# Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, is Hollywood's yearly ceremony honoring achievements in film, first held in 1929. Since the early 2010s, the live telecast has been a reliable engine for viral meme moments, from John Travolta's 'Adele Dazeem' flub to Ellen DeGeneres's record-breaking group selfie. ## Overview The Academy Awards is an annual televised ceremony where the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) hands out gold statuettes for achievements in filmmaking, with 24 competitive categories in the modern era[3]. Winners receive the small gilded figure officially called the Academy Award of Merit, better known by its nickname 'Oscar.' Voting is handled by roughly 8,000 industry members, with ballots mailed out in December and tallied by the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in a process that takes about 1,700 hours[1]. Beyond the awards themselves, the Oscars became a dependable source of viral internet content once live tweeting caught on around the 2012 broadcast[5]. Red carpet outfits, presenter slip-ups, host monologue jokes, and quick audience cutaways are all mined for GIFs and screenshots within seconds of airing. The distance between Hollywood's polished self-image and the messy reality of a four-hour live TV show is what makes the ceremony such a factory for jokes, and why 'Oscars memes' became a yearly Twitter ritual. ## How It Spread The Oscars entered its full meme era at the 84th ceremony on February 26, 2012, when Angelina Jolie's strapless black Versace dress with a high leg slit was photoshopped within hours into a running gag known as 'Angelina Jolie's Leg'[5]. That same night, Billy Crystal drew criticism for a blackface sketch portraying Sammy Davis Jr., though Davis's daughter told The Hollywood Reporter her father would have approved of the tribute[5]. The 2013 show added Seth MacFarlane's opening number 'We Saw Your Boobs' and Jennifer Lawrence's fall on the stairs while accepting Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook, both of which spawned their own GIF sets[5]. On March 2, 2014, host Ellen DeGeneres crammed Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Jared Leto, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts, Lupita Nyong'o, Kevin Spacey, Channing Tatum, and Angelina Jolie into a single group selfie that briefly held the record for most retweeted photo[5]. Later in the same broadcast, John Travolta introduced singer Idina Menzel as 'Adele Dazeem' before her live performance of 'Let It Go,' launching name generators and jokes that outlived the ceremony itself[5]. In 2015, AMPAS president Cheryl Boone Isaacs mangled cinematographer Dick Pope's name as 'Dick Poop' at the nominations announcement, and Travolta's awkward red carpet moment with Scarlett Johansson triggered the 'Creepy Travolta' photoshop meme[5]. The 2016 broadcast, hosted by Chris Rock, was built around the #OscarsSoWhite diversity backlash and included a diversity pledge from Isaacs to overhaul membership by 2020[5]. Leonardo DiCaprio finally won Best Actor for The Revenant that night, ending years of 'Leo can never win an Oscar' snub jokes[5]. The 2017 ceremony delivered its own reliable Twitter fodder when Chrissy Teigen was caught napping on John Legend's shoulder during Casey Affleck's Best Picture acceptance speech, which she leaned into the next day by posting a Snapchat of a second catnap[4]. ## How to Use Oscars memes are typically built in real time during the live broadcast. Twitter users grab a screencap of an awkward reaction shot, a wardrobe choice, or a mispronounced name, then caption it before the next commercial break. Parody hashtags such as #OscarsWeNeed in 2017 drove joke award categories like Best Trailer Voice Guy[5], and templates like the 2014 Ellen selfie were repeatedly photoshopped to swap in different celebrities and cartoon characters. The playbook is simple: wait for a live slip, screenshot it, caption fast. ## Cultural Impact After the lowest-rated telecast on record drew just 26.5 million viewers, the Academy's Board of Governors voted in August 2018 to trim the ceremony to three hours by presenting some categories during commercial breaks and airing edited acceptance speeches later[2]. In the same meeting, the board approved a new 'Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film' award, then admitted it had not yet defined what qualified a film as popular[3]. Backlash was immediate. Actor Rob Lowe joked it was the worst Academy idea since his 1989 duet with Snow White, director Adam McKay pitched mock categories like 'Best knife throw,' and author Mark Harris tied the move to Black Panther's success with a widely shared 'separate but equal' tweet[5]. The category was shelved. In December 2018, comedian Kevin Hart announced on Instagram he would host the 2019 ceremony, then stepped down within days after old homophobic tweets and standup routines resurfaced, apologizing to the LGBTQ community[5]. Actor Jamie Lee Curtis's line 'Homophobia is not positivity' pulled more than 51,000 likes during the fallout[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Academy Awards? The Academy Awards, or Oscars, is the annual awards ceremony run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that honors achievements in filmmaking across 24 competitive categories[3]. ### Where did Academy Awards come from? The first Oscars ceremony was held on May 16, 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with about 270 guests and 15 prizes handed out for films from 1927 and 1928[5]. ### What does Academy Awards mean? It refers to the industry prizes voted on by the roughly 8,000 members of AMPAS, with ballots counted by PricewaterhouseCoopers over about 1,700 hours[1]. ### How do you use Academy Awards? Online, users treat the live broadcast as raw meme material, screencapping flubs, red carpet looks, and reaction shots to caption on Twitter within minutes of airing[5]. ### Is Academy Awards still popular? Ratings had already hit a record low of 26.5 million viewers by 2018, prompting the Academy to shorten the show to three hours to try to keep and win back viewers[2]. ### What was Adele Dazeem? It was John Travolta's mangled 2014 introduction of singer Idina Menzel before her live performance of 'Let It Go,' which became one of the show's most repeated jokes[5]. ### What was the Ellen Oscars selfie? Ellen DeGeneres organized a March 2, 2014 group photo with Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Jared Leto, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts, Lupita Nyong'o, Kevin Spacey, Channing Tatum, and Angelina Jolie that briefly held the record for most retweeted photo[5]. ### What was #OscarsSoWhite? A hashtag driven diversity backlash that shaped the entire 2016 broadcast hosted by Chris Rock, and pushed AMPAS president Cheryl Boone Isaacs to pledge changes to membership by 2020[5]. ### Why did Kevin Hart step down as Oscars host? Old homophobic tweets and standup bits resurfaced within days of his December 2018 announcement, and he apologized to the LGBTQ community as he pulled out of the 2019 show[5]. ### What happened with the 'Best Popular Film' category? The Academy announced it in August 2018 without defining eligibility, and shelved it after critics like Adam McKay and Mark Harris mocked the idea online[3]. ### Did Chrissy Teigen really sleep at the Oscars? Yes, she was caught napping on John Legend's shoulder during Casey Affleck's 2017 Best Picture speech and posted a Snapchat of a second catnap that night[4]. ## References 1. [https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/54560/how-are-oscar-nominees-chosen]() 2. [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/academy-plans-three-hour-oscars-telecast-adds-popular-film-category-1133138]() 3. [https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/8/9/17665634/oscars-new-categories]() 4. [https://mashable.com/2017/02/27/chrissy-teigen-asleep-at-oscars]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/academy-awards]() 6. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Academy%20Awards]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/academy-awards Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library