You may know Chris Rock from the wide array of films he's made for all ages in the past several years. He's made millions off being an animated zebra, sung for Mr. Murray's abysmal Christmas special, and laughed all the way to the bank with the help of Adam Sandler.

So when Chris Rock stepped on stage for his opening monologue, even with the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite going around and the Academy stumbling to try and make good with the Black community through their own awkward brand of forced affirmative action, nobody really expected him to unload on the academy for 10 straight minutes.

The L.A. Times, among others, has already recognized there were some pretty interesting things going on during his speech, including the five best lines. And as just five lines, it reads like something interesting we might find on Mother Jones this morning.

The thing is, as much as I want to believe it, this was more fake than wrestling.

This is not something that is genuinely radical thought any more than Ricky Gervais is. There's a delay planned into the ceremony, so even if I hear that it was all unrehearsed, I don't quite buy it; the entire thing was practiced more than "Formation."

First, let's talk about the folks in the seats. The audience reacted really differently to Rock's jokes every time, including his awkward introduction of Stacey Dash as the elected diversity official. When he was up there making jokes about NPH, they were laughing hilariously, even until the point when he begins talking about more serious stuff. In the middle of his point about how long institutions of racism have been around, the audience starts clapping emphatically, because he says the phrase, "the 88th Academy Awards." They couldn't care less about the context of what he's saying. That's the point: it was all a performance for the cameras.

Now, let's talk about those close-ups we get to see of famous people reacting. When Rock's talking about employable people who don't protest things, we get a great pic of Cate Blanchett's new haircut. The "Kevin Hart's laughing, this isn't bad!" close-up. When he mentions Rihanna, they cut to Latina actresses, including Sofia Vergara. Leo gets his own, unsmiling close-up when they mention him. There's even a quick cut from four fun people to a one shot of Whoopi Goldberg when Rock starts talking about rape and lynching.

Martin Scorcese once analyzed a scene in "Psycho," saying that a particular edit has as much violence as the knife that killed Marion; "the cut becomes a weapon." Chris Rock's joke about lynching combines with celebrities laughing to become something more sinister than a joke. When Rock makes a joke about Black teens being shot on their way to the movies, Matt Damon arrives and appreciatively chuckles and claps while many in the audience whoop and jeer. This isn't parody; it's dinner theater.

To bring it back, Rock does have some really interesting points about Hollywood's passive racism. "Is Hollywood racist?" Rock says at one point. "You damn right Hollywood’s racist, but it ain't the racist that you’ve grown accustomed to. Hollywood is sorority racist. It’s like: 'We like you Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa.'" The audience appears shocked in this section; is Chris Rock openly addressing microaggressions turned to issues of employment? And for a while, it was this nice balance; he was talking about Paul Giamatti and Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx, three of my top 25 actors working today, but also about box office draws and discrimination, and how much Leo is overrated (no, that Oscar doesn't change anything).

But then he started making jokes at the expense of women, and dismissing racism because he's a comedian and he wants to get back to a funny show. Welcome to the 88th Academy Awards, everybody!

Let me end with a disclaimer: as a white, introverted guy from Oregon, I'm not the right person to be writing about this. There are a lot of people out there in the world who are going to be talking and writing about this, and their opinions are inarguably more valid than mine. Hell, I didn't even watch most of the show; who has time for that?

But I can't sit back and say nothing. It's good to see these topics being brought to the mainstream, but this isn't a revolutionary moment. To change Hollywood, we can't just stop and laugh.