Along with being constantly on their toes, the Academy's writing staff is dealing with the equally unpredictable swarm of celebrity egos tasked with actually delivering the dialogue ... which, as you can imagine, results in a shitload of back-and-forth rejection and the surprising irony that some actors are genuinely bad at playing themselves on stage. This, plus the fact that no one vets the acceptance speeches, means that the ceremony also requires an on-the-go writer's room in case something off-the-rails goes down. You know, like if some scruffy nerf herder gets booed off the stage for talking about the war in Iraq:
Michael Moore's wayward acceptance speech from 2003 had the backstage writers furiously throwing out ideas for how Steve Martin could respond. The resulting joke about "the Teamsters helping him into the trunk of his limo" was decided in response to the actual stagehands who booed Moore from backstage, something the confused TV audience had no idea happened. Because believe it or not, the Academy Awards are written not for the people watching it on TV but the live audience in the room. The logic is that if you see Bruce Willis is laughing, you'll figure something funny probably happened and you should laugh too.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
In fairness, Jennifer Lawrence is way more effective than a laugh track.
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