Here's a little experiment. First, try to remember who won the best-actress Oscar in 1973. Any guesses? Hmm? No idea whatsoever? Now, name the woman who, the same year, told the audience that Marlon Brando was declining his best-actor statuette.

You're forgiven for not knowing Liza Minnelli was the winner for "Cabaret," a musical statement on life under encroaching fascism in 1930s Berlin. But there's a good chance you instantly had the answer to the other question.

"You remember Sacheen Littlefeather on the stage," says FiveThirtyEight's chief culture writer Walt Hickey, who poses the pop quiz to make a point. "These are the things that stick in people minds."

Such is the power of politics at the Academy Awards. Whether you like the way it spotlighted an injustice (Brando was making a statement on Hollywood's depiction of American Indians) or considered it ego-driven pomposity (Variety's Owen Gleiberman opined that the Littlefeather incident "will always live on as a quintessential moment of '70s flakiness"), you have to admit the impact of protest speech during the live broadcast.

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It happened then, and it's almost guaranteed to happen again next week. In fact, the potential for dissenting voices at the 89th Academy Awards, which air Feb. 26 on ABC, is perhaps stronger than ever before. “It would be shocking at this point to have an Oscars that was not political at some point,” says Hickey.

And in some ways, the choice isn't Oscar's to make. Several movies in the running are brimming with social and political relevance, from dramas like "Moonlight," "Hidden Figures" and "Fences" to documentaries like "13th," Ava DuVernay's look at how mass incarceration has affected African-American men disproportionately, and "O.J.: Made in America," a searing exploration of the country's lingering issues with race, justice and celebrity.

When art gets political

In January, the Trump era collided directly with the Oscar nominees. After President Donald J. Trump's administration imposed its controversial travel ban, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi — whose "The Salesman" is a best foreign film nominee — announced he would not attend the ceremony, even if he could obtain an exemption from the executive order barring entry to the U.S. by people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.

There were several immediate calls to cancel the Oscars in support of Farhadi. But as the ceremony approached, there was also an emerging sentiment that the men and women who get the gold on Oscar night should speak out on behalf of freedom of expression, freedom of religion and other values like equality, democracy and the rule of law — just like the winners of 2017's other award shows.

"From the red carpet preshow to (host Jimmy) Kimmel's opening monologue to the taped segments to the live performances to, yes, the speeches — this must be an Oscars that is political from beginning to end. No subtle jabs. No cloying winks. Address reality directly and fervently. Make it a celebration, but not just of the films — of the spirit that produced them, as well," wrote Barry Hertz of Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper.

And yet even those who are all-in for a political Oscars realize the risk of turning off viewers who'd rather leave politics — and activist celebrities — out of the broadcast.

Gleiberman, who hails from Ann Arbor, said in a recent essay that the Academy Awards are "a perfect bully pulpit" for protesting the Trump presidency. Yet he noted what he called the Susan Sarandon principle: "The bigger the star, the more off-putting — and therefore ineffective — the display of high-minded compassion."

Oscar producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd told the Los Angeles Times it will be a ceremony with earnestness and "laugh-out-loud joy," and it's not for them to alienate people who disagree with the liberal-leaning voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

"The Oscars shouldn’t be treated like an op-ed page," said De Luca. "Our theme of inspiration, which you’ll see when you watch, points to a universality. We’re moved by the same stories; we laugh and cry at the same kind of things. There’s a real positivity in pointing out what binds us together. We have a suspicion that topicality may sneak in."

Or, perhaps, it virtually will rush the stage. Presenters, winners and performers at other award shows have been opposing in droves the direction that Trump's White House is heading.

Streep sets the tone

In January, Meryl Streep devoted her Golden Globes acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille award to calling out Trump's behavior without uttering his name, saying," Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose."

    And she issued a call to action for actors to defend concepts like inclusion and empathy, which are inherent to their art.

"They gave me three seconds to say this, so: An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us, and let you feel what that feels like," said Streep.