Um ... awwwk-ward. That's the single best word to describe this year's Oscar experiment, er, telecast. What was supposed to be a younger, hipper show, thanks to hosting duo James Franco and Anne Hathaway, turned out to be an oddly-paced few hours of jokes that fell flat, awards that offered no surprises and Gwyneth Paltrow continuing to insist we pretend she's a country singer.

The highlights: Colin Firth, as always, was a class act, Melissa Leo had a potty mouth, Trent Reznor won an Oscar and Kirk Douglas became the Betty White of the 2011 Academy Awards.

"I have a feeling my career just peaked," -- Best Actor winner Colin Firth accepting his statue for his performance in Best Picture winner "The King's Speech." 

BEST Kirk Douglas FTW
Say what you will about that Kirk Douglas appearance ... wow. Can we all agree that he practically stole the moment for Best Supporting Actress winner Melissa Leo? Which is kinda ironic, considering since she paid so much for it.

"When I watched Kate [Winslet] two years ago, it looked so f***ing easy." -- Best Supporting Actress winner Melissa Leo, accepting her statue for "The Fighter" and dropping the F-bomb that made Twitterers proclaim her the new owner of the word.

WORST But Enough About Me ... What Do You Think of Me?

The opening clip, in which hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway interacted with actors/characters in several of this year's Best Picture nominees (plus Alec Baldwin and Morgan Freeman), was fun. But the sequence quickly devolved into a self-referential clunker when the duo took the stage and began riffing on lesbians in this year's movies and saying hello to their family in the audience. It was like a weird, awkward flashback to a '70s Sonny and Cher variety show.

"Melissa ... I'm not gonna drop the F-bomb like she did. I've done that plenty before."  -- Best Supporting Actor winner Christian Bale, referencing the acceptance speech of his "The Fighter" costar Melissa Leo and, of course, his infamous "Terminator: Salvation" rant.

BEST Grandmas Are This Year's God
From James Franco giving a shoutout to his nana in the audience to "Toy Story 3" director (and Ed Helms lookalike) Lee Unkrich thanking his while accepting the award for Best Animated Feature, grannies finally got some Oscar props.

BEST And Moms Aren't So Bad, Either
Best Director winner Tom Hooper gave a shout out to his mom while accepting his Oscar for "The King's Speech," since she brought the story to his attention after seeing a reading of an unproduced play version of it. "She came home, she rang me up and said, I think I’ve found your next movie,” he said. "The moral of the story is, listen to your mother."

"The weird thing is, I just got a text message from Charlie Sheen." -- James Franco, walking onstage while dressed as Marilyn Monroe.

BEST Maybe Joaquin Phoenix Can Win a Rap Grammy Someday
Awesome is the fact that industrial rocker Trent Reznor winning an Oscar. Slightly disconcerting is the fact that industrial rocker Trent Reznor now looks like an agent at CAA.

WORST Must Be A Full Moon
"Wolfman" wins more Oscars than "127 Hours," "The Kids Are All Right" and "Winter's Bone" combined.

BEST See, Hollywood Can Take a Joke

Co-presenters Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. referenced Downey's colorful, drug-fueled past while doling out Oscars for Visual Effects and Editing. Yes, Ricky Gervais did it first, and better. But as with "The Office," some audience members seem to like the American version better.

BEST Original Songs That Shoulda Been
It's an auto-tuned world, and the Oscar montage of made-up songs, using auto-tuned dialogue from flicks like "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," "The Social Network" and "Twilight: Eclipse" was one of the few times when producers made good on their promise to make this a younger, hipper Oscars.

WORST How Ironic That the First Award Was for Art Direction ...
Because those "virtual" sets flashing digital scenes onto the Kodak Theater, like the one for "Gone With the Wind," didn't look like sets. They looked like video projections, which is what they were. Fail.

WORST Corey Haim Dissed…Again
The Screen Actors Guild Awards left Corey Haim out of their in memoriam montage earlier this year, and the Oscar peeps, sadly, followed. The good news: It gives Corey Feldman a reason to be interviewed tomorrow. But c'mon, Hollywood. The dude was legitimately a movie star in his day.

"My father always said to me, I would be a late bloomer ..." -- "The King's Speech" screenwriter and first-time Oscar winner (Best Original Screenplay) David Seidler, 73