Via: Tuned In
In the run up to Sunday’s Oscars, ABC promoted the broadcast as: “Finally! An Oscars the guys can enjoy!” What did that mean, exactly? Judging by the ABC commercial (below): butt shots of hot actresses, a show featuring the guy-friendly fare like The Avengers, and the comedy of show host Seth MacFarlane, writer and creator of young-male magnet cartoons like Family Guy and American Dad and the dirty-teddy-bear comedy Ted: Time for me to turn in my Guy Card, I guess. I’ll give ABC credit for taking a chance. But where James Franco and Anne Hathaway were inept two years ago, and Billy Crystal was fine-but-dull a year ago, MacFarlane was uncomfortable, smarmy, unfunny–and not even bad in any memorably creative way. MacFarlane, who’s known to fans of his shows but perhaps less so as a non-animated entertainer, was a risk for the Academy, and must have known he was coming in with a target on his back. So he delivered an opening routine that was all about inoculating himself against bad reviews, with William Shatner as James T. Kirk returning from the future to warn him against a disastrous performance, including a song directed at Hollywood women called, “We Saw Your Boobs.” See, it wasn’t a drawn-out, obnoxious Oscar song; it was a joke about doing a drawn-out, obnoxious Oscar song! The problem — and the problem with his whole table-setting performance — is: first, a meta-joke about telling an unfunny joke is still an unfunny joke. And second, the Oscars are not about the host. People watching the Oscars care about being entertained. They care, maybe, about what movie will win. They care whether Seth MacFarlane will make them laugh. But they’re not, unless they are Seth MacFarlane’s agent or family, wondering “Is Seth MacFarlane going to get good reviews in the morning?” I should be biased toward any Oscar performance that pretends TV critics are that important in the larger scheme of things, but even I can’t fool myself about that one. As Family Guy
Read full story at: Tuned In
Posted: February 25th, 2013
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