Oscars 2013 Seth MacFarlane Host Review: 'Family Guy' Funny Man Gets Mixed Reviews from Critics on 85th Annual Academy Awards Night

By Scott Taylor | Feb 25, 2013 09:54 AM EST

Family Guy funny man Seth MacFarlane was a risky choice to host the Oscars 2013. Ultimately, he is most known for his work on the Fox network's animated comedies where he is essentially doing voice overs. Sunday night he was tasked with doing one of the most highly criticized and toughest jobs for a comedian. Hosting the Oscars.

Forget the fact that MacFarlane has very little on stage experience compared to past hosts such as Billy Crystal, Chris Rock, and Steve Martin, but he is much edgier than most fans would expect the Oscars to be. Everyone in the crowd is very buttoned up, meanwhile a guy known for utilizing the crudest possible humor through cartoons is in charge with making them laugh. How did Seth MacFarlane do Sunday night? It depends on who you ask.

If you read an article in The New Yorker, Richard Brody says MacFarlane seemed like he was doing an SNL impersonation of an Oscars host "exaggerating the worst emcee stereotypes." Brody went to say about MacFarlane's performance, "The gross miscalculation of the "boobs" number set the tone for the evening-the wrong one."

Yes, MacFarlane did deliver some cringe worthy and controversial humor, but isn't this what he does best? I'm guessing the Oscars didn't hire the creator of Family Guy to host the show and deliver PG jokes.

Among the highlights, whether low or high, involved William Shatner beaming down as Star Trek's Captain Kirk to tell MacFarlane his reviews were going to be bad and singing performance's from MacFarlane while Channing Tatum danced along with fellow stars Charlize Theron, Daniel Radcliffe, and Josepth Gordon-Levitt. By the way, there were a number of dance scenes involving MacFarlane.

Of course there were the moments where the crowd of Hollywood's elite gasped as MacFarlane delivered jokes that are sure to be deemed inappropriate by critics. One of those moments was when MacFarlane made a joke about "Best Actor" winner Daniel Day-Lewis getting inside Lincoln's head, but not doing as good a job as John Wilkes Booth.

If you read The Telegraph, film critic Tim Roby sums up MacFarlane's performance, "Otherwise, MacFarlane's impression of a smirking school bully goes straight into the hall of Oscar shame, along with that wacko, dead-eyed bit of performance art from James Franco two years ago."

The reviews weren't all bad. Huffington Post's Michael Russnow criticized MacFarlane's performance as host but did give him some credit, "During these moments and when he played it straight, he was great -- poised, handsome and charming."

Over at iBlabber, Jennifer Graham Kizer said that despite some awkward moments MacFarlane wasn't a terrible Oscars host after all. Not exactly the greatest compliment, but I guess MacFarlane will have to take it. It does seem like the majority of reviews were not good for Seth MacFarlane, but it is every year that is the case.

So how do Mstarz readers think Seth MacFarlance did as the host of the Oscars 2013? What grade would you give him?

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