The Academy Awards Delivered On One Thing: Memes

Josh Rosenberg
·3 min read
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If the 95th Academy Awards needed anything, it was reactions. Reactions means viewers! In the age of all-streaming-everything it's harder than ever to get viewers to watch your awards shows. Hell, that's why Will Smith slap last year was both a gift and a curse for the Academy Awards. The incident boosted the show's stats by an extra 1.5 million viewers, but it sullied the news cycle around the Oscars for an entire year. The old adage may be that any press is good press, but the slap had celebrities talking about how they were traumatized like they it was their own personal January 6th insurrection.

The Oscars may not have had a slap this year, but the reactions still kept coming—and not even the season finale of The Last of Us could stop people from furiously making memes. The night started with a solid Jimmy Kimmel monologue, which yes, absolutely featured some wisecracks about last year's snafu. Throughout the rest of the night, the Academy Awards brought out Pedro Pascal himself, the "Naatu Naatu" dancers from RRR, and even—we hope?!—the lovable Jenny the donkey from The Banshees of Inisherin. (Academy? Once again, I call on you to institute an award for Best Animal Actor. Jenny would've been a shoo-in.) The night also featured performances from the likes of Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and David Byrne. Below, check out some of the funniest reactions from the 2023 Academy Awards.

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