Seth MacFarlane receives savage reviews from the critics for his Oscar hosting

from the NYTimes: Jon Caramanica: "There is a difference between a host who knows how to align himself or herself amid a group of famous talents, and a human ego vapor who aspires to fill all the air in the room and in people’s lungs. The depth of MacFarlane’s flubbing is profound. Tone deaf jokes that touched on all the -isms. High self-regard and low self-awareness." Dave Itzkoff: "I tried to enjoy the randomness of his shtick, at first, or at least give him the benefit of the doubt. But there was an undercurrent of mean-spiritedness that kept cropping up – jokes at the expense of ethnicity or people’s weight, for example – that plays better on “Family Guy” than it does at an Oscars ceremony."

http%3A//www.nytimes.com/projects/oscars/2013/index.html%3Fhp



• USA Today headline: "Seth MacFarlane's Oscars a self-indulgent mix"

  http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/02/24/bianco-oscar-review/1943985/

• he's a cutie

• I want to give Seth a consoling post-Oscars blowjob.

• The whole Star Trek opening fell flat.

• And when we heard the "song" he wrote...one of the classic WTF song nominees - and the WTF song nominee list is very, very long.

• HuffPost: "Seth MacFarlane's Jokes: the Worst of the Bad"

  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/seth-macfarlane-jokes_n_2756417.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dentertainment

• I liked the songs

• At least he wasn't pushing atheism on us, Ricky Gervais-style.

• It's a thankless job. I don't know why anyone would want to do it.

• R8 = tedious moron

• Seth MacFarlane was wonderful, one of the best hosts ever.

• As suggested by the NYTimes piece, singing with Kristi would be one of those things ridiculed on Family Guy.

• bump

• These critics are the problem, not Seth MacFarlane. I enjoyed Seth's hosting of the awards more than any in living memory. They guy is a talent and his fairly ordinary looks, come off as handsome when he performs. He wears a high quality hair piece that few ever pick up on and he's over 6' tall, what's not to like?

• He was so bad we have to stoop to congratulating him on the quality of rug he wore? Holy Christ.

• CSMonitor has an overview of the reactions. [quote]Oscars host Seth MacFarlane drew mixed to downright negative reviews for his first time in the gig, with many finding most of his jokes offensive. [quoe]“The oddness of the hire — middlebrow frat-boy hero emcees Hollywood's glitziest night — was only heightened by MacFarlane's unpleasant demeanor,” The Atlantic writer Richard Lawson wrote of MacFarlane's performance.

  http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2013/0225/Seth-MacFarlane-The-reviews-of-his-performance-and-the-moments-we-actually-liked

• I thoroughly enjoyed him, actually. I was a bit surprised. I have to say, though, that I've enjoyed both Hugh Jackman and Neil Patrick Harris as hosts of the Tonys much more. But I think Seth was the best host the Oscars have had in quite awhile.

• Just who are the "most of his jokes offensive" people?

• The Hollywood Reporter does an interesting analysis of how hopeless the job is for anybody:

  http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bastard-machine/tv-review-seth-macfarlane-wins-424058

• I didn't much care for what Seth did. I did like the idea of Shatner telling him stuff from the future, but the meat of it sucked. If the premise of that skit was that he was going to be criticized for being the worst Oscar host, he should've gone for broke. He tried to be "edgy" without actually being edgy at all. You can't have it both ways.

• The only offensive jokes were the Jew jokes, which is why he's getting raked over the coals. He sucked, but the jokes weren't offensive.

• The Jew jokes were stupid. Not epically memorable as a scandal, but so 1970s.

• [quote]Just who are the "most of his jokes offensive" people? If only a link had been posted so you could go right to the article!

• I think the Jew jokes hit too close to home. He was, after all, performing in front of an audience with many Jews in the audience, including the big ones: Spielberg, Weinstein, Katzenberg, and who knows who else - maybe the Apatow gang.

• I'm Jewish and I found nothing McFarland said offensive EXCEPT the John Wilkes Booth joke. That just wasn't funny. His singing and dancing were amazing!

• The ratings are the only thing that matters...

• I second R25

  jewcy

• R26 Is onto something there.

• If his name were Seth Jewenstein he would be getting raves right now.

• Just the fact that many anti-semites were watching made the jokes extremely offensive. Would Seth have dared to say the same things about the growing Afro-American presence in Hollywood? (Yes it's growing, in a billion years, there MIGHT be a flood.)

• [quote]Just the fact that many anti-semites were watching made the jokes extremely offensive. Would Seth have dared to say the same things about the growing Afro-American presence in Hollywood? Would Seth have dared to appear in black-face and Afro wig the way Jewish NY Assemblyman Dov Hikind did recently?

  http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/jewish-ny-assemblyman-stands-by-his-black-face-purim-costume-1.505768

• R31, Hikind is a 100% jerk, and totally dissing the "original anti-discrimination" festival of Purim as well. I'd even go so far as to call him anti-Semitic by his actions. Clearly he has no understanding of the religious and cultural significance of why Jews still celebrate Purim, nor of the bravery of Esther, a woman ahead of her time. While it is customary to dress in costume, particularly if you're a child, the expected outfits should be honoring the heroes of the day, or dissing those that attempt to destroy others due to their ethnicity. Hikind should be called out, Shame on him.