In Defense of Seth MacFarlane's Oscar Performance

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I tend to be extraordinarily loyal. To a fault, often times. If you gain my trust and respect, it will take a lot (and I mean A LOT) to undermine it, and until that point I will defend you to no end. There is a line, to be sure. Which some have crossed, much to their loss. But if you lose my support, it means that you done fucked up good.

The reason I tell you this is because if I enjoy the work of a celebrity, I’m going to be loyal (see also: George Lucas). Again, to a fault, but I will defend you to the point of becoming an apologist. I say all this because I am a fan of Seth MacFarlane. Actually, everyone is our house is a fan of Seth. Andrea has a bit of a crush on him. To the point that I’m pretty sure someday I’ll be his mother-in-law, which I find much more preferable than her becoming a Bieber, Jonas, or Styles. But I digress. We all enjoy him and his sense of humor and never-ending supply of talents. Even Jason’s a big fan. So much so that he actually WILLINGLY watched the Oscars this year. And he hates the Oscars. Hates award shows. But he was willing to watch because Seth MacFarlane was hosting.

In my capacity as a loyal fan and borderline apologist, I just want to tell the haters to piss off.

I’ve seen a lot of posts in the last couple days talking about how poor a job he did at hosting. Not the worst host ever (sorry, James Franco. You still win that one) but not a great show. Here’s the thing- by selecting Seth as your host for this particular awards show, you were setting him up for failure.

This was a gag during the show, but based on the reactions of some folks, you’d think it was true.

Now let me say, I don’t think he failed. I think he did a great job, personally, but refer back to paragraph two. What I am saying is that with his style of comedy and the specific venue in question, he was going to make NO ONE happy. For those who watch and love Family Guy and his cavalcade of other animated series, he wasn’t edgy enough. For those who don’t watch him, and see the Oscars as an opportunity for professionalism and reverence (read: stick way up the ass) he was raunchy and disrespectful. He tried to ride that fine line between the two, and I think given the circumstances he did amazing. That’s a sharp, razor thin wire to ride. But a lot of folks disagree with me.

Here’s the thing. If you’ve watched Family Guy, you know that a lot of the humor pushes the envelope. It gets raunchy, racists, sexist, and every other –ist in the interest of making you think. Yes, sometimes it can get horribly uncomfortable and you find yourself asking why you’re laughing at that. But it makes you think (hopefully) and consider why you find it both amusing and uncomfortable. That works for a cartoon. That works in a setting where people can react without being judged by anyone other than their family or close personal friends. The reason some of the jokes didn’t work at the Oscars is because you can’t react the same way. While I thought the Django/Rihanna/Chris Brown joke was hilarious, I can see why, in a room surrounded by people who can decide your next career move, you might have a hard time deciding how you’re going to react to it. It’s easy to be uncomfortable and deal with it in your own living room. It’s a much more difficult thing to gauge the appropriate reaction in a split second when surrounded by ten thousand of your closest friends and colleagues.

The other issue that I’ve seen brought up is the sexism of the “We Saw Your Boobs” song. To which I say to my feminist sisters, REALLY? The song itself wasn’t sexist. It was poking fun at a studio system that basically requires female stars bare their bits in order to have a successful career. You couldn’t do a “We Saw Your Junk” song in the same way because Hollywood doesn’t make guys do full frontals the we expect it of the women. Apparently there’s a few YouTube videos that have tested this fact, but I haven’t watched them yet. I personally can think of three movies I’ve seen with penises. Three. I can’t even begin to list the number of movies where I’ve seen breasts a floppin’. And the fact that all of these big name Oscar winning women have had to show their girls to get ahead- THAT’S what the song was addressing. Not some juvenile concept of “tee hee- I saw your titties!” Get over yourselves. One article even argued that for some of the movies listed in the song, the woman was being raped when we saw their breasts. I ask you to consider that maybe we need to have a bigger discussion on why we feel the need to show rape scenes in order to create the art of cinema. Ever think he was addressing that issue? Probably not.

Sorry for the rant. Like I said, I will vehemently defend those I adore, and I was just tired of seeing Seth get raked over the coals for DOING WHAT THEY ASKED HIM TO DO. Especially knowing how he does what he does. He did a fine job. He sang, he danced, he told jokes, and looked dapper in a tux. Leave him be.

It’s okay, Seth. We still love ya.