What an anti-spectacle it has become.

Who needs to even get into it, when a picture is worth a thousand words?

A WSJ opinion piece by William McGurn, entitled “Give Bill Maher an Oscar,” carries the very pithy sub-title:

Unlike Hollywood’s woke, at least its Communists could make good movies.

I goes on.

Defenders of Hollywood would say this year’s Oscars represent the choice of art over mass appeal. But the assumption that they are in conflict is belied by Hollywood’s own history. The best-picture nominees from 1939—“Gone with the Wind,” “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” “Stagecoach,” “Love Affair,” “The Wizard of Oz”—point to a time when Hollywood did not despise its audience and produced many movies that had both popular appeal and artistic merit.

Surely it says something sad that professionals skilled in the visual arts can’t even hold an audience for a night. That’s because wokeness inevitably degenerates into virtue-signaling, which has never been a crowd-pleaser. So as the Academy was busy applauding itself for “the most diverse Oscars ever,” Americans changed the channel.

“Academy nominations used to say, ‘Look what great movies we make,’ ” says Mr. Maher. “Now they say, ‘Look what great people we are.’ ”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/give-bill-maher-an-oscar-11619476061

He’s referring to this hilarious New Rule bit by Maher, who seems to be getting both funnier and more piercing, lately (though I usually only watch stuff I get from sources I follow).

Need more?

Well, all this was well prefigured last year by Ricky Gervais hosting the Golden Globes.

OK, that should do it.