Peter Griffin of “Family Guy” in a Lincoln stove pipe hat, his pants dropping to his ankles.
Yeah, that’s what you can expect from an Oscar hosting by Seth MacFarlane, the snotty Connecticut prep school kid turned animator and hopeful all-around entertainer, who likes to sing standards, had a Hollywood hit with the vulgar “Ted” and now moves into the center of entertainment mainstream.
At his pre-dawn Oscar nomination announcements Thursday, he tried to keep up the kind of cringe-worthy snappy banter that will likely be part of the Oscar hosting gig, never ceasing to throw in a Hitler joke when the country Austria came up in the Foreign Films category listing.
The Academy is dying to bring in a younger demographic for its annual fashion show and statuette giveaway, but stumbled in recent years when they let anybody do it — such as James Franco, who costed with Anne Hathaway (whose appearance this year will likely be with an acceptance speech).
MacFarlane at least will have material, but the kind that usually appears on his less funny than he thinks they are Sunday night cartoons. Which he’ll be playing against Feb. 24.
ABC entertainment chief Paul Lee declared Thursday “I think what Seth brings [is] first of all, a sense of joy. I mean, he wants to be there maybe because he got nominated and we’d all want to be
there, but he wants to be there.”
A tune from “Ted” was among the nominated songs, alongside Adele and something from “Les Miserables.”
“I’m sensing he’s going to have a lot of fun out there, and I think, with the movies that are
there, I think — I’m sensing that we are going to have a good Oscars,” Lee said.
“I do intend to call Billy Crystal and executive Bran and seek his wisdom,” MacFarlane said at a post nomination announcement press conference. “And Bob Hope and Johnny Carson, you know, all of the big ones.”
“But,” he added, ” you go into it knowing that no matter what, even if you put on the greatest show in the world, you’re probably going to be lambasted in the press. So you might as well enjoy yourself, do the best you can knowing that the outcome is going to be the same. It’s a ruthless bit of scrutiny that you’re under, so I’m not going to think about that. I’m just worrying about making it as funny as it can be and as fun as it can be.”