 Simu Liu just hosted the People's Choice Awards, making jokes about plastic surgery, Taylor Swift, and himself. But let me tell you why this was a bigger deal than most people think. I don't really think it's a big deal because I care more about the Twitch world and the Internet world. Who cares about mainstream pop culture anymore? It's no longer relevant. Um, Andrew, we gotta talk about it because Simu Liu just hosted the People's Choice Awards and a lot of people are debating whether he did a good job, whether he did a bad job, whether pop culture that's mainstream Hollywood TV is still even relevant in today's modern society, where the Internet stars and the Twitch streamers mean so much more. So we're gonna talk about it, break it down, give you the pros and cons, give you our hot takes. Make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications, but also check out SmileOssos.com because we got another batch dropping soon, Andrew. Here's my argument. I think that pop culture still matters. Like on a mainstream level, you know why? Because if we analyze it, Andrew, let's take a look at the 12th annual People's Choice Awards in 1986, all white. Uh-huh. 1996, 10 years later, the Cosby's win. Right. It goes to show you that's already a change, right? Okay. Because the black show won. Yes. 2006, Ellen DeGeneres came out of the closet and married her wife. You had, a lot of people don't understand, in 2006, that was revolutionary. Mm-hmm. No, no, that is big. Another pop cultural shift, seismic. Yes. 2016, Big Bang Theory, a nerd tech show about venture capital and startups wins. Yeah. Another shift in culture. Yep. 2024, another 10 years later, almost, Simulio's hosting. Do you see what I'm saying? Every 10 years, you see the shift in culture represented at the People's Choice Awards. I agree because People's Choice, although it's not the Oscars, it's really about pop culture and that's why a lot of the movies that won are mainstream pop culture movies. Now, on the other hand, if you're really into cinema, you might be like, I don't care about the People's Choice Awards. It doesn't matter. What you're saying? That's lowbrow. I care about the Oscars. I care about who wins cans. I care about who wins Sundance. And I care about who wins the Oscars. Oh, a high society. But, but, but People's Choice is for the people, is for the mainstream. So I think that although a lot of people don't usually care about this award show, to be honest, it's not the biggest award show. I think Simu hosting it was actually a big deal because it put an Asian guy at the center of an award show about pop culture and that is relevant. All right. Let's take a look at who else won. Andrew Travis Kelsey, Adam Sandler, Taylor Swift, Barbie, which Simu was in, Ryan Gosling for Barbie, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Aniston, Margot Robbie, Hunger Games, Oppenheimer, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian. Khloe Kardashian. Was that Khloe Kardashian? You knew one of the Kardashians was going to win. Is it because Khloe got hot? She finally got hot. Is that what they're giving the award for? Well, it's funny because Simu made ozempic and fillers and plastic surgery jokes. And yeah. Anyways, guys, I thought overall, I don't really think the debate is about if Simu did bad. I think most people who watched it thought Simu did okay. I think he did a solid job. I thought his jokes were pretty good. I thought he delivered them. You know, his monologue was solid. Did it go better than Joe Coy's at the at the at the Emmys? Yeah, I would say it went better. I give him an eight out of 10. Even though we were going to get into the comment sections, a lot of people thought he could have went way edgier and went at people's throats more, but that's not necessarily his style. But it could be. But also he's sort of the newcomer Asian guy, straight Asian guy in the Hollywood space. He can't just eviscerate everybody. Yeah, I don't think that's who he is. And it would be a little bit off brand. I think that he can when he hosts like the Asian American award shows, like the unforgettable gala, he can go a little bit harder. That's in the community. That's within the community. But of course on outside of the community, I think he's going to be the nice guy. He's going to be the good guy. Right. Let's start off with the jokes. Andrew, you said he had one about osempic fillers. Andrew, some of the stars like Jennifer Addison and Adam Sandler, they're pretty much almost 60 years old. Yeah, but they're still winning these awards. They've been winning these awards for 30 years. Yeah. And I think that that just goes to show you that they're still relevant. Obviously all the Hollywood treatment is working for them. He did have a joke that said the Asian host of a major award show. What could possibly go wrong? Right. People didn't really get it in the crowd. I guess I don't think everybody thought about Joe Coy bombing. That was actually more of like an internal like comedy thing. No, no. When did you say almost more of an Asian comedian? Yeah, but actually, honestly, I think because most of the people that are in the audience are actually other actors, they don't think about it. Right. He said, I thought my career peaked at Shang-Chi, but I was in a Dua Lipa music video. I didn't know he was in a Dua Lipa music video. I didn't even know that that happened. So shout out to Seymour. She's Albanian and or Eastern Europeans. Always show Asian guys love, man. People don't trust me. That is a guaranteed trend. He, you know, have some jokes about the Beyonce mute challenge, Pedro Pascal edits on TikTok. These are all like just trendy internet things, right? Yeah. He also said Asians can also be awful human beings. This was like an Asian representation joke when he was talking about beef showing more multifaceted aspects of Asian Americans. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that is the that's like a general joke about the show beef that I thought went fine. I thought it was more for the internet. I thought like the crowd didn't it didn't connect with the crowd. I don't think the white celebrities in the crowd watch beef to be honest. Of course, a lot of Barbie, Taylor Swift stuff. Ultimately, let's just get into the comments section, Andrew. Somebody said really solid job. He delivered here, you know, self-deprecation. He had a lot of energy. It was a delicate balance eight out of 10. Yeah. Of course, Andrew, I saw I did see this comment a lot in the comment section from white guys specifically. They're like, who? Who is Simu Liu? People trying to question his status because they're not used to seeing an Asian guy, let alone a straight Asian guy have that elevated position in Hollywood, right? I think if you know what the People's Choice Award was and you were watching it, you probably knew vaguely who Simu was at least. Do you think it's true that white people are less white guys specifically are less likely to know who Simu? Yes, I think women know who Simu is because Simu's been on the Kelly Clarkson show a lot. He's obviously wasn't Barbie. Like those are like female heavy dudes. Who's that dude like? Yeah, but I don't even think these guys are think he's cool, dude. I don't think these guys are big pop culture fans either way. Somebody said he's the next Kevin Hart in terms of being in everything because Simu was shown obviously he could act. He could do the hosting and be on TV. He could do the comedy stuff. He could do the SNL stuff. Somebody said Simu played it too safe, way too safe. He's like everyone's token Asian best friend. I would love to see him get edgier with the digs, the comedy, more sharper. You know what it is? I'd like to see Simu in a roast. Do they still do Comedy Central roasts? Like when they roast one. I think Simu should be in one of those and roast a celebrity. I think that would be cool. No, for sure. But yeah, I don't expect him to roast people at the People's Choice Awards. What do you think ultimately Andrew? This is a big deal. If people think about it, but I guess nowadays there's so many Asian movies and TV shows. People could more overlook this. But as somebody who's hosted shows before Asian shows, not Asian shows in college. We hosted all types of, you know, African American fraternity shows, Latino frat conventions, all types of shows. It is a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that I think it's good that an Asian dude is in the room and he's hosting things and he's at an award show. Like at an award show where maybe no other singular Asian guy won any award. Simu is there and by him even hosting it that in a way is winning an award. That means Simu is pop culturally relevant and that is good for Asian guys. So whether or not his jokes hit hard enough, I'm like, guys, you don't understand. That's not his place to even do that. So that's why it's not, I don't, I don't. He's not coming in as Ricky Gervais. Yeah, he's not coming in as a ripping comedian. And I don't know that People's Choice Award that the tone is not like that. Yeah. Maybe if Ronnie Chang hosted it, he could go a little harder or Jimmy O'Yang would go a little harder because they're comedians like by trade. But you know, Simu is still an actor. So he's going to play nice. But I think one thing I don't know, did they like could Simu have brought had everybody drink Boba or something? Had a Boba segment? Is that relevant still? Like do we still want to see celebrities drink a chewy tea? Like are we trying to are you saying are we trying to shove our more internal Asian American internal enclave culture and thrust that onto the mainstream on stage at the People's Choice Award? Like should he have closed off his final segment drinking a Boba or something like that? Or like people got to take shots of soju even, you know, because soju and Boba those are the two, I would say kind of like Asian drinks that are cracking their way into the mainstream. Could he have referenced, do you think it would have been funny if he goes, No, I'm not a member of BTS? Or do you think that would have been to playing into the Asian stereotype? Or do you think I don't think he should have made that joke? What do you think about people? Like should people care about mainstream culture? Because it's crazy because Simu, I know Simu personally, right? We're friends with him. He knows a lot about mainstream pop culture. But would you agree with me that a lot of Asian Americans don't know about mainstream pop culture? Because we can be more tapped into pop culture from Asia, internet pop culture, TikTok. You know what I mean? Like we more lean into alternative media because we don't fully see ourselves participating in the mainstream as much. I think it's interesting that the people's choice, it is American pop culture. It's not even giving foreign films a lot of, it's not about foreign films. It's not about foreign cinema. It's not about Indies. It is just about the biggest mainstream hits in pop culture. Right, it was Bad Bunny even there, right? It's kind of like an overview. Like I look at people's choice awards almost like, wow, that wow hits series where they sell you the CD of all the top hits of like that year of music, you know? One from every genre. Yeah, yeah. Where it's like, this kind of covers it all guys. These are the big hits. So this kind of tells you this is where culture is at. Now, beef was mentioned. Simu's at the show. That's already a little bit more Asian representation than previous years. You know what I mean? So I think like, yeah, I think it was good. I think it was good. I'm just glad to see it. Everybody handles these jobs differently. Chris Rock and or he handled it different from Gerard Carmichael, who's going to handle it different from Kevin Hart, who's going to handle it different from whoever you know what I mean? Any minority is like going to have like depending on their perception, their mission, their capacities. Obviously what the organization tells them is within their breath of like lateral flexibility is going to make a different choice on how hard they want to push the ethnic angle onto the mainstream crowd. Yeah. Yeah. I don't I don't blame Simu for not pushing it too hard about being Asian. I don't think like people might have gotten uncomfortable. Yeah. I don't think they need needed to be. So I think, hey, man, having to keep the ball rolling for Asians. This was essentially the American pop culture awards of TV shows, not music, right? This was the pop culture awards of America. So Simu hosted it. So we got an Asian guy in pop culture now. Do you think the show Chiu was there from TikTok? And do you think Alexander Wang was there with Kipcha? Shipka. Shipka. No, no, I don't think so. Anyways, you guys, let me know in the comments down below. Did you watch it? How do you think Simu did? I think he did solid. And also, do you think it does mean something that we had a Asian guy hosting the People's Choice Awards? And also, do you care about mainstream American culture? You know, we talked about Kardashians and Travis Kelceys and Taylor Swift and stuff like that. Let us know what you think in the comments section below. Until next time, we're the Hop Hop Boys, we out. Peace.