Hello, my name is Derek Hunter and I…I watched the Golden Globes. That’s not an easy thing to admit, especially given how much more horrible Hollywood has gotten in the last couple of years, but it’s true. I’m proud of it, I did it for work, but the truth is I did do it. And, as it turns out, I was nearly alone.
I grew up loving movies and still do. So when it was Oscar or Golden Globe time you could count on me being right there on the couch watching…alone, because no one else in my family gave a damn.
Others did, however, care. The ratings were always sky-high – these award shows were events. People cared who won what because even though you may not have seen the movie they were in, you undoubtedly knew who the actors were. They were movie stars.
Granted, they weren’t movie stars like they used to be – most of the glamour was gone and many of the women replaced dressing elegantly with dressing to shock or make a statement – but they were still stars. The actors didn’t have causes, they had roles and they did them well.
Now, it all too often seems, the roles are the causes – movies get made because of the “message” in them. Not because some burdening Harvey Weinstein Jr. movie producer cares about that cause, but because the left-wing issue of the day is the worm on the hook – award show bait that, no matter how preachy or bad a movie is, will land you at least serious consideration for all the major awards.
Not only do they repeat the mantra “diversity is our strength, but” it’s also the key to nominations.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which gives out the Golden Globes, caught hell a couple of years ago because it didn’t have any black members. Not by policy, just no black entertainment journalists from overseas wanted to join. Seems people going into journalism, largely from Africa, have better things to report on than which Victoria’s Secret model some actor is sleeping with. That vapid garbage was the domain of most of the rest of the world.
But liberal Hollywood protested that the HFPA had no members who didn’t want to join, so they found some. Who they are, I don’t know. Nor do I care. The less you know about any organization you are not a part of the better you are living your life. But they got some, and that was enough.
The HFPA was out of the dog house, and the Golden Globes (which were relegated to streaming only last year) were back on TV. I’m not sure why.
The host was someone called Jerrod Carmichael. He’s allegedly a comedian but you wouldn’t know it from anything he said.
Carmichael is black and gay, and checking those boxes likely explains why he got the job. It also was damn near all he talked about. The trained seals in the audience barked and clapped at the correct moments, but they didn’t laugh. The closest he came to being funny was when he tried to deliver a Scientology joke, but he butchered the last name of the person in the punchline, likely indicating that one of the teams of writers working on the show came up with it on the spot and Carmichael dropped the ball.
As for the winners, I’ve seen very few of the nominated performances. Maybe they were great, maybe they weren’t. But the problem was one of cynicism created by the “controversy” of the last couple of years.
Remember when Joe Biden promised to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court, no matter what? When he did, he tried to claim he’d found the best candidate available in the entire country. His problem was he’d pledged to pick someone based on their skin color, not their ability. You can’t say you found the best when you only looked for one particular type of person.
Winners for movies and shows you’ve never heard of or don’t watch were met with blank stares and wild applause from the audience members when the winners were not white. Is that why they won?
You never know why anyone in the HFPA votes the way they do, but we do know they were scrambling to survive over this reason just 2 years ago. Maybe the winners deserved it, maybe it was just “woke” sinking its teeth deeper into Hollywood. It doesn’t matter.
What does matter is this is how industries, and nations, die. You don’t even have to remove merit, just get rid of the perception of merit, and things go to hell.
Unsurprisingly, the Golden Globes had its worst ratings ever. Even people who aren’t paying attention know when they’re being preached to, or being conned. Americans love winners who deserve their win, regardless of the configuration of their DNA. Blind adherence to the opposite will be the death of the Golden Globes if not next year then soon. Will the Oscars be next? Probably. And they’ll deserve it too.
