Aaron Eckhart's 'Dark Knight' Oscar Campaign Jump-started By Loud-Mouthed Sports Columnist [Blabbermouths]

While most of the punditocracy is demanding that Sid Ganis engrave Heath Ledger's name on the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor before the month of July comes to a close, the notoriously contrarian ESPN talking head Skip Bayless isn't quite convinced. During today's episode of their afternoon gabfest 1st And 10, Bayless got into a heated argument with the equally opinionated (read: full of shit) mouthpiece Stephen A. Smith about whether or not The Dark Knight was better than Tim Burton's Batman. As these conversations generally go, the topic of conversation quickly switched to Heath Ledger's universally lauded performance as The Joker. That is to say, universally lauded by everyone but Skip Bayless.

"I thought Jack Nicholson played a better Joker than Heath Ledger. I thought Aaron Eckhart deserves the Academy Award nomination because he delivered a better performance."

The hilariously bombastic clip, which also includes Screamin' A. Smith's pick for who should've replaced Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes (according to his exacting standards, she wasn't "fine" enough), after the jump.

Warning: If you have been taking a vacation from the Internets for the last 18 months or so and/or have never seen Batman Forever, there are some very mild spoilers in this clip. Buyer beware (and stuff):

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