The New Yorker‘s Amy Davidson tells it like it is. One choice nugget:
The Academy is supposedly a trade group, and yet it devoted its opening number to degrading a good part of its membership. And who knows what the Los Angeles Gay Men’s Chorus thought that it was doing by serving as MacFarlane’s backup singers, but it’s hard not to wonder what the rhetorical point was meant to be. We saw your boobs, but that’s not even what we find attractive, so you exerted no power in doing so—all you did was humiliate yourself? Maybe that’s reading too much into it. It could be that MacFarlane just thought it would be funny for him to say the word “gay” as often as possible.
Read the whole thing here.
Meanwhile, Vulture’s Margaret Lyons provides reinforcements and then some:
MacFarlane’s opening musical number, “We Saw Your Boobs,” might as well have been a siren blaring, “This isn’t for you.” Come on, everyone likes boobs, right? No. The answer is no. They’re not something I hate, and heck, I have a pair to call my own, and yet my takeaway from The Accused was not “Finally, I’ve seen Jodie Foster’s breasts.” My lasting memory of Boys Don’t Cry is not “Hey, free breasts!” At least there was that super timely and relevant reference to Kate Winslet’s many nude scenes.
Jeez, the song was a joke! Can’t you take a joke? Yes, I can take a joke. I can take a bunch! A thousand, 10,000, maybe even more! But after 30 or so years, this stuff doesn’t feel like joking. It’s dehumanizing and humiliating, and as if every single one of those jokes is an ostensibly gentler way of saying, “I don’t think you belong here.” All those little instances add up, grain of sand by grain of sand until I’m stranded in a desert of every “tits or GTFO” joke I’ve ever tried to ignore.
Whole thing here.
I didn’t watch the Oscars, because why would anyone watch the Oscars. So my question is:
How much was Seth MacFarlane really terrible, vs. a bunch of high-brow journalist types who wouldn’t be interested in his humor in the first place?
I don’t think his shows are very funny, but I would also know what to expect if inviting him to host something. Isn’t this what they wanted?
Also, who was the last good Oscar host?
Hey, Mercury, how about even MORE blogs about the EVER-SO-RELEVANT Oscars! Clearly your readers are huge fans of this MEGA genuine Hollywood competition!
Blabby:
Oh, one of the highbrow critic justifies her criticism because she’s been a loyal Family Guy viewer for years.
But somehow, this presentation was ever so “hostile, ugly and sexist” because he made a few off-colour jokes. Funny that discussion of the female form and beauty is verbotten in this critics’ eyes when the vast vast vast majority of people tuning in are doing so, not to honor any sort of “artistic achievement,” but rather to see what sort of outfits people (predominately females) are wearing.
The great irony, of course, is that the Merc is perpetuating this alleged outrage while its own staffer posts the following in his Zero Dark Thirty post earlier:
“At its heart, Zero Dark Thirty is an uplifting film about how even an insanely hot woman can succeed if she works hard enough. That’s a message that I expected The Academy to support.”
If you watch the video, it cuts to Charlize Theron and Naomi Watts when their names are mentioned during the song — they do NOT look happy.
For those wondering, the song and the actresses’ reactions were pre-taped. Lawrence, Watts, & Theron were in on the joke, whether you found it funny or not.
@ stevethefirst:
Wow. If that’s true, then this is even more proof that Theron and Watts are great actresses…..
Does that NYT writer really believe that the LA gay mens chorus had no idea what they were getting into? You know, because gay guys don’t pay attention to pop culture. Jesus give me a fucking break. Find something more worth while to get mad about
Hey Internet,
I know it’s not the greatest tragedy to befall the globe but please do explain how criticism of a jokey song about seeing a celebrity’s boobs in 1) a movie based on a true story where she was violently gang raped and 2) a movie based on a true story where she was violently raped then shot and killed is just out-of-touch and high brow. Thanks.
It was more than one song. It was an endless evening of flat not-even-frat-boy-funny digs including several Jewish jokes, a Nazi, that awful Ted bear thing, digs at actresses not eating to fit into their dresses, digs at actresses working as strippers, and on and on. It was just mean-spirited across the board. Why watch? To see Barbara Striesand, Adele, and holy crap Dame Shirley Bassey! Billy Crystal is a decent oscar host. Steve Martin is, also. Johnny Carson was always good.