Okay, I’m gonna go ahead and say it – I might be a convert to the ‘no host’ method, because it allows more room for more stuff. The musical performances happened more spontaneously, for the most part, which actually made the show more like a musical… which is maybe why this happened:
Rebel Wilson and James Corden put the final nail in the Cats coffin at the #Oscars. Meow! 😹 pic.twitter.com/cq6fsjTcPn
— Dan Wootton (@danwootton) February 10, 2020
I have watched this at least six times, and I see no reason to stop.
Where do I begin? The janky cat costumes and makeup are, of course, a direct hit on CATS and how bad it was universally acknowledged to be. Like, can you imagine that six months ago, people speculated that CATS might be at these Oscars? As a contender?
It would have worked as a visual joke on its own, of course, but my favourite part is when they come back from the video package and Rebel starts to say “And the Oscar goes to” – but she only gets as far as “And the” because Corden starts batting at the microphone, LIKE A CAT.
I don’t care how much fun you had at your Oscar party. I’m sure there were lots of cool people there and I bet you even had rules about when people could talk, but honestly? This is so much funnier when the room is quiet and nobody’s laughing around you. The rhythm of the abuse the microphone takes, the I’m-now-feeling-threatened-by-an-inanimate-object hiss, how it just keeps escalating… literally this moment made my night, and everything else was just bonus. And Bong.
It also gave me some extra appreciation for these two. Like, they appear in high-profile projects just like everyone else in the room – Rebel Wilson was officially there as part of the Jojo Rabbit cast nominated for Best Picture – and yet, I can count very few people who’d actually agree to paint their faces and don a furry suit rescued from a middle school production of The Cat In The Hat on the biggest night of the year.
But more people should, because it paid off – there’s no better way to put a less-than-perfect project behind you than to be the one to make the joke, and no matter what anyone has said about the beautiful atrocity of CATS, neither Corden or Wilson will wear it in their future projects. And by ‘it’, I mean this:
I think the reason I’m so delighted by this tiny little bit is because before tonight I would have said ‘silly’ was impossible to accomplish at the formal, regal, important Oscars. Instead, it was just what the show needed, and frankly, I might even go ahead and actually watch CATS someday, because it will remind me of this:
It’s the eyelines! I’m laughing all over again now. Can they come back next year?