You may be either too old or too young (or too cool) to remember this, but on March 11, 1999, kids across America pranked MTV by flooding TRL with requests for “Hangin’ Tough” by The New Kids on the Block. The ten-year-old song reached #2 on the show’s chart for that day, and alternative youth celebrated a self-satisfying victory against the pop culture-defining institution.
A decade later, it’s time for a similar yet larger prank on the culture-defining Academy Awards. Here’s the plan: voters need to write-in “Kirk Lazarus” for Best Supporting Actor instead of Robert Downey Jr. Paramount is asking for this, after all, with their humorous For Your Consideration parody ads featuring Downey as his Oscar-pedigree character from Tropic Thunder. And though the Academy would probably shut the prank down, the organization would have to admit they’ve permitted nominations for fake people before (Coen Bros. editor “Roderick Jaynes” and select Blacklist pseudonyms come to mind). Unfortunately, it is in fact Academy members, specifically actors, who do the nominating, and it’s unlikely that many of them would participate in something that allowed their profession to be lampooned so greatly.
Check out one of Paramount’s television For Your Consideration ads after the jump.
null - Watch more free videos
[via Trailer Addict]
Originally posted on:
SpoutBlog