Now that time has passed and the dust has settled from the Academy Awards telecast earlier this year, co-producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan are able to look back on the telecast they put together and judge whether the show, and its polarizing host Seth MacFarlane, were successful. Needless to say, they think everything went well, and those who didn’t like MacFarlane and his degrading humor were wrong and just didn’t get it.
In other words, it’s your fault MacFarlane wasn’t funny.
Opening up to The Hollywood Reporter in Manhattan over the weekend, Meron and Zadan told the trade that they believed MacFarlane “did the job that we wanted him to do,” and that one criticism they heard after the show is that he didn’t push the envelope far enough.
People have complained for years and years that the Oscars were becoming irrelevant,” Meron said. “And I think what we did this year is to really make them part of the cultural conversation, and I think that's the important part that people will take away."
Oh, there was plenty of conversation about MacFarlane’s performance, particularly his opening-show musical number about topless scenes from famous actresses. You don’t remember it? Well, watch it one more time:
On that now infamous number, Meron points the finger back at us, saying:
It was not about the women that were mentioned, the song was about him being a bad host and him being a juvenile, which was why he was a bad host. … Everyone who complained missed the joke. It was satire.”
Of course they have to say that, but do you agree? Was it satire? Share your thoughts on the Oscar co-producers’ comments below.
