Family Guy writer and creator Seth MacFarlane was a risky choice as the host of this year Academy Awards.
Seth MacFarlane, 39, incurred the wrath of viewers during his joke stuffed monologue after he made an indirect reference to Skyfall singer Adele’s weight.
He said: “Rex Reed will be out here to review Adele’s performance of Skyfall.”
The funnyman left no facet of Hollywood untouched by his barbs as he hosted the 85th annual Academy Awards, as he joked about women, domestic violence, ageism, weight and the “hairy” Kardashians.
Seth MacFarlane began the broadcast looking totally relaxed; alone on the stage, he delivered a series of one-liners, many of which drew fire from critics and the internet community.
Starting off with a reference to the Oscar-nominated film Lincoln, Seth MacFarlane pondered about Daniel Day Lewis’ devotion to character, saying: “I would argue the actor who really got inside Lincoln’s head was John Wilkes Booth.”
His tale took an uncomfortable turn when he brought up the issue of slavery: “Like, if you bumped into Don Cheadle on the studio lot, did you try to free him? How deep does your method go?”
Page Six scoffed at the aside, which got a cold audience reaction, by calling it “flat”.
While going through his list of perfunctory celebrity bashing jokes he also managed to make an inappropriate joke about 9-year-old nominee Quvenzhane Wallis and George Clooney.
“To give you an idea of how young she is, it’ll be 16 years until she’s too old for Clooney,” he said.
In his intro to presenters Jennifer Aniston and Channing Tatum, he accused the Friends star of having a dubious past.
“Of our next two presenters, at least one is honest about being a former exotic dancer. Please welcome Channing Tatum and Jennifer Aniston,” he quipped.
Twitter user Laura Hudson was among the thousands on the micro blogging site that found it hard to swallow his humour.
“I mean this Oscars ceremony also featured Jennifer Aniston getting called a stripper, a domestic violence joke,” she wrote.
Laura Hudson was referring to Seth MacFarlane’s most controversial barb. As he introduced Quentin Tarantino’s violent revenge western Django Unchained he described it as, “the story of a man fighting to get back his woman, who’s been subjected to unthinkable violence – or as Chris Brown and Rihanna call it, a date movie”.
The reference to Chris Brown’s 2009 assault of Rihanna drew gasps from the audience in Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre.
Rihanna and Chris Brown have since been reunited, and recently attended the 2013 Grammy Awards together.
Huffington Post criticized the comedian for taking a dig at the sensitive topic: “Domestic violence is not like dating, Seth.”
Seth MacFarlane later targeted snubbed actor/director Ben Affleck saying: “The film’s director is unknown to the Academy.”
And again later in the program referring to Ben Affleck’s bearded appearance in the movie he quipped: “The first time I saw [Ben Affleck] with all that dark facial hair, I thought, <<My God, the Kardashians have made the jump to film>>; and even he had to admit afterward he wasn’t sure about the joke.
“The energy in the room cooled as the crowd laughed nervously, forcing him to reply with an assurance that the joke was ‘as bad as it gets, if it makes you feel better.”
“Oh no, that’s what we were afraid he would do,” he said, mimicking the audience’s response.
He followed it up with another Quentin Tarantino aimed jibe – the writer/director won the award for Best Screenplay on the night.
Talking about the film’s controversial overuse of the n-word, Seth MacFarlane drew silence from the crowd when he joked that the screenplay was “loosely based on Mel Gibson’s voicemails”.
Seth MacFarlane’s sock-puppet reenactment of Flight in which he wore a brown sock to represent Denzel Washington, also raised eyebrows from the conservative crowd.
“You’re a white guy in 2013,” said William Shatner to Seth MacFarlane.
“You can’t wear black hand.”
TODAY wrote: “White guys doing racial humor, no matter how gentle, still makes everyone uncomfortable.”
Website Gawker slammed the first time host as “unfunny, tired, self-centered and boring, but also incredibly homophobic and racist”.
But not everybody disliked seth MacFarlane’s presenting style.
“Loving that MacFarlane is attempting to preempt his #Oscars criticism,” Vanity Fair posted on their Twitter account Sunday.
The magazine was referring to William Shatner apparently predicting seth MacFarlane’s Oscar fail, telling him: “The show’s a disaster. Your jokes are tasteless and inappropriate and everyone ends up hating you.”
He then showed Seth MacFarlane a copy of a newspaper headline from the day after the awards that read “Seth MacFarlane Worst Oscar host ever”.
Playing innocent, Seth Macfarlane tried to defend himself and asked what he did wrong.
However, TV host Piers Morgan was quick to show his support for the comedian.
“This is unbelievably, unacceptably, gob-smackingly, hilariously inappropriate. Keep going. @SethMacFarlane.”
People Magazine also threw in some praise: “If you’re hating on Seth, just remember: He’s got Channing up there dancing.”
Russell Crowe tweeted: “Congratulations @SethMacFarlane , you did great mate, handled it all with grace, #topjob .”
And Steve Martin, who hosted the ceremony three times, in 2001, 2003, and 2010, tweeted: “Seth MacFarlane was wonderful and who knew? I did. But then, I wrote <<Cruel Shoes>>.”
The Office actor Rainn Wilson was also a fan of Seth Macfarlane’s presenting style, as were Kristin Chenoweth – who performed a musical number, Here’s to the Losers, to close the show.
Rainn Wilson wrote: “Truly, @SethMacFarlane did a great job. Funny, self-deprecating and surprisingly fresh.”
Kristin Chenoweth tweeted: “I had a blast tonight singing with @sethmacfarlane. He KILLED it! So good!”
In an effort to change the course of history, he used the remainder of his 15 minutes to redeem himself, starting with a sensual dance by Charlize Theron and Channing Tatum to his rendition of Frank Sinatra’s The Way You Look Tonight.
