Kennedy: "The Oscars Suck & They're Dying"

Summary

Podcast Summary: Kennedy Saves the World

Episode: “The Oscars Suck & They’re Dying”
Date: March 16, 2026
Host: Kennedy
Guest: Jimmy Fa(hela)
Theme: A fiery, comedic takedown of the 2026 Oscars and Hollywood’s cultural decline

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Episode Overview

In this sharp, comedic episode, Kennedy and comedian Jimmy Fa(hela) review and roast the 2026 Oscars, criticizing its cultural irrelevance, political posturing, and the Academy’s ever-changing standards. The conversation blends Hollywood gossip, political insight, and biting one-liners, all through the lens of American cultural transformation. The pair speculate on what it would take to save the awards—and whether Hollywood even wants to.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Complete Disengagement with Oscar-Nominated Films

• Kennedy and Jimmy both admit to not watching any of the films up for awards, emblematic of the larger disconnect between Hollywood and everyday viewers.
  • Kennedy: “If I didn't have to write about it for Daily Mail, I would have skipped it because I didn't watch one movie. Not one.” (00:55)
  • Jimmy: “The only movie I saw in a theater this year was the One Battle After Another. Sucked.” (01:01)

2. Critique of the Oscars’ Political Messaging

• Jimmy calls the show “out of touch,” especially when winners use their acceptance speeches for activism, often in a way that feels detached from reality.
  • Jimmy: “The whole, everything that they said last night...is so out of touch with the rest of the world that I considered the whole thing unwatchable.” (01:13)
  • Jokes about activist speeches: “No war and free Palestine. Are we going to acknowledge everyone or just your select Muslims?” (Kennedy, 03:11)
  • Jimmy: “If Hamas showed up to the Oscars, they’d kill everybody there. A room full of lesbians and closeted gay Scientologists are not going to last long at the Hamas party.” (03:24)

3. The Failure of Hollywood’s Self-Importance

• The hosts rail against what they see as Hollywood’s lack of humility and self-awareness:
  • Jimmy: “They’re wasting all of these symbols of achievement, and they're trying to repurpose them as symbols of oppression.” (04:56)
  • The pair critique winners who appear unaware of Hollywood’s own recent history (e.g., repeated “firsts” for minorities).

4. The Pendulum of Virtue Signaling

• Discussion of how fast Hollywood’s “causes” come and go (e.g., ICE activism vanishing from public consciousness):
  • Kennedy: “No ice buttons...it's like that is already gone from their consciousness. If these virtue signalers have moved on, so has the country.” (05:37)

5. The Oscars’ New Eligibility Rules and Overcorrection

• Jimmy and Kennedy riff on the Academy’s attempts to enforce diversity:

  • Jimmy: “The movie, in order to be eligible for Best Picture...at least 50% of the cast needs to be either a minority or a disenfranchised class of people.” (08:40)

  • Kennedy: “They’re overcompensating for their own sins...such self-important jerks.” (09:13)

  • Jimmy (joking): “For the Godfather to be eligible for Best Picture...he would have to transition to the godmother and make someone an offer they can't hear because they're deaf.” (09:22)

  • Elon Musk retweeted Jimmy’s joke on this, which became a brief point of pride.

6. What the Oscars Should Embrace

• Jimmy suggests radical honesty would make the ceremony more appealing:
  • Jimmy: “You should be getting up to the podium and be, ‘Guys, I've never worked a day in my life...I make tens of millions of dollars to do cocaine in a trailer in between scenes, and I bang starlets.’” (04:05)

7. The End of Shared Movie Culture

• Both hosts reminisce about an era when Oscars were a cultural event, not an insular platform for elite self-congratulation.
  • Kennedy: “It used to be the kind of thing where you’d put on a little dress with your girlfriend...” (06:06)
  • Jimmy laments the loss of creative freedom due to prescriptive requirements.

8. Notable (and Mocked) Moments from the 2026 Oscars

• Barbra Streisand's odd behavior:
  • Kennedy: “Barbra Streisand lost her mind and she was like a rambling old homeless lady.” (01:38)
  • Sharing gossip about Robert Redford’s discomfort in their love scene.
• Conan O’Brien's performance as host got mixed reactions; Kennedy and Jimmy defend his jokes for maintaining some levity.

9. Hollywood’s Double Reality

• The show ridicules Hollywood’s inability to acknowledge its privilege while remaining ideologically rigid.
  • Jimmy: “Movie theaters are self obsessed but not self aware. And that is their downfall.” (12:46)
  • Kennedy reflects on why stars like Timothée Chalamet are shunned for honesty (dating a Kardashian and owning it).

10. The Lost Audience & “How to Save the Oscars”

• Both propose that embracing how fortunate and out-of-touch they are might actually reconnect stars with the public.
  • Jimmy: “They should lean in. Me and you once famously said this when we first met. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would be beloved the world over if they leaned into the fact that they make a gazillion dollars and contribute nothing to society.” (12:01)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Kennedy: “Consider your week saved and your world in better shape than ever. Because the Oscars suck and they're dying.” (13:26)
• Jimmy: “For the Godfather to be eligible for Best Picture in this moment...you would have to transition to the godmother and make someone an offer they can't hear because they're deaf.” (09:22)
• Kennedy: “Movie theaters are self obsessed but not self aware. And that is their downfall.” (12:46)
• Jimmy: “They’re wasting all of these symbols of achievement, and they're trying to repurpose them as symbols of oppression.” (04:56)
• On Barbra Streisand: “She was a horndog, total perv. And she badgered [Redford] into doing the Way We Were. And when they did the love scenes, he wore two pairs of underwear so she wouldn't touch his penis.” (01:47)
• On virtue signaling: “No ice buttons...that's already gone from their consciousness. If these virtue signalers have moved on, so has the country.” (05:37)
• On what Oscars should be: “You should be getting up to the podium and be, ‘Guys, I've never worked a day in my life...And we're just living the greatest lives ever because of this country.’” (04:05)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:40 – Kennedy introduces the Oscars topic; Jimmy joins the roast
• 01:33 – Commentary on Barbra Streisand and celebrity weirdness
• 02:22 – Discussion of political jokes and Conan O’Brien
• 03:11 – Deep dive into activism at the Oscars (Free Palestine remarks)
• 04:56 – Analysis of how Hollywood undermines its own symbols of achievement
• 05:37 – Talk on how Hollywood quickly abandons causes
• 08:40 – Dissecting new inclusion rules and their consequences
• 09:22 – Jimmy’s Godfather joke and Elon Musk’s retweet
• 11:02 – Noting the lack of memorable, universally loved movies
• 12:01 – Proposal for Hollywood to “lean in” to its absurd privilege
• 12:46 – Kennedy’s final verdict on Hollywood’s lack of self-awareness
• 13:26 – Kennedy wraps up with the show’s signature humor

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Tone and Language

Kennedy and Jimmy keep things conversational, sarcastic, and irreverent. Their banter mixes insider gossip, political takes, and caustic humor, always aimed at skewering Hollywood pretensions in language as accessible as it is biting. The episode relies on quick wit (“spit-out-your-coffee” style) while maintaining a core of cultural criticism and personal honesty about American entertainment’s shifting role.

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This summary provides a full sense of the episode, offering highlights, arguments, and top moments for anyone who missed the conversation.

Transcript

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[Kennedy]

Hello and welcome to this episode of Kennedy Saves the World. If I seem bleary eyed, it's because I watched the Oscars and then I stayed up until 2 in the morning writing about it for the Daily Mail. Jimmy Phela is here. Did you watch the Oscars?

[Jimmy Fa]

Oh, did I?

[Kennedy]

Did you really?

[Jimmy Fa]

I saw enough audience.

[Kennedy]

If I didn't have to write about it for Daily Mail, I would have skipped it because I didn't watch one movie. Not one.

[Jimmy Fa]

Yeah. I did not see any of the movies. The only movie I saw in a

[Kennedy]

theater this year was the One Battle After Another Sucked. I heard Sinners was pretty cool.

[Jimmy Fa]

I've seen 40 minutes of one battle after another, which was 39 minutes more than I wanted to watch. It's like a monument to antifa. That is whether they want to embrace that or not. That's kind of what it was. And the whole everything that they said last night and let's get to that. Okay. Is so out of touch with the rest of the world that I considered the whole thing unwatchable. I didn't watch a minute of it that I felt was on the correct frequency to do.

[Kennedy]

I'm trying to think like I wanted to. Love Billy Crystal.

[Jimmy Fa]

Yeah. Yeah. The montage.

[Kennedy]

Barbra Streisand lost her mind and she was like a rambling old homeless lady.

[Pcmatic Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Kennedy]

And so I started looking into her and Robert Redford, he was creeped out by her.

[Jimmy Fa]

Yeah.

[Kennedy]

She was a horn dog, total perv. And she badgered him into doing the Way We Were. And when they did the love scenes, he wore two pairs of underwear so she wouldn't touch his penis.

[Jimmy Fa]

How about that? And listen, I don't think that, you know. And then she got up there and then the remembrance last night kind of made that their moment.

[Kennedy]

Yeah, it was her moment. Yeah. Sang the Way We Were, which she warbled. And the only person who would have liked that would have been my mom. But I'm certain she was asleep.

[Jimmy Fa]

It was a tough watch. Do you want my Big argument. It's not political. Okay. And I know there's a little bit of that.

[Kennedy]

And Conan was fine. I thought he was better than last year.

[Jimmy Fa]

Conan's joke that the conservatives got mad about was they were dumb because he's like, the Oscars gonna get political if you don't like it. Kid Rock's hosting an alternative Oscars. He's just acknowledging the country. We did this at the halftime show.

[Kennedy]

Yeah. It's like, you want to do that. Yeah, that. That's actually okay to joke about.

[Jimmy Fa]

I didn't have a problem. That's actually funny. That's like the level of the. Of the national conversation is that. That just happened at the super bowl and servers, like, oh, we're in their head. I'm like, no, it wasn't that. It was that as Conan, you're there to tell jokes. And yes, jokes the room will agree with to some extent, but funny jokes. I thought that was funny. Okay. Where they go wrong at the Oscars, it's not even that they get political, because you could get political if you knew what you were talking about. The girl, I'm sure you wrote about this. Who called for the ceasefire in Gaza, even though we have one. Not the best use of your platform. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kennedy]

No war and free Palestine. Are we going to acknowledge everyone or just your select Muslims?

[Jimmy Fa]

Okay, thank you. And by the way, where's you to free Hamas? If they showed up to the Oscars, they kill everybody there.

[Kennedy]

Oh, yeah.

[Jimmy Fa]

A room full of lesbians and closeted gay Scientologists are not going to last long at the Hamas party. They're not giving out trophies. They're giving out firing squads.

[Kennedy]

The Iranian crane.

[Jimmy Fa]

But here's how the Oscars could save themselves, because that's what I want to do. I don't want to be the guy who shows up and does the go woke.

[Kennedy]

Go broke.

[Jimmy Fa]

I don't do that. Okay. I hate being. You know, it's a thing that's out there. What the Oscars should be doing is being honest, because they are inspirational figures to people watching at home. A lot of people who won an Oscar won an Oscar because 20 years ago they watched someone else win an Oscar and was like, I want to do this and speak to the spectacular

[Kennedy]

possibilities around and acting and dancing and singing. I can do it. So I'm going to commit my life

[Jimmy Fa]

to this guy did it.

[Kennedy]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Fa]

That's what they should be doing. You should be getting up to the podium and be. Guys, I've never worked a day in my life, okay? Maybe I weighed the tables a little bit when I was breaking in, but I now make tens of millions of dollars to do cocaine in a trailer in between scenes. And I bang starlets. Or pretend to, but I could if I wanted to. And some of my friends actually bang the starlet. Starlets. They're not in the closet. Okay. And we're just living the greatest lives ever because of this country. If they leaned into the truth, it's like we've always said this.

[Kennedy]

Yeah. But Timothy Chalamet leans into the truth, and he essentially gets canceled.

[Jimmy Fa]

Yeah.

[Kennedy]

Like in his movie, gets totally shut out. Nine nominations, zero wins. Because everyone's mad. He said that no one goes to see ballet and opera, which they don't.

[Jimmy Fa]

They don't.

[Kennedy]

And the snobs in the room, I guarantee you, have not been to the ballet or. Or the opera, and they probably couldn't name one with a gun to their head.

[Jimmy Fa]

No, not the Opera. Not the Opry. They haven't been to any of it. Grand Ole Opry.

[Kennedy]

None of it. Especially not the Opry.

[Jimmy Fa]

Definitely not the Opry. Oh, my God. But the point is, they're wasting. In the moment we live in, and this is not unique to, like, today. This is the last 10 years of our lives. They're wasting. All of these symbols of achievement, and they're trying to repurpose them as symbols of oppression. Like, if you are Javier Bordem, you're a Latinx guy. I'm kidding. Because no Latino has ever said the word Latinx.

[Kennedy]

Ever.

[Jimmy Fa]

Okay. But stick with me if you are him. There are tens of millions of Latino kids watching around the world that could see you as like, hey, I'm Latino. I never thought I was gonna make it. I did. And those kids would be like, yeah, but instead you did a free Palestine.

[Kennedy]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Fa]

You're a Latino kid watching in some impoverished nation. You're like, what the is Palestine?

[Kennedy]

You know, I realized watching last night, Republicans actually might maintain in the midterms. You know why? Because there were no ice buttons.

[Jimmy Fa]

Yeah.

[Kennedy]

No, it's like that is already gone from their consciousness.

[Jimmy Fa]

Done.

[Kennedy]

Like, they don't think about it. They don't remember it. So if these virtue signalers have moved on, so has the country. Yes. Like, if. If they are not grandstanding on that, which was their reason for being in this award season three weeks ago. Yeah, they didn't. No one mentioned it. But, you know, it's like, they're still with the free Palestine. No war. And it's like, that's fine, but it's so off putting. It is such a turnoff that that people now actively don't watch the Oscars. And it used to be the kind of thing where you know, you'd put on a little dress with your girlfriend.

[Jimmy Fa]

Yes, look at the guys. Look at the red carpet.

[Kennedy]

Look at Jacob Elordi.

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[Kennedy]

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[Jimmy Fa]

And now they are basically, they went from making the show impossible to watch that they're ultimately going to winnow out any creative latitude anyone has in Hollywood with these new nominating criterias. Okay. The movie, in order to be eligible for Best Picture, has to. It has to revolve around a main who's in a marginalized community. At least 50% of the cast needs to be either a minority or a disenfranchised class of people, such as the handicapped.

[Kennedy]

Yes. Because the, the Oscars in the Academy were so patriarchal and racist for so long.

[Jimmy Fa]

Now they're overcompensating.

[Kennedy]

They're overcompensating for their own sins.

[Jimmy Fa]

Yes.

[Kennedy]

Because they're such self important jerks.

[Jimmy Fa]

So I said this on Twitter and it's true. Okay? And this is true. For the Godfather to be eligible for Best Picture in this moment, this is. You would have to. He would have to transition to the godmother and make someone an offer they can't hear because they're deaf.

[Kennedy]

And Elon Musk responded to.

[Jimmy Fa]

So a lot of the thing about Elon Musk retweeting you, which is always cool. Anytime he does, if he does it, you're lucky. It's a fun day. There's not enough people in the thread calling me a fat white supremacist this time. And I. Because, you know, as a New Yorker, that's what you're here for. People don't understand this around the country, but we like that weird adversity. We have a thing in New York called the Black Israelites. I don't know what their ethnicity or definite or actual religion. Religious purpose is, but they're in front of Port Authority and if you walk by them, they call you a white devil or a cracker. And if you grow up here as a little kid, you go by them on purpose. You're like, I'll do me. You know, do my wife.

[Pcmatic Advertiser]

Come on.

[Jimmy Fa]

Did you got it? Jenny? Walk by. Would you walk by? And so I kind of like that sort of thing. But there's not a lot of that in that Elon Musk thread that he retweeted me, which again, to your point, is a sign of a lack of enthusiasm out of their party.

[Kennedy]

Yes.

[Jimmy Fa]

Because they realize how transactionally stupid they look. I think that's the reality right now. They've lost any momentum there.

[Kennedy]

It's like even Conan tried to start it. Like, we live in such uncertain times. And we don't know. We were not promised tomorrow. And that's why the Oscars are here. And film is so important because we're so optimistic. But they really believe that.

[Jimmy Fa]

I know.

[Kennedy]

Whereas everyone else who should be supporting their industry has drifted away into any other aspect of entertainment that actually suits and pleases them.

[Jimmy Fa]

You know what the.

[Kennedy]

And it's like. It's no longer movies. No one talks about the movies that were nominated. Like, no one.

[Jimmy Fa]

No. I mean, Michael B. Jordan won with a vampire movie. Good for him. But it's a vampire movie, which is a weird.

[Kennedy]

He seems like a sweet guy.

[Jimmy Fa]

I met him.

[Kennedy]

I liked him. I liked the writer director for Sinners. I thought he had a great speech. I appreciated that his cinematographer won. She was the first woman to ever win that.

[Jimmy Fa]

Did you see the Maggie. I forget her name. Who won for K Pop Demon Hunters who got up and cried and said, I'm sorry to people who look like me that you had to wait so long because she had no idea. That parasite with an all Korean cast that spoke Korean won five years ago.

[Kennedy]

Everything everywhere all at once.

[Jimmy Fa]

Yeah, I know.

[Kennedy]

You know, it's like, there. Or, you know, Beef Ali Wong. That. That made me so mad because I'm like, you're actually up your ass. You did not pay attention to the other people who look like you.

[Jimmy Fa]

They say that it works really hard

[Kennedy]

for a long time and got to

[Jimmy Fa]

the pinnacle before you did and made it possible. It would be like if Michael B. Jordan got up there last night and be like, is the first. First. The first black man Oscar. You're like, no, no, you're not. But nobody even called it out because no one's paying attention. That's the point. So they really lost it last night. And I feel like I really. I don't want to be having this conversation next year, but I know we're gonna. They should lean in. Me and you once famously said this when we first met. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would be beloved the world over if they leaned into the fact that they make a gazillion dollars and contribute nothing to the society. Like, yeah, we rich as hell. We ain't doing nothing. I can't even beat Prince. I can't even be king.

[Kennedy]

But Timothee Chalamet is like, I'm dating a Kardashian with big fake boobs. And I love it.

[Jimmy Fa]

It's great.

[Kennedy]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Fa]

They're not ready for that truth. No. But the point is, we are. That's the point. And we should be the driving force. And that's when they'll stop boarding up.

[Kennedy]

Movie theaters are self obsessed but not self aware. And that is their downfall.

[Jimmy Fa]

Amen. There it is, Rip.

[Kennedy]

All right. Well, now that you and Elon are like best friends, can we ride on a ship?

[Jimmy Fa]

We're going to save cinema. I want to do a remake. It's called.

[Kennedy]

It's Kirsten Cinema.

[Jimmy Fa]

Hey, she's down. She'd take on both of us. I've read those stories. She is a woman who started from the bottom.

[Kennedy]

Never get a divorce in a homewrecker state. That is what I learned from the Kirsten Cinema drama. Right? Hey, girl.

[Jimmy Fa]

She'll butter your popcorn in the cinema. She sure will.

[Kennedy]

Butter her. She don't give. She'll tip. Extra.

[Jimmy Fa]

Get us out of this.

[Kennedy]

Consider your week saved and your world in better shape than ever. Because the Oscars suck and they're dying. This has been Kennedy Saves the World along with Jimmy fa. I'm Kennedy. Listen ad free. With a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts and Amazon prime, members can listen to this show ad free on the Amazon music app. Oh, go ahead and leave me a review while you're there. I'd love to hear what you have to say. You've been listening to Kennedy Saves the World on the Fox News Podcast Network.

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