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Earlier this afternoon, film critic and montage-maker David Ehrlich tweeted a bit of inside baseball about the Criticwire year-end poll.
*of course* @IWCriticwire included the cat from INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS on their best supporting performance poll and *of course* i voted for it
— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) December 10, 2013
All right, everybody. Time for a talk. Hasn't this been quite enough? This business of trying to hand awards meant for people to cute little animals? I'm sure it was a very funny notion the first time it was advanced. "Hey, how great was it that Llewyn had to chase that darn tabby all around Greenwich Village? They should give the cat an Academy Award!" I think that's how it started. Something in the air. Like all insidious notions.
After all, on balance, people love animals better than other people anyway. Especially cats. Isn't it a lot easier to rally support for a cuddly little creature than it is for a person? A person with foibles and failings and opinions. A person whose personal successes can inspire jealousy. A person who walks on two legs and is tail-less. How can the tail-less compete with the tailed?
We saw this two years ago, when The Artist scampered all the way to a Best Picture win on the four stubby legs of Uggie. Uggie was the focus of an organized and well-publicized campaign for an Oscar nomination. And for what? For running around a little bit? For being cute? For being a dog?