Look elsewhere.

Okay, I will allow more Brokeback jokes, but only on these conditions:
1. It must be original (which ain't gonna happen).
2. You must have actually seen the movie.
If you don't know what you're making fun of, you don't deserve to do so. Put in the time, people.