Let me be clear from the outset — I’m not a huge fan of Seth McFarlane’s. I’ll admit that when it first hit the air, I found his first show, the animated “Family Guy” to be refreshing and new. His use of meta comedy with constant pop-culture references was something that hadn’t really been done before, at least not with the biting edge that he gave his flagship project. But over time, the freshness naturally wore off, and frankly I stopped watching any of his shows probably about four or five years ago now.
That being said, I have no problem going to bat for Seth in terms how he did as the host of the Oscars last weekend. Judging by the reaction of Twitter users and the media in general, you’d think that he walked out on stage, pulled down his pants, and screamed “I HATE WOMEN!” He was lambasted as being a misogynist, and as going too far with some of his jokes. Apparently 150 years or so isn’t long enough to make a rather benign and old joke about getting inside Lincoln’s head…But in my mind, McFarlane was adequate. That’s right, I said “adequate,” and I mean that as both an insult and a compliment.
He was adequately upbeat, adequately prepared, and thanks to his above-par singing and dancing skills, he was adequately entertaining. Sure, not all of his jokes landed, but neither did all of Billy Crystal’s last year. In fact, I’d say that McFarlane at least seemed to be hip and relevant enough to pull off the jokes he was attempting; Crystal felt flat and a little out of sorts. That could’ve been because Billy had been out of the Oscars hosting game for so long that he was rusty, or it could be that he’s just lost a bit of that edge. Regardless, McFarlane surely bested Crystal’s yuk-yuk moments.
And did everyone just completely block out all memory of the Franco/Hathaway debacle of 2011? At least there wasn’t someone trying to overcompensate for the complete and total lack of effort from their co-host. At least we didn’t have the weird overly sappy moments where prior winners of a category stand on stage and verbally fallate the current nominees. At least if McFarlane was stone and/or drunk off his gourd we couldn’t tell. I mean, really. If you’re going to kvetch about an Oscar host or hosts, there are just so many more worthy targets. But, you say, none of them were so crass and misogynistic, James. Well, let’s talk about that crass and vulgar misogyny of Seth McFarlane, shall we?
So as best I can tell, people are most upset over the fiendish way in which McFarlane dared to satirize the old adage about actresses taking off their tops and getting an Oscar for it. Seriously, it’s a real adage, and Anne Hathaway made reference to it while hosting the show. I’m as liberal a person as you’re going to find, and my wife is a strong feminist. You know what were doing during the “We Saw Your Boobs” song? Laughing. Laughing at the silliness of it all.
And the truth is that if you don’t want to have the objectifying of women lampooned, don’t objectify women. This to me seems more a case of people not getting what the point of the joke was than it is Seth McFarlane’s raging anti-woman hatred. Sure, it’s hard to imagine Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, or Whoopi Goldberg singing about naked actresses’ breasts, but the Academy didn’t hire any of those people this time. They hired a guy whose claim to fame is that he’s willing to be edgy and go over that “line” whenever he feels.
In fact, if I had a real criticism of Seth’s performance it would be that it was a bit tame. It felt at times that in his effort to not completely shock and offend the audience, that he took on a bit of the “Award Show Host Guy” persona instead of being the guy who created one of the most bitingly funny and often vulgar shows on television. I’m sure the Academy didn’t want everyone turning off the broadcast in disgust, but if you were looking for Ricky Gervais-esque skewering of Hollywood, you would be (for the most part) disappointed in McFarlane’s turn as host.
In the end, McFarlane will go down as neither the best nor the worst host in Oscars history. He had some great moments, and some not-so great moments. Some of his jokes worked perfectly, and others fizzled. In other words, he was like just about every single other person to ever host the event. He’s already said he won’t be back, but in my mind, he certainly did well enough. And by that I mean well enough to earn another shot at the gig, moot as that point may be now.
I’m not sure anyone will ever fully satisfy everyone’s tastes. But if I could be so bold as to make a couple suggestions — Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig or Jason Sudeikis. Any of those three would do a fine job, and would be genuinely funny. Now, if I could just find my misplaced invite into the Academy, I can work my magic…