Coming off the physically painful Stacey Dash cameo at this year's Academy Awards, some people are calling the 2016 Oscar ceremony the most awkward in history. I say that those people are wrong. I say that these people are conveniently forgetting a magical thing called the 83rd Academy Awards.
The date was February 24, 2011. It had been a good year for the strapping, young James Franco (OK, he was like 30 but he still looks good.) Nominated for an Oscar for one of my favorite movies, "127 Hours," he was also given the honor of hosting the Awards himself, along with the stunning Anne Hathaway. Critics called his performance "distant [and] uninterested," Time magazine reported that he seemed to be "in a haze," and The Washington Post went so far as to call him "heavy-lidded and snarky." All of which are synonyms for "so stoned he couldn't keep a straight face."
In 2011, James Franco showed up blazed out of his mind to host the Oscars. Don't believe me? Watch this clip-
Am I saying that James Franco was high while hosting the Oscars? I'll let you interpret that, but yes, I am saying he was high as a kite in a tsunami while hosting the Oscars. There's nothing that isn't incredible about that video clip. From James Franco's "I-can't-believe-I'm-playing-along-with-these-corny-jokes" Cheshire cat grin to Anne Hathaway being reduced to who she really is on the inside- a stuttering theater kid panicking because her co-host showing up higher than Wiz Khalifa chartering a jet wasn't written into the script. To be fair, those lesbian jokes were pretty awful, too.
What? James Franco claims that he "doesn't drink or do drugs, ever"? You want proof? Mate, did you watch the same video clip I just did? Okay, maybe this next one of him struggling to complete a red carpet interview will convince you.
Still not convinced? Here's a 20-second video clip of him calling Academy Awards winners "nerds," and slurring through the actress who played "Queen Eliza-bleth" Cate Blanchett's introduction. Seriously, he sounds like when you go to the 5th bar of the evening and you're struggling to hold it together until the bouncer checks your ID.
Were this year's Oscars deliciously terrible? Of course. But the most awkward of all time? No way. That honor will forever live on in the man who called his terrible performance "experimental tuxedo sleep art," actor and creative genius, James Franco.
