Those big stars just don’t get Jon Stewart

Welcome to the circus
On the days before the Academy Awards, the block of Hollywood Boulevard between Highland Avenue and Grauman's Chinese Theatre was a bizarre sort of circus. Closed from traffic, half of the street was lined with the red carpet, which, covered in plastic to prevent damage from the feet of tourists and workers, takes a hard right into the Kodak Theatre's promenade. Behind bleachers that lined the street, huge pallets of bottled water and Coca-Cola products were stacked next to port-a-potties, all guarded by crowd-control gates.

Breezing by tourists snapping digital photos of the commotion were men and women with ID badges that announced their jobs or importance with words such as "lighting" or "all access."

Pedestrian detours force tourists to walk in access corridors, where back entrances to stores that line the red carpet are sealed with red tape that says "A.M.P.A.S. Security." Guards, often looking like teenagers wearing Halloween police costumes, lined the carpet and the backstage areas, a more visible security presence than is found outside most federal buildings in Washington, DC.

All of this is to say that it's impossible to just walk past the Kodak Theatre, which was custom-built for the Academy Awards, without getting a sense of the occasion's importance and solemnness. Walking down the red carpet — after the plastic has been removed — and then entering the theater itself must be exceptionally intimidating, giving the stars a vast feeling of importance.

Perhaps, then, we can't blame the crowd for being so humorless, so completely unclear about what's funny and what is not, and so unwilling to laugh at themselves, the chosen few.

Hollywood is often accused of being "out of touch with mainstream America," as Jon Stewart said during his opening monologue. He specifically pointed out that "this town is too liberal," joking that it's "a moral black hole where innocence is obliterated." As George Clooney pointed out while accepting the Oscar for best supporting actor, Hollywood's progressiveness often means that its films have often led the country before it changes for the better.

The real way that Hollywood is out of touch has to do with its inability to laugh at itself, and the Academy Awards are the best example. Films are important, whether they are everlasting works of art or audience-pleasing thrillers. As Jon Stewart demonstrates every Monday through Thursday evening, appreciating something's consequence and weight while laughing at it is possible, just maybe not for an audience that is too caught up in its biggest moment.

Andy Dehnart is a writer and teacher who publishes reality blurred, a daily summary of reality TV news.

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