Oscars 2024: Elon Musk compares event to a ‘woke contest’, leaves internet divided

The 96th Academy Awards took place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday (Mar 10) with Jimmy Kimmel hosting the ceremony for the fourth time. Christopher Nolan's movie "Oppenheimer" got an impressive 13 nominations. People on social media are happy about the awards and wins. But Elon Musk, who owns companies like Tesla and SpaceX, doesn't seem to be in a good mood. He made several posts on social media over the weekend, revealing his dislike for the event quite openly.

In one of his latest posts, Musk compared the Oscars to a woke contest. “Winning an Oscar now just means you won the woke contest,” he posted on X.

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In the same thread, Musk wrote, “When an award is diluted, everyone knows, including those who received it, and it no longer commands respect”.

Meaning of the word ‘woke’

Cambridge Dictionary says the word “woke” means being "aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality.” However, Musk previously said that "wokeness" intends to make "comedy illegal."

Internet split in half

Netizens mocked Musk for his commentary against the Oscars while others, including Republican leader Vivek Ramaswamy, seemed to agree with his take.

“You’re just upset you’ll never win one,” said one user. “Most watched documentary of the year and zero chance they’d ever consider a nomination for our documentary because we aren’t woke,” wrote a second, while a third wrote, “did not know this probably because it’s wrong”.

Others gave a thumbs-up to Musk’s comments.

“Some liberals are more than happy to win the woke contest,” wrote one. Vivek Ramaswamy wrote, “American History X is an all-time classic that wouldn’t even earn a nomination if it were made today.” “If you win an Oscar, because you met all the diversity quotas, you didn’t win anything. It has no meaning anymore,” wrote another.