Remember the last time the Academy recruited an edgy comedian to host the Oscars? It was 2005, it was Chris Rock, and he unleashed his best material on the audience, something they just were not prepared for. Especially Sean Penn.
Seth MacFarlane hasn’t exactly held back his social criticisms of Hollywood and its ridiculousness, so if he brings his A-game to the Oscars next year, the Academy will likely be disappointed. But if he doesn’t, everyone else is likely to be disappointed.
It’s uncertain how far Seth will go with his mockery, but one thing’s for sure: you can expect a shit ton of Family Guy voices and singing. That’s something that seems to make everybody happy.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of the song and dance numbers, but the public seems to eat that shit up, which is why Billy Crystal has basically made a career out of gracing the Oscars stage. So I think it’s pretty much a given that we can expect a few little ditties from MacFarlane, who is known for his penchant for belting out a tune. And he ain’t bad, either:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Tjs68fDw8&feature=relmfu
But other than singing, what are some possibilities we can expect from Seth’s performance?
People love Family Guy for its raunchy, bawdy humor, and as ringleader, Seth almost owes it to his fans to bring his trademark wit to the Oscars. But remember the 77th Academy Awards, when Chris Rock said–
“The only acting you ever see at the Oscars is when people act like they’re not mad they lost. Nicole Kidman was smiling so wide, she should have won an Emmy at the Oscars for her great performance. I was like, ‘If you’d done that in the movie, you’d have won an Oscar, girl!”
–and the next day, everyone talked about how he’d made a mockery of the entire ceremony? That joke was pretty mild compared to some of the jokes for which Seth is known. As someone who has made a career out of calling out the rest of the world on their behavior, Seth has to know that he can only hold back so much of himself. If fans get a watered-down performance out of Seth, they’re going to be that much quicker to call out his inauthenticity, due to the very fact that MacFarlane’s humor is so raw.
We know Seth can host. He did a pretty damn good job of it on Saturday Night Live, but the Oscars stage and the SNL stage are two totally different platforms. The Academy Awards are probably one of the stiffest events in Hollywood.
It’s understandable that the Academy would choose Seth, someone who’s idolized by younger generations as an entertainment icon. But they also tend to get their panties in a wad over even the mildest of jokes, so let’s hope they’re prepared for what they’re bringing to the stage.
At any rate, whatever Seth brings?edgy, not edgy?it’s gotta be better than whatever it was James Franco and Anne Hathaway did last year.