Posted 10:51 PM by Gene

What do foot -- SOCCER fans and A-ca-de-my A-WARDS® devotees have in common?  They're neurotically obsessive and they make lots of noise.  Soccer is what the Os-CARS® would be if lots of people took them seriously: an excuse for rioting and the sport's mavens tying themselves up in a hundred knots to repair a game that is beyond repair, not least in its tedium, which it overcomes only in the explosive hyperactive fits that get the yobs going.

In a way the Os-CARS® are worse because where soccer can at least claim millions of devoted tire burners whose thuggery is understandable that precious award show instead has the kind of overly devoted minuscule self-loving claque that follows musicals, but that tends to congregate where too many people can notice (i.e., the pop-cult precincts of the Web), and in a way that tests one's patience far more than rioting (i.e., their silly whiny ironic sarcasm, the stock of the pop-cult trade). The Os-CARS® and musicals underline what's wrong with our culture: while musicals were once highly popular, and the Os-CARS®, for all their faults, tried once to honor films that were genuinely good and popular, now both are mere platforms for a certain kind of upscale fan preening.  Really, who cares about the new musical director?  or what went on at a SAG screening?  They will deny it but these devotees have lots in common with the NASCAR® fans with their shrines for Number 3, or the Crimson Tide fans who paint their homes red, only -- and this is where they're worse -- they celebrate AHT.  In short, they're Rocco Landesman, and they're proud of it.

We can laugh at the soccer maniacs and the Os-CAR® maniacs, but with both, a screw is loose.

(NYT link via Marty)