If In Contention‘s Kris Tapley was a school teacher in the ’50s or before, he’d tell you to stick your hand out so he could whack it with a ruler. Tapley is pissed, seriously pissed about those Eddie Redmayne‘s Norbit pieces, and his words — “stop…just stop” — remind of me of HAL 9000. But he finishes his rant with an interesting thought.

Tapley’s sentence structure is a little awkward so here’s my rewrite: “If you want something of substance to chew on,” he more or less says, “ponder whether Bradley Cooper is Ralph Nader to Eddie Redmayne’s Al Gore or John Kerry…siphoning votes off and thereby potentially allowing for someone like Birdman‘s Michael Keaton to slide up the middle.” That’s fairly close to what Tapley has actually posted, and a reason for hope among the “yay, Keaton” crowd.