If you thought Neil Patrick Harris’s hosting gig at last weekend’s Oscars was a snooze, you might want to get on board with Tig Notaro’s campaign to land the job in 2016.
The comedian has written 11 reasons why she should host next year, and while the letter is in jest and not all of the reasons are persuasive (“I’ve only seen Grease and Star Wars, so after-party chitchat will be a definite strength”), her turn on the mic would definitely be worth tuning in for.
Notaro’s fame got a boost in 2012 with some help from Louis C.K. when she did a landmark stand-up set about her breast cancer diagnosis (it may not seem like great material for comedy, but listen for yourself: it’s incredible). She pushed the material even further last year by performing shirtless, the scars from her double mastectomy visible. She counts this as reason #4 that she’s prepared for the Academy Awards: “I’ve been known to perform topless just like Mr. NPH did.”
Notaro self-deprecatingly listed her limited experience writing for and hosting awards shows, but also played up her visual appeal: “I’m drop-dead cute in a suit,” and “Whenever I tour [through] middle America, inevitably 3 people a week tell me I look EXACTLY like award show host favorite Ellen Degeneres, to which I respond, ‘Oh, so basically you can tell that I don’t have a boyfriend.'”
Sure, her dry jokes wouldn’t be everyone’s taste. But maybe that’s the problem the Oscars has run into in recent years—hosts trying too hard to hit that middle-of-the-road sensibility. Maybe what we need is a little more quirk. After all, the weirdest person at the Academy Awards this year (Lady Gaga) was also the most lauded.
- The Case for Mediocrity
- How Russia Is Recruiting Cubans to Fight in Ukraine
- Paul Hollywood Answers All of Your Questions About The Great British Baking Show
- Meet the 2023 TIME100 Next: the Emerging Leaders Shaping the World
- Oprah and Arthur C. Brooks: How to Separate Work From Your Identity
- How Canada and India's Relationship Crumbled
- You Don’t Have to Like Wrestling to Love Netflix’s Excellent Wrestlers
- The Most Anticipated Books, Movies, TV, and Music of Fall 2023
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
