Question 1: The best host of a TV awards show ever:
Question 2. Best speech at the "People’s award" ceremony last night:
Question 3. Worst acceptance speech at the "People’s award" ceremony last night:
Let the people speak!
(These buttons don’t actually work. We don’t know enough HTML or Typepad to make them functional. [But they look good, don’t they?] Please leave your answers and your comments in the comment field. Thx. The boys in the lab.)
post script: Hey, did anyone else think that turn ads into awards was one of the most gloriously stupid, implausible, and unsuccessful episodes in the history of contemporary marketing?
Grant — Welcome Back!
A few years ago, The Onion ran a story about “The Awards Awards”, in which various award ceremonies (the Oscars, Emmies, Tonys, Baftas, etc) received prizes, eg, for the Best New Award in an Existing Award Category. I just tried to find it on The Onion’s site, but failed.
the people’s choice awards were last night? completely missed that. does anyone actually have time to watch this kind of thing, or care?
anyone have the broadcast info for baudrillard’s illusion of people’s choice awards?
Peter, thanks, I am proud to be anticipated by so august a publication. Best, Grant
Chip, well, no, actually, a little bit of contemporary culture was decided last night. One of the questions (beside whether Jessica Simpson would demonstrate more than trace elements of talent) was how would the host do? This is one of the outstanding questions in a culture that is fragmented as fast and far as ours. What character, from what background can the right someone come. The rule book used to say that the best candidate would be the host of a late night TV show. After all, these people had hosted fame contestants all year long. Did he not make sense that they should be there to award the prizes? But Carson, Leno, Letterman, all proved too bland to sustain a show that harbors formidable powers of tedium. Chris Rock looked promising, but not that wasnt going to work either. It is almost as if the award shows were swinging wildly back and forth between the provocative (Rock) and the bland (Leno). What was called for apparently was someone who split the difference. Enter Craig Ferguson, who managed to be both agreeable and interesting (not to mention Scottish). Thanks, Grant
LK, When I was listening to George Lopez, it seemed to me that he was treading on the trickster territory you have studied, and I wondered what you thought of the performance. It seemed the freshest part of the event, but I was secretly pleased when Bullock slapped him down. Thanks, Grant
It used to be supposed that the late night show host that