David Letterman and Seth Macfarlane both bombed as Oscar hosts. However, to me, they were the best two. I didn't watch it last night because I didn't care to see it but I heard that Ellen was a smash hit with the Oscar people. That means she played it safe and did what they wanted. That is specifically what David Letterman and Seth Macfarlane didn't do. Letterman had a dumb joke where he introduced Uma to Opra and then Opra to Uma but nobody laughed. Still he did it about 7 times because he was apparently convinced it was funny. Real comedian purists like Andy Kaufman, for example, just did what they thought was funny. If most people didn't "get it", then that was fine. No question that Andy Kaufman was a comedy genius but he would have surely bombed as an Oscar host.
To me, the idea of all the serious "actors" sitting in the audience not laughing and making it clear that they didn't approve of David Letterman's jokes is what made it even better. I get it that acting is a skill and not every body can do it. However, a lot more people can act than can successfully host a TV talk show for 20 years or do stand-up comedy. There are some good actors out there but at the same time you could also pull a hundred people off the street and at least 10 of the would probably be able to "act" without any training. It just isn't that special.
I would much rather watch a comedian bomb than sell out by taking zero chances. If the Oscars didn't want Seth Macfarlane or David Letterman, then they should have hired someone else.
I bet Quinton Taranto would really bomb as an Oscar host. But if he had been hosting last night then I would have watched.
No comments:
Post a Comment