By Milan Polk ’16

The Academy Awards had many highlights, including the much-loved Leonardo Dicaprio winning his first ever Oscar after over 20 years in numerous popular films, and “Mad Max: Fury Road” winning six Oscars for members involved its special effects. Of course, what viewers really wanted to see was how host Chris Rock took on the lack of diversity at the awards.

Rock delivered and served up a hefty amount of jokes surrounding the controversial #OscarsSoWhite and the lack of minorities in the nominations. His 10-minute monologue was focused around diversity and answering the question of whether or not Hollywood is racist. Rock acknowledged Hollywood’s well-known flaw, although described it as not “that racist that you’ve grown accustomed to.”

Rock’s best jokes of the night made the audience roar with laughter, like when he mentioned he saw “at least 15 black people” in the opening montage of films. Strangely enough, the worst jokes also made celebrities laugh, possibly at the uncomfortable situation, like when Rock brought out Asian children and suggested they would grow up to become accountants, even giving one a Jewish name, and suggesting that if someone disapproved of the joke they could, “just tweet about it on your phone, which was also made by these kids”. Celebrities including Constance Wu, lead actress in the popular television comedy “Fresh Off the Boat,” did, in fact, expressed her disgust over social media.

Most critics have praised Rock for his performance, saying it was much needed. Others, however, focused more on the flaws of Rock’s spiel, calling him out on celebrity undercuts such as when he noticeably insulted couple Jada Pinkett and Will Smith, both of whom called for minorities to boycott the awards. He pointed out one of Smith’s acting flops, saying the actor should not “have been paid $20 million” for the 1999 film “Wild Wild West.”

Audiences and critics felt many movies were snubbed in certain categories, and if included, there could have been more diversity. There was some vexation when “Creed’s” Michael B. Jordan was not nominated for the “Best Actor” category. There also was the irony of the “Straight Outta Compton” nomination, since the plot surrounded the rise of a famous black rap group, but only the film’s white screenwriters recorded a nomination.

The night did still have some diversity and representation, however. Memorable moments of the event included Lady Gaga’s haunting and brilliant tribute to sexual abuse survivors, and Sam Smith’s winning speech, where he incorrectly claimed he was the first openly gay Oscar winner, much to the chagrin of the screenwriter of the 2009 film “Milk.”

Overall, the show was groundbreaking in content, but not in ratings. Ratings were at a near record low, and this being the second year of a mostly white list of nominees could have been a factor. Of course, social media saw more popularity, with over 48 million posts and tweets involving the Academy Awards.