"And the award for the best supporting actress goes to...". As the show host glibly intoned these words, I reduced a yawn. I was seeing the Golden World awards ceremony, but NOT discovering it terribly interesting. After all, there is a huge selection of awards, the Oscars, the Tony's the SAG's, not to discuss the Grammys http://www.presentaplaque.com and the Emmys, etc, and so on. These shows are getting pretty routine. They show the exact same people over and over. You get to see a few beautiful or good-looking faces, plus a few great looking clothing, however that's all. No drama, no humor, no enjoyment.
You know, for a democratic country, we have too much hero worship. You would think, from the method we admire or praise celebs, that we were a feudal society, worshipping the chief of the clan or village. Much of these stars, while excelling in their field, are extremely imbalanced characters, often exhibiting anti-social or self damaging behavior. This is apparent from the number of celebs that are in rehabilitation or drug centers. So they are not actually deserving of adulation. In any case a fascination with quality or fame is unhealthy; it divorces us from day to day life and from the appreciation of typical enjoyments.
So I got to believing, (yes, I do that often), should we not have awards for the worst efficiencies in everything? After all, mediocrity is much more common than quality, and in a democratic sense, why need to just the outperformers have all the fun; the underperformers ought to likewise have their day in the sun. That would be a celebration of reality, rather than of some inaccessible suitable. In my opinion, the "worstest" (exists such a word?) entertainers in every field are just as unique as the "bestest". Besides, this type of award would be much more pleasurable. In the American Idol, for instance, the initial selection process, featuring the worst vocalists is far more fun than the later rounds. Celebrating the buffoons is much better than worshipping the "Idols".
For starters, I would like to see a "Nerve" award. Stemmed from the Yiddish language, Nerve is a word that indicates effrontery, impudence, and straight-out gall. The timeless definition (by Leo Rosten) is: "that quality preserved in a man who, having killed his mother and daddy, tosses himself on the mercy of the court since he is an orphan." In between our politicians and Wall Street huge wigs, we can quickly find lots of, numerous deserving candidates for these awards.
How about the admirable Nerve of a State Governor who tries to offer a vacant Senate seat for cash? When exposed, he brazenly proclaims his innocence and mounts a media blitz, providing interviews to all the news channels. He would quickly get my nomination.
A worthy competitor would be another State Governor, who organized trysts with a 5 star call lady in Washington D.C. This was a guy known for his probity, had been prosecuting several financial firms for their misdemeanors. He had probably not heard the saying that people who reside in glass homes should not toss stones, and he must have made several opponents in his earlier days.
Still another would be a former President, whose shenanigans in the White Home oral office (oops, I indicated Oval Office) nearly led to his impeachment, but who in some way left.
Let us not forget the Wall Street executive who lost $15 billion for his company and after that asked for a 30 million dollar benefit, declaring that, if not for his efforts, the loss would have been much greater. He then continued to spend over a million dollars to refurnish his office. We could likewise honor the Fortune 500 bank that accepted a federal government bailout and then tried to send out hundreds of it's' employees on a 2 week junket to Las Vegas, till public outrage forced it to cancel its' plans.
Anyway, you understand; there is no scarcity of "deserving" candidates for the Chutzpah awards. However, it is quite possible, or even most likely, that these distinguished individuals may not discover time, or be too "modest" to attend the award event. No problem, there are plenty of proficient impersonators who might be employed to walk up to the phase on their behalf.