Amy Schumer got the last laugh when Zelensky appeared at the Grammys

She wanted him at the Oscars, but the idea was shot down, but when the Ukrainian leader appeared at the Grammys it vindicated Amy Schumer, writes Holly Baxter

The Ukrainian president’s speech to the Grammys on Sunday positioned the arts as vital to a functioning democracy (AP)

It was received like a bad joke, a privileged Hollywood misstep. Amy Schumer – one of three comedians who hosted the Oscars this year, alongside Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes – wanted the Academy Awards to invite Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to speak during the ceremony. She thought bringing in the leader on video link – in the same way Zelensky made an appearance in front of various national governments a week prior, including the US Congress – would be powerful, she said, but the academy had vetoed the suggestion. A lot of actual grown-ups laughed behind their hands at the fact Schumer had even dared to admit to posing such a ridiculous question. Of course Zelensky wouldn’t come to the Oscars, they said. Didn’t that silly woman realise he had other things to do?!

Cultural commentators have a bit of a problem with female comedians meaning what they say. Coordinated jokes are often seen as unfortunate missteps; while male comedians are assumed to be doing things “on purpose”, women’s self-deprecating humour is often seen as having happened “by accident”. Thus Schumer’s actual joke at the Oscars, where she called Kirsten Dunst a “seat filler” and pretended to remove her, was widely referred to as “embarrassing” and foolish – Schumer eventually had to reveal that Dunst was in on the joke, breaking that hallowed comedian’s rule about explaining the joke to the audience. Her Zelensky suggestion drew the ire of many. But she got the last laugh when the Ukrainian president made an appearance at the Grammys on Sunday.

It turns out that a former actor – one who became president after winning his nation’s heart playing an unlikely man foisted into the presidency on a TV show that Netflix recently made available across multiple countries – is pretty amenable to the idea of putting on a performance at the Grammys. Over video and accompanied by John Legend and two Ukrainian performers, the president contrasted the joy of music and acting with the desolation of war-torn Ukraine. It was a surprisingly well-executed message, one that managed to be hard-hitting without taking down the whole ceremony with it. It’s a little difficult to make the arts seem critically important when the leader of a war-torn nation has just spoken – but Zelensky was mindful of that, positioning the arts as vital to a functioning democracy. It worked.