I find the Oscars tedious, and only watched a few minutes last night — I bailed shortly after Captain Kirk made his appearance — but apparently I should have stuck around, if only to watch the insufferable Seth MacFarlane’s award-winning performance as Unfunny Misogynist Asshole Host.
What, you say, he didn’t actually win an award for that? Well, yes he did: Having read a number of accounts of the whole sorry spectacle, I’m awarding MacFarlane the non-coveted Man Boobz Boob of the Day Award (Oscar Edition). In the wake of MacFarlane’s performance at the Oscars, in which he devoted a whole song to actresses’ breasts, I should note that I am using the word “boob” to mean “nincompoop.” Which, to be honest, is an undeservedly mild epithet for a guy who punctuated his comments with repeated jokes about rape.
A few of the highlights of MacFarlane’s night:
That song-and-dance number about how great it is to see so many boobs in films – including, specifically, in The Accused, and Monster, and Boys Don’t Cry. You know, during the rape scenes in those quie serious films.
MacFarlane’s animatronic teddy bear (from his movie Ted) joking about attending an orgy at Jack Nicholson’s house – you know, the place where Roman Polanski raped a 13-year old girl.
Oh, and then there was MacFarlane joking about how 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis would be too old to date George Clooney in about 16 years. (What, is Heartiste writing MacFarlane’s jokes?) And his bizarre domestic violence joke about Chris Brown and Rihanna. And on and on. (See here for many more examples.)
Getting into the spirit of the evening, whoever was doing The Onion’s twitter account decided it would be hilarious to refer to the aforementioned 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis as a “cunt.” The Onion later deleted the tweet and offered an apology for it.
Somehow I doubt we’re going to get an apology from MacFarlane.
Here are a couple more takes on the whole unfortunate evening.
Why Seth MacFarlane’s Misogyny Matters (Vulture)
Seth MacFarlane and the Oscars’ Hostile, Ugly, Sexist Night (The New Yorker)
Oscar Watch: Was That Awful or What? (NY Post)
EDITED TO ADD: Oh, joy! The Men’s Rights subreddit weighs in on the issue, in a thread sort-of-responding to that New Yorker piece.
EDITED TO ADD AGAIN: Actually, r/mensrights has two threads on the subject; here’s the other one.
I hang out on a board full of people who I like talking to, you troll boards full of people who you don’t like trying (and mostly failing) to upset them. The latter fact is funnier than any joke you’ve ever made.
Poor little Arks, so insecure he has to tell women we don’t know what our own reactions and preferences are.
Quite apart from the idiocy of the Niagara description (body fluids really scare you, don’t they, son? Do you have to look away when you pee?), there’s only one man who produces any sort of desire, let alone arousal, in me. MacFarlane doesn’t even rate as aesthetically pleasing on my scale.
It’s mean of me but I do find the whole omg it’s so icky that women produce fluids from their genitals and also so pathetic that they experience arousal thing hilarious. Just not in the way that he intends.
Me too. He’s like a kindy kid.
Well, he also doesn’t seem to understand anatomy, since those fluids aren’t coming from their thighs.
Anyhoo, you know how MRAs are always up in arms about how college disciplinary procedures are so unfair to accused rapists? UNC is threatening to expel or otherwise discipline a female student for merely talking about her rape publicly — even though she hasn’t identified her rapist by name.
Obviously Arks’ insistence that his taste in men is universal not only ridiculous, but also irrelevant. I don’t find MacFarlane even a little bit attractive, but there are douchey sexist dudes who I actually am physically attracted to, and I still think they’re total assholes. I still talk about the bullshit they spew and why it’s bullshit.
Polliwog, ah, I hadn’t realized that about Charlize Theron. I replaced the picture.
I actually turned the show off shortly before the boobs song because I found MacFarlane so insufferable and self-indulgent.
I used to watch Family Guy when I was 16-18, back when I had a TV recorder in my room and my old computer took an hour to load The Sims if I was lucky (no wonder it melted).
The earlier episodes had their moments. Eventually it got to the point where it got so offensive, tedious, and unfunny that it actually contributed to me being turned off watching TV altogether.
As for Seth McFarlane himself, he just reminds me of physically older versions of the annoying boys who everyone said had ‘crushes’ on me when I was 11. A smug, hair-pulling, pencilcase-stealing, mock-the-easy-target-and-everyone-laughs wanker.
Sorry if we can’t all be as shallow as you, Dragon’s Dinner.
I just don’t get why he was picked to host the Oscars. Since when is lowbrow, deliberately offensive humor the kind of thing the Academy goes for? Were they hoping to draw in younger viewers?
Maybe I’m just butthurt, but as a Carl Sagan fangirl, I’m kind of grossed out with Macfarlane’s involvement in the reboot of Cosmos. It’s like someone offering you a gorgeous, delicious dessert and then licking it before giving it to you: it probably won’t affect the flavor, but you’ll know it’s there.
Yup, he’s the poster boy for rape culture:
http://damsel-in-de-tech.blogspot.ca/2013/02/because-rape-culture-is-just-so-darned.html
The Kittehs’ Unpaid Help, are we talking about your imaginary friend again? Remember, imaginary friends aren’t real.
Ayup, that’s a personal attack. Banning time.
LOL is that the best you can do?
First – nope, no needling works there, sorry. Troll fail.
Second – it’s irrelevant to the point, which is my reactions to him vs other men. Troll fail again.
” if any woman was in front of Seth MacFarlane, Niagara would erupt from her thighs”
Dude, I’ve actually BEEN to Niagara and you do NOT want to standing that close when they switch it back on: http://nowiknow.com/turning-off-niagara-falls/
I love how so many people are flooding the comments of those articles with “its just a joke STOP BEING OFFENDED”
I’m pretty shallow when it comes to attraction, actually, and I still think MacFarlane isn’t very attractive.
Kind of a pity – I’d rather look at Charlize Theron (who looked positively stunning last night; that woman can seriously rock a super-short haircut!) than Mr. MacSmugDouche, but it’s probably for the best.
And yeah, I kinda WANTED to turn it off, but the combination of “my boyfriend is friends with a nominee and I want to see if he wins anything because then I would be friends-by-proxy with an Oscar winner and that’d be awesome” and “at some point Adele is going to sing” made me watch the whole thing and just try to tune MacFarlane out.
(Sadly, I am still only friends-by-proxy with an Oscar nominee, not a winner, but whatever, still pretty cool.)
Seconding the banning call, even though it’s hilarious that Dragon Boy thought he could get at Kittehs’ that way.
I thought this was funny, but then I like goats:
The baby-face look doesn’t do much for me, and his smile is so smug. Plus I really have a hard time separating the person from their behavior, and overgrown frat boys definitely don’t do anything for me. Not so much Niagara as Sahara, where Macfarlane is concerned.
Right. And the dozens of insinuations as to my personal friendlessness, sexual inadequacy, and similar are all just fun and games. That’s woman logic for you.
Wait, Dragon thought he could get at Kittehs’ Help by telling her she’s imagining things? Nice one, dude, I bet she’s never heard that before.
Until today I had no idea who Seth MacFarlane was. I just thought he was some loser comedian booked out of desperation in order to draw a younger demographic, which I guess in a way is true. He just seemed so awkward rattling off his awful jokes, his flat delivery. He reminded of someone using sexist/racist jokes in a desperate attempt to fit in, to be one of the guys
Cry harder, Arks.
Oh, boy! The Men’s Rights subreddit has some thoughts on the whole MacFarlane thing:
http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/197hfx/this_is_ridiculous/
Nice knowing you, DragginArks.