Mid-Week Poll: How Was Seth MacFarlane as Oscar Host?

Since the ceremony aired on Sunday night, ‘Family Guy’ creator Seth MacFarlane has received very mixed notices for his job as Oscar host. Some viewers called him the best host in years, while others decried the whole event as a fiasco. What did you think? Would you like to see MacFarlane come back to host again, or would you rather see the Academy burn his likeness in effigy?

I had very low expectations for MacFarlane. ‘Family Guy’ ran its course years ago, and I usually find MacFarlane annoying in public appearances or his occasional attempts to act. With that in mind, he did a much better job hosting than I feared. That sock puppet version of ‘Flight’ was inspired, and he got in some good zingers here and there (among the bad ones).

Quite frankly, anything would have been an improvement over last year’s simply dreadful performance by Billy Crystal. Not one single thing that Crystal said or did could even remotely be interpreted as funny or entertaining. The producers could have dug up the corpse of Bob Hope and left it rotting in the middle of the stage for four hours, and even that would have been a significant improvement over Crystal. By that measure, MacFarlane was a rousing success.

On the other hand, a lot of the show just didn’t work. The endless skit with William Shatner was terrible. Many of the jokes were needlessly juvenile, sexist and/or homophobic, which was very disappointing. (A friend of mine writes: “MacFarlane’s whole persona is just smug entitlement spraying out at his audience… and the misogyny underneath most of his gags was exhausting.”) Perhaps worst of all, MacFarlane never quite overcame the tedium and bloat that inevitably set in with this show, year after year.

Despite some of the negative reviews, there’s a good chance that MacFarlane may be asked to host again. The broadcast’s ratings were up this year, especially in the coveted 18-49 demographic. At the end of the day, that’s what the producers and the network really care about.

[Update: MacFarlane says he won’t host again.]

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How Was Seth MacFarlane as Oscar Host?

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11 comments

  1. Barsoom Bob

    Seth was pretty witty and occasionally crass but you want something to help keep you awake. But these super gay productions we have been getting are just mind numbing. It is not the Tony awards, it is the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

    They need to revert back to the Hope/Carson form and have a funny guy come out and do a semi pointed monologue about the nominated movies and current Hollywood/celebrity buzz and then MAKE IT ABOUT THE MOVIES. The only music productions necessary are the nominated songs. In the majority of major awards categories, show examples of the work, with presenters that aren’t trying to be comedians, but might actually comment intelligently on the work. Fire that Bruce Vilanch writer. Show examples of the best nominated VFX. It is exciting eye candy, how could that hurt. Less schtick, let people speak if they are saying something
    coherent. Cutting off the guy about the Rhythm and Hues protest was despicable. Play them off if they are just rambling.

  2. I thought he was really funny. He’s already said he won’t host it again though. He said it was like the Kobayashi Maru test. A no-win situation. It’s sad, because he was the funniest host in years.

  3. Seth doesn’t want to host again because it took him away from this other projects for almost five months. I thought the biggest problem with Sunday’s telecast wasn’t Seth, but rather all the presenters who obviously didn’t bother to prep at all before coming out on stage (see how lame those Avengers are without Joss to guide them?!).

    Anyway, I think the FLIGHT WITH SOCK PUPPETS bit showed us how funny it might be if the Muppets hosted the entire show. Not sure how the logistics of that would work, but they have a year to prep. 🙂

  4. Drew

    Robert,

    I couldn’t agree more! I’ve been championing Hugh as host, for years. He was one of those hosts that could do it every year.

  5. Nico Robin

    I thought Seth was great and anyone that complains just didn’t like him because they didn’t get the jokes. With that said, I want Jon Stewart back!!

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