This is about right. I’ve never really liked his smarm, and I think he abused the self-deprecation in an effort to make his performance critic-proof. On the other hand he did inject new ideas and energy into what has become the most moribund of awards show, so he gets some credit for that. The Academy Awards should learn from his example, figure out what worked, and use that as a host-template for 2014. Maybe someone who can perform with at least a glimmer of sincerity.
I do think that the opening was extremely good, but Macfarland always has a tendency to kill a good joke by not knowing when to quit. The boobs song was funny – for about 30 seconds. Once he went into the second verse, it was “We get the joke, already” time.
It’s the same with that “Sound of Music” joke about Christopher Plummer. (It also was pretty insulting of them to use it, given Plummer’s antipathy to that role – you could tell he was pissed when he came on afterwards.)
Unfortunately Macfarland is like the kid in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More with the “Shoot the dog” joke. Also, after the opening business, it went downhill very quickly and most of the jokes were as forced as you can get (though that’s typical of Oscar).
I thought he did a really good job. Though I do think he focused too much on “people are going to think I’m too edgy for this job” - but maybe he felt like he had to.
Would like to see him again next year when he doesn’t feel like he needs to prove why he should be hosting.
Really? Plummer didn’t seem pissed at all to me. Also, as someone mentioned in the other thread I don’t think Plummer has nearly the hate for that role as he once did.
He was nervous as hell and that killed his performance. I’ve seen him before as a roastmaster on Comedy Central, where he does a fine job. His smoothness is part of his schtick. He’s like an Oscar himself, all shiny and slick and genitalless.
Last night he kept stumbling and tripping on his words, getting the timing wrong, burying punchlines, and losing the audience. There was silence following some of the jokes. Some of the jokes were good, but that’s why you have a dozen writers.
Debuting fifteen minutes of brand-new material on a live program is a set-up for failure. (Cue the obligatory SNL joke.) Almost nobody can do it, and it would have been better at half the length. Cutting the boob song after a verse would have gotten the laughs and made a better point about going too far. Sock puppets for the win!
McFarland wasn’t awful, he didn’t fail. He wasn’t very good either.
This was most of the problem - irreverence. Even lame jokes are going to be received fairly well as long as the host is One Of Us. He was going out of his way to be Fuck-All-Ya’ll Teevee Guy.
I disagree with this 100%. I thought he was very reverent. There was hardly any making fun of the audience (especially compared to some previous hosts); the musical numbers he did where classical throwbacks to golden-age Hollywood complete with ballroom dancing and soft-shoe numbers. Most of his jokes were “inside Hollywood” jokes. I didn’t get the ‘fuck y’all’ vibe at all. If anything it he was screaming “please like me!”
Agreed. I thought the whole William Shatner thing was too long, for that matter, and I could’ve stabbed myself in the eyes during the Ted thing. The quote-unquote offensive stuff was generally funnier.
I voted “bad but not terribly bad”.
He certainly didn’t ruin the show, but I don’t think he added to the fun. Plus, I may be wrong here, but it sounded like every word out of his mouth had been practiced over and over again - no spontaneous quips or wit.
I know other hosts in the past would have a small team of comedy writers in the back, quickly coming up with funny lines about what just happened. Commenting on tripping up the stairs? Commenting on the tie vote?
He could have filmed every segment weeks ago and stayed at home and watched this on TV like the rest of us.
And I agree with lisacurl - he was indeed tedious and smug.
So… you’re saying that, about 30 seconds into the song, he should have been attacked by a giant chicken.
These are my feelings. I thought his timing was off too often. His material was well-rehearsed, but you can’t rehearse in front of a real responding or non-responding crowded auditorium. I have never seen him doing this type of thing before, so although I had high hopes, I wasn’t surprised that he stumbled from time to time. Hosting is essentially doing comedy stand-up, and McFarland isn’t a stand-up comic.
Would you say you had high apple pie in the sky hopes?
I guess that depends on how you feel about him saying “I thought we cut this joke” before telling a joke that wasn’t funny.
LOL, as the young people say.
I liked him, even though I loathe the Cult of MacFarlane. He had tons of good jokes - the John Wilkes Booth line was the best Oscar joke I’ve ever heard.
The opening did drag on too long, but I put that at the feet of the producers.
My biggest problem may be put to his lack of experience as a host of something like this - his timing was bad on the segue jokes into presenters and such. It was just awkward - “Joke” “Pause” “Intro”. He needs to work on how to make those jokes flow. Robert Downey Jr. is the master of making those types of comments flow through gracefully.
I approve.
Someone should have told him to stop clapping. Or to stop doing it in front of his mic. Or maybe they could have gotten someone in a building a few blocks away to do his clapping.
That one didn’t work for me. I think I liked the Chris Brown-Rihanna joke the best. For that matter the Mel Gibson one was funny, too. I guess they were wrong for the Oscars crowd- no fun saying stuff that’s mean but true about famous people or something. Sure, Mel Gibson and Brown is an violent maniac and Rihanna is an idiot (or a publicity troll), but he didn’t have to tell it like it is.
Seth Mc. has a pleasant enough singing voice, but I don’t think it’s as wonderful as he seems to think it is. Dude- you really couldn’t have hung with the Rat Pack.
I thought he was okay, better than average in some ways, but nothing super duper “must have him back” memorable. Though he and Radcliffe and Gordon-Levitt made a nice sandwich (and no way all three of them are straight).
I voted “Bad, but not terribly bad” based mainly on the material, which mostly just didn’t work for me. He did show a reasonable ability at the song-and-dance which I guess shouldn’t be too surprising given how often such a theme shows up in Family Guy, he’s got a great speaking voice, and he looked pretty good (if a bit TinTin-like) in a tux.
In the watch-along thread I called his stuff “mean-spirited” but I guess that’s not what I was really driving at; I like McFarlane overall and I don’t really have a problem with a bit of snark, but few of his bits seemed to come off as unexpected or particularly clever. I don’t know, maybe all the good Hollywood jokes have already been written.
The sock-puppet re-enactment of “Flight” was fairly inspired, but the rest of the opening bit went on far too long, and his repeated attempts at self-deprecation just seemed annoying and inauthentic.
I wouldn’t shut the TV off if he hosted again; that’s about the most I can say.
I voted OK. Of the problems with the show overall I don’t think he was the wost.
I don’t remember what followed his “really? I thought we cut this joke” - just that the joke in question should indeed have been cut. But that made me like him a little bit more. (unless he deliberately wrote a bad joke just so he could say that. Oww! My brain.) Most of the time I find him offputtingly smug.