02/28/2005
Oscar Censorship
Oscar presenter Robin Williams was forced to cut a number spoofing the recent controversy about allegedly gay animated characters that included the lyrics "Pinocchio's had his nose done! Sleeping Beauty is popping pills! The Three Little Pigs ain't kosher! Betty Boop works Beverly Hills! / Fred Flintstone is dyslexic, Jessica Rabbit is really a man, Olive Oyl is really anorexic, and Casper is in the Ku Klux Klan!"
An ABC spokesman said the song was cut because of two lines "The Road Runner's hooked on speed" and "Pocahontas is addicted to craps" because they glorify drug use and disparage native Americans. Williams responded by ripping a piece of white tape from his mouth before presenting the award for Best Animated Feature which went to The Incredibles.
Related
Spongebob Under Attack [towleroad]
Posted 10:30 AM EST by Andy Towle in Film & TV | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Well, that it explains why Robin, whom more often than not I really enjoy, seemed so "off" last night, but, then, just reading the lyrics of the banned song, it doesn't seem that funny either. Sounds more like a dissonant Billy Crystal (overrated hack) shtick than Robin's usually seamless routine. And what in the name of lame Hasty Pudding Club travesty was that offensive routine with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock and the fake necessity of reading "the girl's part"? If you must tell a fag joke, at least make it a funny fag joke. Mucho surprised Rock didn't riff on gay marriage. As for the tape across Robin's mouth, it should have been used on Beyonce. THREE numbers? One in phonetic French (she should take English lessons first--the language she's more accustomed to butchering in song and speech). Another looking as if she was wearing Elizabeth Taylor's entire diamond collection and so much eye shadow her eyes looked like two burn holes in a blanket. And the third, the song from "Polar Express," was used on the soundtrack as a SOLO by Grobin. The cutie often looks pained when he sings--this time it must have been for real as he thought "I've sung with Streisand and Celine and now I'm forced to duet with a dial tone." And the choice of scenes for the montage of Lumet films poorly represented a great director with a great body of work.
Posted by: Lolly | Feb 28, 2005 12:44:31 PM
Oh, is that what that was about? If you're going to make a statement, Robin, please make it terms we can understand...
Posted by: Ken | Feb 28, 2005 5:14:08 PM
I agree... why was Beyonce even there? The lead from Phantom was in the audience and should've sung her song. It would be different if Beyonce sang ANY of the songs... and if it were done as a medley to save time, but three separate songs???? I think Chris Rock and the presenters in general were not funny and took a lot of the class out of the oscars. What little class remained was struck when Martin Lawrence said "kiss my black ass." Aren't some of the greats of motion picture history in the audience? It was such a ghetto program this year!
However, after Beyonce sang the first number, a lady in the restaurant I was at said "wow, that's my favorite beyonce song!" LOL I thought it was funny!
Posted by: Britt | Feb 28, 2005 11:34:40 PM
i think that it is perfictly find tht they are doing this
Posted by: Kelly | Oct 13, 2005 3:10:00 PM