By David Futrelle
Joaquin Phoenix’s speech at last night’s Oscars was as weird as the man himself. Phoenix, who won Best Actor for his work at the titular character in Joker, delivered up a rambling monologue that touched on human selfishness, so-called “cancel culture,” and the many forms of human bigotry. He also threw in a plug for … cows? “We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable,” he declared. “Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.”
One thing he didn’t mention in his speech? The incels who see his character in Joker as a sort of incel hero, a second coming of Elliot Rodger.