Harvey Weinstein. The most thanked person through the years.

March 21, 2013 10:37 PM

I'd like to thank the Academy — "More than 200 Oscar speeches were pulled from the Margaret Herrick Library database and surveyed." Find out who has done the two-hand clutch, who thanked their male partner - all with linked YouTube goodness. You can even roll-your-own and find out who it most matches.
posted by unliteral (6 comments total)

I am Sissy Spacek
posted by fallingbadgers at 10:41 PM on March 21

Paging cortex. Cortex to the white courtesy telephone, please. We need an Oscar acceptance speech markov chain generator, stat.
posted by barnacles at 11:07 PM on March 21 [1 favorite]

All of this is hilarious, of course, but the deeper truth involves a serious study of the Single Transferable Vote mechanism by which these awards are given.

According to this analysis, the Droop quota plays a big role. I quote:

If n = 100 and k = 3, then the Droop quota is 26=(100/(3+1))+1 . Suppose a candidate receives 26 votes. No other three candidates can also receive 26 votes because 26 + (3 x 26) = 4 x 26 > 100. When trying to elect k candidates, if the Droop quota is used, then k + 1 candidates cannot receive n/(k+1)+1 or more votes because (k+1)*[(n/(k+1)+1]=n+k+1>n , the number of votes cast.

I think this pretty much sums up the problem with the motion picture industry.
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:40 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

A person with the same name as me is a bigwig at Sony Classics, so I get "thanked" a lot at the Oscars, particularly in the Foreign Film categories. It's amusing when friends are watching with me and I "predict" that someone will thank me during the show.
posted by ShutterBun at 1:29 AM on March 22 [6 favorites]

The thing with the Academy Awards... I always think there's an actual Academy. Like the Greek Academy, where Socrates and Plato hang out, debating the latest films.

But it's not like that. I guess this is why Police Academy is not taken seriously.
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:17 AM on March 22

I'd like to thank Harvey for being the inspiration for the study behind this post so that I have the opportunity to make this comment.
posted by sammyo at 3:57 PM on March 22