Congratulations, You Over-Adulated Actors, You!

First, a personal note of congratulations and a big woooooo-hoooooo to three writer friends of mine who picked up Emmy awards last night for their outstandingly hilarious work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Rob Kutner, Jason Reich, and JR Havlan, I salute you even if the NYT did call you "a mock tableau of the past -- the Whiffenpoofs, circa 1961." That wasn't nice and it wasn't true: none of these bespectacled white men went to Yale (Princeton and Cornell, yes. Yale, no.) Less nice still was that they shafted all three in this photo.



But aside from being thrilled for my friends, mainly what I felt last night was that queasy 'am I really watching this?' sensation that I often experience during award shows. It's a feeling of "are you kidding me? We're actually spending time honoring overpaid, overvalued ninnies who have NOTHING to say other than the words other people put in their mouths? We're really celebrating folks because they look good in clothing and are photogenic enough to glow under good lighting? That's bologna. That's bad repeating bologna."

I know I'm biased, but it seems to me that actors should take a back seat in these shows. They are truly only a tiny portion of what makes the programs or movies work. And they get an outrageously big slice of credit already. Sure, I know an awards show dedicated to honoring writers, prop masters, and sound guys would get ratings as high as a show about the paint-drying process, but come on, people. Should we really care what Doris Roberts has to say? Unless it's been written for her, the answer should be "no."