\n\tFor all the readers, publicists, Kayteighs and finalists of the world, Tuesday night (Aug. 5) was the moment of culture that made us say culture was for us. <\/p>\n
\n\tFor the first time, Bowen Yang<\/a> and Matt Rogers<\/a>\u2018 annual, sardonic take on pop culture awards ceremonies \u2014 the Las Culturistas Culture Awards<\/a> \u2014 was televised to the world on Bravo. What started as a bit on the pair\u2019s hit podcast Las Culturistas<\/a>, in which Yang and Rogers would spontaneously make up ridiculous awards categories for their audience\u2019s entertainment, was transformed into a high-production-value send-up of the glitz, glamour and utter self-seriousness of shows like the Grammys, Oscars and Emmys.<\/p>\n \n\tIt certainly helped that the pair pulled in a stellar list of celebrities to come celebrate with them, including legendary actors like Allison Janney, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jeff Goldblum; beloved pop girls Rene\u00e9 Rapp, Jensen McRae and Lucy Dacus; and even the main cast of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. <\/p>\n \n\tThose stars were there to see who would win the evening\u2019s biggest awards, ranging from the Pop Crave Award for Excellence in Journalism (which went to Amelia Dimoldenberg of Chicken Shop Date fame) to the Titanic Award for Monoculture (rotisserie chicken won in a stacked category that included The White Lotus, the letter \u201cS,\u201d Miss Piggy, and Wicked).<\/p>\n \n\tWhen it came time for the actual festivities to begin, Yang and Rogers wasted no time in skewering the award show format, proving definitively that \u201cevery podcast should also be TV,\u201d and that \u201ceverything on TV should be a gay fever dream,\u201d as they pointed out in their opening monologue. <\/p>\n \n\tWith the ceremony now available to stream on Peacock<\/a>, the question remains; which of the evening\u2019s buzzy bits managed to outshine the others? Below, Billboard looks back at the first televised Las Culturistas Culture Awards and picks the five best moments from a night celebrating excellence in pop culture.<\/p>\n \tRene\u00e9 Rapp Presents the Rene\u00e9 Rapp Award for Power in Lesbianism<\/p>\n \n\tRepresentation matters, and pop singer Rene\u00e9 Rapp showed up<\/a> to represent chaotic lesbians everywhere when she presented the evening\u2019s award named after her. After the \u201cLeave Me Alone\u201d singer shared a list of things that are quintessentially lesbian \u2014 including \u201chours and hours and literally so many hours of talking after you\u2019ve already resolved the issue, so much so that it turns into a different one\u201d \u2014 Rapp announced that the winner of the Power in Lesbianism award was \u201cProbably Your Grandma, Even Though She Was Married To Your Grandpa For Fifty Years.\u201d While Rapp\u2019s acceptance speech on behalf of the winner was itself hilarious, we have to give it up to the producers for cutting to nominees Katie Gavin and Naomi McPherson of MUNA badly processing their loss with the chyron \u201cMUNA \u2014\u00a0Just Lost This Award.\u201d <\/p>\n \tLifetime of Culture Award Recipient Allison Janney Gets a Moving Tribute (Literally)<\/p>\n \n\tNo awards show is complete without an out-of-nowhere lifetime achievement award, and the Cultch Awards rightly decided to give theirs to actress Allison Janney. While her speech offered one of the few actually genuine moments of the evening (she called the event \u201cmy favorite award show I have ever attended\u201d), the presentation of the award itself was exactly the kind of campy drama that the premise of the ceremony promised to provide. <\/p>\n \n\tAfter a hilarious speech from SNL star Kristen Wiig, five performers each dressed as one of Janney\u2019s iconic characters performed a series of ridiculous interpretive dances. Whether it was LaVona from I, Tonya attempting to cripple The West Wing\u2019s C.J. Cregg, or Drop Dead Gorgeous\u2019 Loretta getting spanked by Evelyn Rollins from Palm Royale, the \u201cmoving tribute\u201d tickled both the audience and Janney herself, who was shown doubled over with laughter throughout the wild number.<\/p>\n \tBen Platt Transforms \u2018Diet Pepsi\u2019 Into Yet Another Awards Show Ballad<\/p>\n \n\tThere\u2019s always that moment during awards ceremonies where the momentum comes to a screeching halt as an artist takes to the stage to perform a slow, moving ballad. Singer and actor Ben Platt himself has done it multiple times, delivering touching odes to Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim at the 2018 and 2022 Grammys, respectively. But, for the Cultch Awards, Platt was tapped to lampoon the award show ballad format by performing a slowed-down, maudlin version of Addison Rae\u2019s viral hit \u201cDiet Pepsi\u201d (which was nominated at the ceremony for Record of the Year). Complete with a full string section and some moody lighting, Platt kept his staid expression intact, even while crooning out the words \u201cmy ass looks good in these ripped blue jeans.\u201d <\/p>\n \tYang & Rogers Make Magic With Their \u2018Abracadabra\u2019 Cover<\/p>\n \n\tThere are few concepts as foundational to music award shows as the high-budget performance of a nominated song \u2014 but since not everyone nominated could be in attendance to deliver such a performance, Yang and Rogers decided to offer their own personal rendition of one of the year\u2019s best pop songs. Shortly after their opening monologue, the pair launched into their cover<\/a> of Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cAbracadabra<\/a>\u201d (which later won Record of the Year during the ceremony), complete with intense choreography, their own live vocals, and comedian Patti Harrison dressed as the Lady in Red. In a ceremony designed to puncture the excessive sincerity of other awards shows, Yang and Rogers\u2019 faux-earnest take on the beloved Mayhem single felt like the perfect introduction to an evening of tongue-in-cheek antics. <\/p>\n \tLucy Dacus Helps Tribute the Artists Who Passed \u2026 on Attending the Ceremony<\/p>\n \n\tAt nearly every awards show, there comes a moment where the organizers pay tribute to the stars we\u2019ve lost, often with a touching ballad from a headline-making star. So, when the hosts arrived on stage clad in all black and with somber looks on their faces, we knew that an \u201cIn Memoriam\u201d segment was imminent. \u201cWhile tonight has been a beautiful celebration of culture, we cannot forget the ones we love who have passed,\u201d Yang, dripping in ostrich feathers, told the audience, before Rogers added: \u201cNot passed away, but passed on being here tonight.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tIn what was easily the funniest moment of the ceremony, Yang and Rogers performed a genuinely excellent rendition of Aerosmith\u2019s \u201cI Don\u2019t Want To Miss a Thing\u201d while black-and-white photos of various celebrities appeared behind them to celebrate the stars \u201cIn Absentia,\u201d alongside their reasons for not attending the ceremony. Some of the highlights included Michelle Obama being \u201ctoo good for this,\u201d Colman Domingo allegedly saying that he \u201ccan\u2019t do show, but \u2018open to threesome,’\u201d and Michelle Yeoh being \u201ctrapped under diamonds.\u201d But the ultimate punchline arrived when Lucy Dacus (who \u201cnever followed up\u201d on attending, according to her lower third) joined the pair on stage in a gorgeous white gown to close out the hilarious bit.<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n \t<\/a><\/p>\n Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox<\/p>\n