This year’s In Memoriam segment of last night’s now-disgraced Oscars felt otherworldly for quite a few reasons. Taking place right after the biggest moment of the night—when Will Smith smacked Chris Rock—there was less focus on the stage and more on the aftermath. Was anyone actually keeping track of the In Memoriam presentation, or were we all frantically scrambling to find the uncut version of the slap on Twitter?
Play the tribute back and you’ll notice that the Academy opted to leave quite a few folks out of the montage. There was plenty of time to show Flash entering the speed force in Justice League, but the Oscars turned their nose at the opportunity to remember Bob Saget, Ed Asner, or Norm Macdonald. Priorities.
While entertainment monoliths Saget and Macdonald dedicated most of their career to the TV side of the industry (but what about Dirty Work?), leaving out folks like Asner, Gaspard Ulliel, and Robert Downey Sr. was unjustifiable. In 2010, the Asner-led Pixar flick Up won two Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture.
A number of big TV stars were omitted in the In Memoriam section in order to make room for Zack Snyder fanfare, Amy Schumer in a Spider-Man suit, and a random Pulp Fiction reunion. Entertainment icons like The Monkees’ Michael Nesmith, Sex and the City’s Willie Garson, and the aforementioned Saget and Macdonald were honored on the Academy’s website instead.
The people who did make the cut included Sidney Poitier, William Hurt, Olympia Dukakis, Dean Stockwell, and Betty White. Filmmakers included Peter Bogdanovich, Ivan Reitman, Richard Donner, Melvin van Peebles, Lina Wetmuller, Jean-Marc Vallée, as well as cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Poitier, Reitman, and White all earned separate tributes—including Jamie Lee Curtis, who honored the late Golden Girls star with a puppy.
On top of the many omissions, Oscars viewers were quite unimpressed with the “tasteless” presentation of the In Memoriam just as well. Instead of playing the usual slideshow (which was botched last year as well, scrolling through the late stars as fast as an Instagram story), the telecast opted to pair those lost with a song and dance.
“Are they really playing spirit in the sky right now?” one Twitter user wrote. “This is the worst in Memoriam segment ever. You’re supposed to play clips of those that have passed not loud singing and dancing.”
Nevertheless, the Academy also offers a more cut-and-dry approach (i.e. a simple list) on their website, so as to not miss any of those lost. Maybe stick to something more like this next year, ABC?
