Judaism’s Big Moment at the Oscars

Most of the winners were expected, and the speeches weren’t groundbreaking or over-the-top, especially since some of the lesser-known winners had their thank-yous unceremoniously cut off by the main theme from Jaws. Tributes to the James Bond franchise and recent musicals dominated a portion of the evening, and audience members gasped at the first tie in almost two decades, which happened in the Best Sound Editing race. Yet one of the evening’s briefest moments has been the talk of many ” target=”_blank”>articles since the show, and that was the appearance of Ted, voiced by host Seth MacFarlane.

After introducing the awards with the assistance of William Shatner’s Captain James Kirk, who warned MacFarlane about all of the offensive things he did in an alternate future during the show to merit an awful review, his most memorable potential misstep came when he wasn’t even seen on stage. The central character of his successful June comedy, foul-mouthed teddy bear Ted, came out to announce a category with Mark Wahlberg. Ted proceeded to recognize several actors present – Alan Arkin, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Joaquin Phoenix – noting that they all had Jewish heritage. He then asked Wahlberg if he was Jewish, and, after hearing that he was in fact Catholic, told him “wrong answer” and suggested that he should be Jewish and donate to Israel if he wants to continue working in Hollywood. Ted closed his speech with a mention of receiving a private plane at the next secret synagogue meeting.

It’s actually surprising that this was the sole Jewish moment of the Oscars this year. Other awards shows in the past have had equally humorous Jewish shout-outs, like Brad Garrett’s proclamation upon winning an Emmy for Everybody Loves Raymond that his victory could pave the way for Jews to finally break into Hollywood. What Ted said, however, has earned criticism from, among others, the Anti-Defamation League, which deemed it “offensive and not remotely funny.” Jewish Journal editor-in-chief Rob Eshman took the time to ” target=”_blank”>alleged sexism and racism, I think most people got what they expected from this boundary-pushing comedian who, to be frank, didn’t push the envelope all that far. Ricky Gervais closed one of his Golden Globes telecasts by thanking God for making him an atheist, and MacFarlane’s sins wee hardly more severe.