I
went to sleep last night quite unsure how I felt about Seth
MacFarlane's performance on the Oscars and woke up this morning
equally perplexed. When are sexist jokes funny? Is there a place for
them in this world?
Though
it is no great secret that there is a strong difference between how
women are treated in Hollywood and how men are (one need only compare
last night's botox beauties to the silver foxes to see that) I have
always felt like the Oscars were a little classier than that. A night
when we may examine dresses and makeup, but we appreciate actors for
their ability to act and not just for whether or not we have seen
their boobs.
(BTW,
the boobs song dragged on like the epic chicken fight in "Family
Guy." MacFarlane, I love the show, but you have got to learn
when you've passed funny and jumped into tedious...)
Granted,
no one was safe from MacFarlane. No one ever has been before, so why
start now? MacFarlane has an established persona that would be
hard for him to deviate from. His own self-depricating jokes about
"Ted" were relatively funny. As were the "Star Trek"
moments. I absolutely loved the song and dance routine with Joseph
Gordon-Leavitt and Daniel Radcliffe. But those good, Oscar-worthy
moments were just too few and too far apart.
Too
many of the jokes MacFarlane made just weren't funny, or were too far
past offensive to be funny. On "Family Guy" I can view the
sexist jokes made by overweight, lazy Peter as a stab at chauvinist
males. On the Oscars they just felt chauvinist.
Does
comedy require a certain venue to be funny? Are sexist jokes funny in
one location and not in another, or do we just forgive them when they
come out of the mouth of a cartoon more than when we can see the
cartoon creator's face?
What
do you think? Were his jokes the wrong choice? Was he the wrong
choice? Did you enjoy his performance?
Oh,
and please, please... let's talk about the Chicago/Dreamgirls/Les Mis
moments! Please! Stunning.
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