Jamie Lee Curtis Once Slammed Seth MacFarlane as a ‘Cruel’ Oscars Host
The Academy Awards recruited Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane to host the 85th Oscars. But not everyone was happy with the way MacFarlane handled the ceremony, including Jamie Lee Curtis.
Jamie Lee Curtis criticized the way Seth MacFarlane hosted the Oscars
MacFarlane injected some of his own Family Guy humor into the Academy Awards. Back in 2013, his Oscars celebration was full of satirical humor and musical numbers poking fun at the film industry. For instance, MacFarlane prepared Oscar viewers and attendees for what’s to come with a song titled “We Saw Your Boobs.” As the name suggests, the song focused on the many A-listers in Hollywood who went topless on screen.
The song was as famous as it was infamous depending on who was asked. Although some enjoyed the piece, others felt MacFarlane went too far. Curtis was in the camp of the latter.
“I was offended last week. As an Academy member, as the child of former Academy members and as a woman, I expected more from the best that the movie business has to offer. The Oscars are about honoring art and artists. It is not supposed to be a cheesy vaudeville show,” Curtis wrote in HuffPost.
The Oscar-winner specifically mentioned MacFarlane’s song to illustrate her point.
“The ‘boob’ song, as it will be known in perpetuity, may go down as the highest-rated Oscar number in history, but at what cost? I’m sure public executions would get big ratings too, but is that what the Oscars are truly about? Ratings? When did they turn into a ‘roast?’ At least at a roast you know what’s in store,” she said.
How Seth Macfarlane reacted to criticisms of his song
Seth MacFarlane knew his 2013 Oscars performance rubbed many the wrong. But he felt others missed the point of the sketch entirely. It didn’t help that a few were attacking MacFarlane’s character personally afterwards, labeling him sexist.
“That’s a pretty serious accusation. [The song] was presented as part of an alternate universe where everything at the Oscars was done incorrectly, [but] the media ignored the context entirely. Comedy and satire being treated with more outrage than actual sexism, racism, or homophobia makes no sense at all,” MacFarlane once told Glamour.
In an interview years later in 2019, the Ted star shared what the origin of the song was. And why he still doesn’t regret the musical number.
“I’ve never mentioned this, but that gag came about because I read a lot of the press. You should never read your own press, but I read a lot of press leading up to the Oscars and it was a lot of really angry, foaming-at-the-mouth kind of stuff,” MacFarlane said on WTF With Marc Maron. “It got to the point where I had to comment on it in some way. My original idea was very tame, old style song and dance. In a way, you helped create what you despise. It’s this idea of creating an alternate Oscars that was exactly what they were afraid would happen.”
Will Seth MacFarlane ever host the Oscars again?
Despite the naysayers and controversy, MacFarlane’s version of the Oscars was successful enough that he was asked to host again. But he declined the offer, and it seems unlikely that he’ll ever host the prestigious ceremony a second time. To him, there was virtually no upside to doing the show.
“It’s hard to know how I would approach it If I was to host it again,” MacFarlane said. “It’s a high profile thing. All eyes are on it. It’s an easy thing to s*** on. It’s so easy to s*** on the Oscars because you don’t have to read the news, you don’t have to know history, you don’t have to do any work. You just have to sit down, watch, and tweet. That’s all you gotta do.”
