The Academy Awards last night was a wild ride from start to finish. With Chris Rock's upfront and on-point host speech calling out The Academy for its slew of all-white award nominees, to the nominated movies with their calls to social justice such as "Spotlight," "Mad Max: Fury Road," and "The Danish Girl," the Oscars were teeming with controversy.
But perhaps the most controversial of all was the Will-He-Won't-He the world was waiting with baited breath to hear -- Leonardo DiCaprio's sixth Oscar nomination, Best Leading Actor in "The Revenant." Poor Leo has been nominated for an Oscar a total of six times in his 20-year, 30-film career, and is the source of the internet's most precious and hilarious meme...
But the competition this year was fierce. With a total of eight nominations, "Mad Max: Fury Road" seemed to sweep the board and took home the most Oscars collectively at the end of the night: Best Production Design, Best Makeup, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editor, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sounding Editing-- all awards for which "The Revenant" was also nominated. "Mad Max" won six of its total eight nominations for the night, and every "Mad Max" win dimmed the hope of our good buddy Leo's chances at Best Lead Actor as the night wore on.
So imagine: it's nearly midnight on Feb. 28, 2016. The final commercial break has ended and Brie Larson has just accepted her award for Best Leading Actress in "Room." The whole room quiets as award presenter Julianne Moore reads the nominations for Best Leading Actor:
Bryan Cranston in "Trumbo," Matt Damon in "The Martian," Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Revenant," Michael Fassbender in "Steve Jobs," and Eddie Redmayne in "The Danish Girl..."
She opens the golden envelope...
and reads...
Leonardo DiCaprio!
After six nominations, he finally did it, folks. It only took him 30 years, but he did it!
No longer will DiCaprio suffer as Hollywood's biggest joke -- he has earned his recognition from The Academy and finally joined the ranks of his contemporaries as an Oscar winner.
His acceptance speech was moving, calling attention to "man's relationship with the natural world" as "The Revenant" thematically portrays. "Climate change is real. It's happening right now... We need to work together and stop procrastinating," DiCaprio said to the gathering of Hollywood's finest.
Maybe you thought that this would be the end for the internet's most beloved meme, but think again. Before the award announcement, all over social media, people were scrambling for their last chance to reblog the Leo memes. And after the announcement, well...
And so, we are in the new age of post-Oscar-winner-DiCaprio. In this new era, may we see DiCaprio continue to give exemplary performances in incredible films, and may we continue to make ridiculous memes about them.
