Chris Rock once again hosted the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday evening and tackled the issue we all knew he would in his hilarious 11-minute monologue.
As we reported, Rock’s opening included poking some fun at comedian Kevin Hart and slamming actress Jada Pinkett Smith, who boycotted the Oscars after her husband, Will Smith, and other black actors were shut out of the nominations.
The host also jumped head first into the controversy welcoming the audience, "otherwise known as the white People's Choice awards," to the show.
Rock brought up how many were wondering if he was going to boycott the ceremony himself because of the lack of diversity.
“I thought about quitting. I thought about it real hard." Then joked, “The last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart.”
He also questioned why there was so much outrage and a boycott over this year's ceremony in particular when black actors have been excluded from nominations in the past.
“Black people did not protest. Why? Because we had real things to protest at the time,” he said. “We were too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won Best Cinematographer. When your grandmother’s swinging from a tree, it’s really hard to care about Best Documentary Foreign Short.”
No one can be sure how the Academy will vote going forward and if they will indeed do more to include people of color as nominees. As for Rock though, he did his job and brought some comic relief to such a hot-button issue.