Chalk up another great moment in Tinseltown’s history: The opening number of the 52^nd Oscars featured TV great Neil Patrick Harris singing about prison rape. Well, that’s an exaggeration: Harris is more of a mediocre actor. And the song and dance wasn’t just about prison rape, he only mentioned it once.

But that was more than enough.

And what did that song have to do with anything? Was it supposed to be an introduction to the two co-hosts? Bet Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin loved that.

They—Hollywood types, that is—still don’t get it. They stick something in a song or scene and think the rest of us are bound to eat it up. Well, there’s nothing funny about men and women being locked up and sexually assaulted. It isn’t something they deserve. It isn’t part of their sentence. It’s evil.

But it’s always great for a gag, right? Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

You decide. The video clip is here (the reference comes early in the song).