Wonder Woman, Thor, and Tiffany Haddish bemoan Oscar unfairness in Andy Samberg and The Lonely Island’s rejected Oscar music video, “Why Not Me?”
Last night’s Academy Awards were a spectacle of expectations, activism, and Jimmy Kimmel’s jet ski, but there was one part of the event that viewers didn’t get to see. The musical group The Lonely Island — Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Brooklyn 99‘s Andy Samberg — were asked to pitch a music video for the legendary awards ceremony.
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Along with composer Greg Chun, they delivered a song embodying the despair of stars like Chris Hemsworth and Gal Gadot, who lead popular blockbusters to box office millions, only to be completely ignored by fancy award ceremonies.
Unfortunately, the song (“Why Not Me?”) met a similar fate, as the production was deemed “financially and logistically impossible” to produce for the Oscars. But luckily, The Lonely Island kept their receipts, and fans can enjoy the raw, story-boarded version of the uncomfortably accurate ballad.
In addition to Wonder Woman and Thor, “Why Not Me?” imagines hilariously pained verses from IT‘s so-white Pennywise, Tiffany Haddish (ignored for her zipline-peeing in Girl’s Night) and Michael Fassbender’s epic failure of a film, The Snowman. Jason Momoa also makes a salient musical point about his extremely bone-able fish-man receiving none of the awards love of The Shape of Water, which took home Best Director and Best Picture.
It’s easy to see why the music video would have been impossible to produce, as The Lonely Island didn’t hold back on a single star for their vision. But as over the top as it is, it would have been nice to see the Academy acknowledge their bias against genre films.
With no sign that the onslaught of cinematic superheroes (and Chrises) will stop any time soon, “Why Not Me?” rings pretty true throughout the laughs.
Oh well. There’s always Black Panther for next year!
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