So I planned to spend this post talking about how amazing Adele doing Skyfall was amazing, how adorable JLaur is, how Daniel Day Lewis is to Oscar movies is what Will Smith is to Blockbusters, or how the winners matched my online 'Oscar Ballot' (except for Ang Lee, I gave it to Spielberg). Instead, I'm going to rant about Seth MacFarlane. Not that the Oscars showed why he was a writer and not a comedian. Not that he is like is like a strictly worse Ricky Gervais (less cutting sarcasm, more dick jokes). But instead that people are either over-reacting to his hosting, or in some cases purposefully misconstruing what he said.
I'll start with the first thing I saw on Facebook about the Oscars. This Buzzfeed post that would serve as my first introduction to the 'horrors' that occurred last night. My reactions are below.
1. I thought it was horrible when I heard about it. But seeing the video, J Laur's fist pump made me go from cringing to laughing. The fact that he got the gay men's chorus made it seem like he was trying not to make it crudely sexual, but just humorous, because everyone, gay men and women included, like boobs.
2. To me this was just funny. The first part about Jennifer Laurence being "old" was great, and in the second half was a pretty funny jab at Clooney. In my head, the first thing when I think of dating isn't sex, so I didn't see it as sexualizing her. I guess that's why I'm a terrible date :P
3. He made a dig at Chris Brown and people are mad at him? I can't wait until Chris Brown posts a mad tweet and people don't know whether to hate on MacFarlane or Brown.
4. I enjoyed the intentional vagueness of this joke. It was something that you could use to trick one of your friends. I thought it was just funny. Its a style of joke that I think is clever.
5. If you've never read about what happens before Fashion week, this seems like a bad generalization. But this was actually his most Gervais-esque criticism of the audience.
6. Once again, this is just a style of joke that plays on tropes. I personally enjoy them and there is a forum game based on them. What is the movie about an old widower kidnapping a young boy and taking him to South America? (Hint: "My name is Doug, and I love you!")
7. No comment. All I know about the Kardashians is Lamar Odom and Kris Humpries dated them?
8. I could totally believe this was just a coincidence. Nicholson is a goddamn superstar and revels in it (He interrupted JLaur's post Oscar interview) If it was intentional, this is a phenomenal jab at the Academy and Seth has brass balls. They gave an accused rapist a Best Director award, which is what he is referencing.
9. The person who included this in the list must be an idiot, because they don't realize that Javier Bardem is a dude. He is making fun of foreigners, not women.
With this premise, I assumed that most people who were angry at MacFarlane were wrong. I admit that the man couldn't deliver worth shit, and that some of his jokes were bad (like the beard one), but I've seen people decrying him as a misogynist. Did he make jokes at the expense of women? Yes. But, he poked fun at men at the same time. Channing Tatum was the actual stripper. Clooney ditches women when they get old. Jack Nicholson is your creepy uncle that would host an Oscar's orgy. I will admit, I have yet to watch all of the Oscars, but I will when I get the chance (just to see Adele perform again).
The other thing that people threw hissyfits over was the Onion tweeting “Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a c--t, right? #Oscars2013”. When I heard about it, I was amused. Facebook last night was people gushing over this girl. Talking about how cute, amazing, or inspiraqtional she was. The Onion cleverly attacked all of this hero worship by juxtaposing all the nice things people were saying with something terrible. The joke was successful, because what the Onion was saying saw so absurd, it must be satire (I hate when the Onion does that "subtle satire" bullshit). People say that this (like MacFarlane's joke) sexualizes the little girl. I know that people use cunt as a synonym for bitch. Its on Wikipedia, for crying out loud. I was told that this was different, because it was talking about a specific girl, not an idea. Tell me that you felt that way about Bristol Palin.
I'm getting tired. Rant over.
Lyric of the Day: Three Doors Down - Love Me When I'm Gone
I'll never let you down
Even if I could
I'd give up everything
If only for your good
So hold me when I'm here
Right me when I'm wrong
You can hold me when I'm scared
You won't always be there
So love me when I'm gone
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