Elon Musk widely mocked for calling the Oscars a ‘woke contest’: ‘Barely even a sentence’

During the 2024 Oscars, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted his disdain for the ceremony by describing the entire thing as a “woke contest”.

Writing on X (formerly known as Twitter), which Musk owns, he said: “Winning an Oscar now just means you won the woke contest.”

In another post, he wrote: “When an award is diluted, everyone knows, including those who received it, and it no longer commands respect.”

He did not specify what about the awards was considered “woke”, but Musk has previously derided “wokeness” multiple times, particularly saying that it makes “comedy illegal”.

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Poor Things, American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, and Killers of the Flower Moon were among the many movies nominated for Best Picture and a number of other awards.

Vivek Ramaswamy, an American entrepreneur, commented on Musk’s post and seemingly agreed with the sentiment. He said: “American History X is an all-time classic that wouldn’t even earn a nomination if it were made today.”

American History X is a 1998 drama which follows a former neo-nazi who gets out of prison after being convicted for the murder of two black people and tries to stop his younger brother from following him down the same dangerous, violent, and fascist path.

The movie received a Best Actor nomination for Edward Norton.

Musk was not the only right-wing individual criticising the awards show. Former President Donald Trump posted about the Oscars on social networking website Truth Social, writing that it was “a really bad politically show” and calling it “disjointed, boring and very unfair”.

“Why don’t they just give the Oscars to those that deserve them. Maybe that way their audience and TV ratings will come back from the depths. Make American Great Again,” he added.

Oppenheimer won Best Picture at this year’s Oscars, with fans criticising Musk’s tweet as a result: “You think if Oppenheimer wins it’s because it’s woke?” said one surprised commenter. The film is about the American physicist credited with being the “father of the atomic bomb” during World War II.

Plenty of other people also took to Musk’s platform to mock the tech entrepreneur. One person tweeted: “Love how this guy will just never be funny. You have to take these things as small victories in this otherwise cold world. ‘The woke contest.’ Barely a joke or observation. Barely even a sentence.”

A second person joked: “You’re just upset you’ll never win one”, a third said: “Yet another thing you know nothing about, and that money can not buy,” and a fourth added: “You should buy the Oscars and make them terrible – probably cheaper than Twitter.”