Categories
all about the menz are these guys 12 years old? creepy misogyny on the tv pedophiles oh sorry ephebophiles rape jokes unsolicited penis updates

Seth MacFarlane was the real boob on Oscar night

seth-macfarlane

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.

395 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
LBT
LBT
11 years ago

RE: katz

Nah, nah, that was sonichu.(God, I can’t remember my driver’s license number or the capital of Minnesota, but I remember THAT?)

Re: Kittehs

I seem to recall that during my hiatus due to lack of brain, there was a major thinning of boobzers over… something? I think it was a forum thing, and I apparently missed it? *spreads hands* And Cliff was among those who left–though the business certainly might be all of it.

Also, bummer. How come YOU seem to get all the ‘imaginary friend’ jokes? You’d think I’d be the more obvious target, I make and sell a fucking ZINE about it.

katz
11 years ago

Right, Sonichu. Of course.

Kim
Kim
11 years ago

Now, here’s a handsome man.

Someone I was suprised to find was a total hotty when young was Paul Newman. I’d only seen him in horrible movies like The Color of Money and then I saw him in an old b+w comedy. He was so funny and good-looking. Was a revelation. He looks better in the movie than he does in photos though, because a lot of it was his smile and animation.

And I actually like a lot of Seth MacFarlane’s work. I thought Ted was mostly hilarious, and I used to really like The Family Guy too. That has really gone downhill lately though. I don’t bother to watch it anymore. And yes lil Lizard, I do agree he is a good looking guy. But it is possible to admire some of someone’s work and think some of it is terrible, and to think someone is good looking and also have no interest in being anywhere near them. Just because you’re all “ooh, shiny” doesn’t mean other people can’t hold more complex and nuanced opinions.

LBT
LBT
11 years ago

Also, dear god, when is throwing slurs at a fucking NINE-YEAR-OLD ever okay? If it’s satire… she’s NINE. The hell do nine-year-olds know about satire? What, can I go up to YOUR nine-year-old daughter and talk shit about them and just say, “Nah, man, it’s satire!”

Seriously, do these people have children of their own? Jesus Christ.

LBT
LBT
11 years ago

Enh, even when Family Guy was apparently good, it wasn’t my thing. A lot of people find the non sequiters funny, but I have a very low patience for those, after like five seconds, I’d be like, “Okay, can we get back to the episode now? Because I now this random aside is going to have NO IMPACT on anything.”

Kim
Kim
11 years ago

I just have a liking for things that reference other pop culture. That’s why I liked Ted so much. It’s an ode to an 80s childhood. I would guess that MacFarlane is the exact same age as I am. But I know that kind of referential humour is not for everyone.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
11 years ago

LBT – “Also, bummer. How come YOU seem to get all the ‘imaginary friend’ jokes? You’d think I’d be the more obvious target, I make and sell a fucking ZINE about it.”

You’ll just have to try harder, lol! Shameless posting of your hubby might do it. 😛

I read something in the forums when DarkSideCat and Rutee left, I think around the same time, partly (iirc) ‘cos they felt there were transphobia issues here. Not sure if Ami left around the same time. I do remember reading one huge stoush in a thread from a couple of years back, where it turned into a trans* vs asexual thing and got really nasty. Was that the time you were thinking of?

And yes, satire attacking children? Sorry, no. Never. I still think of satire being at least partly aimed at power groups, or prevailing voices in society, and children don’t fit either category.

Abnoy
Abnoy
11 years ago

Incredibly enough, there ARE somethings we can agree on. I absolutely despise Seth McFarlane and all his works as well.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
11 years ago

“Shameless posting of links to pics of your hubby.” Brain fart, I haz it.

marc2020
marc2020
11 years ago

If the people who produce the Oscars would like to get back into people’s good books next year in picking a host that won’t be a complete disaster but can still be counted on to be both edgy and charming might I suggest Joel McHale?

BlackBloc (@XBlackBlocX)

I love the non sequiturs on Family Guy. It’s all the bullshit rape culture, transphobia, smug atheist shit (and that’s from an anti-clerical smug atheist) I can’t stand.

Kim
Kim
11 years ago

How are MRAs coping with having MacFarlane as their hero because of the Oscars, when he does a show with a blatantly misandrist “idiot husband and smart wife” dynamic?!

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
11 years ago

Kim – Paul Newman was really beautiful as a young man. I think he looked at his best as Henry Gondorff in The Sting. 🙂

Pear_tree
Pear_tree
11 years ago

Seth Macfarlane has a habit if saying fairly ill informed things about science which I find vaguely intriguing. It wouldn’t be so fascinating if he didn’t say things I felt were debatable or entirely wrong with such confidence and belief of intellectual superiority.

He also does seem to be a real life Alan Partridge/ Nathan Barley. If he was fictional he’d be hilarious, but instead he really doesn’t understand why he is offensive and that is depressing.

Argenti Aertheri
11 years ago

I was on hiatus for the mass exodus, but Ami was barely around by then. Not sure why, but she’d been barely here for awhile before then.

I sort of know what happened, but I’m not sure how much I’m at liberty to say since I heard it all second hand. And also…I’m glad I missed that, and I still don’t want to get involved.

As for the topic, I’m glad I missed the Oscars.

LBT
LBT
11 years ago

RE: Kittehs

THE STING! Damn, I love that movie. And hey, hubby is all over the place in Cracks of Sunshine, I guess it just isn’t obvious enough or something. Obviously this means I need to draw him in stereotypical cheesecake poses or something.

And oh god, I thankfully missed the trans/ace thing. (I have… very strong feelings about ace erasure, seeing as I’m mostly ace and it was a large component of Rapey McRaperson’s treatment of us.) I know OF it, but just avoided the whole thing, because I try not to get angry, and that would’ve had me hitting the roof.

clairedammit
clairedammit
11 years ago

Hellkell, thanks for the wind warning – it’s been here since this afternoon. Sorry about your internet! The worst problem we’ve had so far was when Kiddammit decided to wash his car and got soaked from head to toe.

Speaking of Paul Newman, one of my favorite movies is Hud. I need to rewatch it, I think.

Kim
Kim
11 years ago

On a subject of movies and tv, I would love to see a project where they take a book and make it into a movie or a show where, when they cast it, they describe each character’s personality with carefully non-leading language, have people of all races and genders read for the roles and them be chosen by people who don’t know the story or the gender/races of the characters in the source material. Be especially good with a fantasy/sci-fi book which would usually be heavily male and white, and tend to have ensemble casts.

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

Clairedammit: glad you all are OK. Cable came back. There’s branches and shit everywhere, but for once we didn’t lose our lights in the backyard.

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

Kim: I know it’s not a book, but Grey’s Anatomy (Autonomy to Uncle Elmer) did blind casting.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
11 years ago

LBT – I love The Sting too! One of my favourite movies. Screeched at the end the first time I saw it. 😀

I meant “shamelessly post links here to pics of your hubby”. Or talk about him ad nauseam, like I do. 😉

Yeah, I wasn’t too pleased with the whole erasure thing going on in that thread, and I’m only marginally touched by it, if at all. It was turning into the Oppression Olympics.

Argenti – sounds like it was a different thing from that barney, then. There are certainly some names from a couple of years back I’d like to see posting again, but if there was a stoush of some sort … oh well.

Kim
Kim
11 years ago

That’s cool. 🙂 They must have written the stories to match the actors though. I can’t imagine them shaming a male intern about how he used to be a model. I like the idea of having the story written first so it’s not influenced by cultural assumptions about the gender/race of the actors.

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
The Kittehs' Unpaid Help
11 years ago

“and tend to have ensemble casts.”

I read that as ensemble cats.

Which would be really cool, but difficult.

Ranter (@socialrants)
11 years ago

Seth? Attractive? No, no, no. Not my type at all before the Oscars, and now he’s in the negative numbers.

drst
drst
11 years ago

Gah. It was so awful. And the worst part is when MacFarlane was able to be funny and chose not to be. The “Sound of Music” joke was great, as was the intro to Meryl Streep where he just walked away. But all that other garbage was overpowering.

Then Daniel Day-Lewis got up and told the best joke of the night anyway.

My thing is that there are jokes to be made about, say, how many women are naked in movies versus how many men. Good jokes, that make a point and punch up rather than down. But MacFarlane and his writers are either too ignorant or too chickenshit to make them.

My favorite line last night was on Twitter:

@alliemyerz It’s not Seth MacFarlane’s fault, guys. It’s just that men aren’t funny.

1 3 4 5 6 7 16