Chris Rock kicks off the Oscars by poking fun at the race row
Host Chris Rock kicked off the Oscars by welcoming the audience to "the White People's Choice Awards".
"Man I counted at least 15 black people on that montage," Rock said in his opening monologue. "You know, if they nominated host, I wouldn't even get this job, you'd be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now."
Talking about the calls for him to boycott the awards he said, "I thought about quitting, I thought about it real hard, but I realised they're going to have the Oscars anyway".
"They're not going to cancel the Oscars because I quit you know, and the last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart", he joked.
Addressing why the 88th Academy Awards had attracted so much criticism. Rock explained:
The comedian continued, "This year things are going to be a little different at the Oscars. This year in the 'In Memoriam' it's just going to be black people who were shot by the cops on their way to the movies. Yes, I said it."
Highlighting accusations that Hollywood is racist, Rock said, "You're damn right Hollywood's racist, but you've grown accustomed to it. Hollywood is sorority racist."
"But things are changing", he continued. "We got a black Rocky this year. Some people call it Creed, I call it Black Rocky and that's an unbelievable statement."
"Rocky takes place in a world where white athletes are as good as black athletes. Rocky's a science-fiction movie. There are things that happened in Star Wars that are more believable than things that happened to Rocky."
But Rock claimed the greatest snub of the night was Paul Giamatti not being nominated.
The host said it was not about "boycotting everything" it was about "opportunity".
"We want the black actors to get the same opportunities as white actors. That's it. Not just once. Leo [DiCaprio] gets a great part every year, you guys get great parts every year," he said.
"Look at Jamie Foxx, he is one of the best actors in the world. Jamie Foxx was so good in Ray that they went to the hospital and unplugged the real Ray Charles, like, 'We don't need two of these'."
He finished by tackling the sexism regularly shown on the Oscars red carpet: "Another big thing tonight is you're not allowed to ask women what they're wearing any more, it's a whole thing, you have to ask her more... Well, not everything is sexism, not everything is racism.
"They ask the men more because the men are all wearing the same outfits. Every guy in there is wearing the exact same thing. If George Clooney showed up with a lime green tux on and a swan coming out his ass, someone would go, 'What you wearing, George?'
"Welcome to the 88th Academy Awards."