So Jon Stewart is going to host the Academy Awards this year. I think that’s great. Really, it’s just wonderful. I’ve got two questions, though… who the hell is Jon Stewart and what has he got to do with the movies?
Okay, I’m just kidding with the first question. I do know who Jon Stewart is. He’s such a media darling, of course I know who he is, even though I don’t have cable and have never seen an episode of The Daily Show, and moreover, I don’t much care.
The second question, however, that one has meat. Why is a television personality hosting an awards program dedicated to movies? Granted, there’s not a lot of difference between TV and movies these days, especially with the rise of affordable home theater set-ups, the steadily shrinking window between the theatrical release and the DVD, and Jennifer Aniston leaping from Friends to Rumor Has It…. But honestly, isn’t there anyone — anyone? — available who is more associated with the big screen than the small? Isn’t there a movie star out there today who is classy and funny and well-liked enough to take this job? Is this some misguided effort to attract that all-important demographic, the youth audience, to a program that is charitably described as “stodgy?” Is the youth audience going to fall for such an obvious tactic? Has anyone considered the possibility that Stewart, a political satirist who trends leftward, will bring unwelcome baggage to the Oscars, proving once and for all to a certain segment of society that Hollywood is a den of festering liberalism? Come on, enquiring minds want to know these things. Oh, and one more thing: is he really, truly, all that funny? Because the clips I’ve seen of his show haven’t exactly caught my fancy. For that matter, why do we need to have a funny host for the Oscars anyway? What’s wrong with a dignified, stately, serious-minded presentation once in a while?
Not really knowing anything about Stewart, I guess I shouldn’t be so judgmental. And I suppose the fact that he’s a television personality doesn’t have much to do with anything. Johnny Carson hosted the Oscars several times, and I don’t think you can do much better for a host than that. And god knows Stewart has got to do a better job than Letterman and his weird “Uma/Oprah” thing.
I guess it just troubles me that there seem to be a lot of guys like Stewart these days, who appear in venues I don’t see and garner lots of attention but who are little more than faces and names to me. When folks start talking about The Daily Show or any of the other buzzy, cable-channel programs that generate the water-cooler discussion these days, I feel left behind. Out of the loop, unhip. I feel old, because the heroes of this moment are not my heroes. And that really sucks…
