Chris Rock: Not sanitized
for your protection

The question that naturally arises from the choice of Chris Rock to host the 2005 Oscars on February 27^th is the same one that arose in the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercials of old: Will there be more of the Oscars in Chris Rock, or will there be more of Chris Rock in the Oscars?

In some ways, Rock is an easy choice. Entertainment Weekly named him the nation’s funniest person in 2004, and it isn’t as if Billy Crystal can keep coming back to distract attention from some of the other less successful hosts of recent years. But Rock has already offered some surprising comments about the job, including that he doesn’t watch the Oscars himself for the most part and that he expects — practically demands — a Jamie Foxx victory. Anyone who believes that you really know what you're getting when you throw Chris Rock into a nearly live broadcast hasn't seen his standup stuff.

Rock is the first truly new blood at the ceremony in a very long time. Hosting the Oscars is a task that has gone to members of a single cohort for nearly 15 years. With the exception of David Letterman's historically disastrous 1995 appearance, the only people who have hosted the show since 1990 are Billy Crystal, Steve Martin and Whoopi Goldberg. All three are essentially the same person in one key respect: they had grown into safety by the time they were asked to host.

Billy Crystal came to prominence playing one of television's first gay characters on “Soap,” but by the time he hosted the Oscars for the first time in 1990, he had already appeared in “When Harry Met Sally,” the quintessential edge-free date movie of its era. Similarly, when Whoopi Goldberg hosted in 1994, she was long past her one-woman-show days and had already been in two “Sister Act” movies. Steve Martin hosted in 2001, long after making the transition to Funny Warm Dad roles.

Not sanitized for your protection
Chris Rock, on the other hand, has done nothing that makes him all that familiar or comfortable for, say, your grandma. Even with a lot of mainstream success under his belt, he maintains a cutting sensibility and has yet to choose to settle thoroughly on any particular family-friendly image. In fact, that's what may make the task so challenging for him. It is the job of an awards show host to be funny but not objectionable, which is why the experience tends to be so neutering in the first place.

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And it’s not that good comedy can’t be clean — Rock wouldn’t be where he is if he couldn't be funny in settings where the FCC has to be reckoned with. It’s more that hosting the Oscars is an exercise in being in a ridiculous situation and correctly reading how much you’re allowed to make fun of it. Everyone has seen the moment during an Oscar broadcast where someone makes a joke at the expense of a particular actor, and that actor is then shown in the audience chuckling indulgently. The effect is to actually glorify the actor for being such a fine person as to tolerate mockery like a good sport. Jack Nicholson has made an entire second career out of giving that ambiguous look — that look like, “Heh-heh, I’m laughing, but I’m gonna kill you, but not really, but kind of — just kidding!”

In fact, one could argue that an inability to read the room and know that you can’t really make fun of it in a way that actually makes anyone look bad was what sank David Letterman. Letterman isn’t really capable of pretending not to think anything is stupid, and the Academy Awards were no exception. So the audience of pampered celebrities didn't take to him, so they didn't laugh, so it seemed like he was bombing.

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