Ladowski 1 Luke Ladowski Dr.

Erin Dietel-McLaughlin Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric 23 April 2013 The Worst Oscar Host Ever? The red carpet, the flashy gowns and sharp tuxes, the elegant design of the enormous stage, all contribute to one of the greatest events of the year, the Oscars. The Academy Awards is one of the most prestigious events on television. Stars from all over the world come to honor the greatest movies made during the season. But its more than just handing out a little golden man to the winners. Its a show. And every year the host is in charge of creating a large portion of the entertainment. That entertainment almost always contains humor. The host will open with jokes and funny comments or a creative and humorous way of summing up the most impressive movies filmed. But keep in mind that the humor cant be tasteless. This is a formal event with very influential people in attendance and millions more watching. This year, the writers decided to take a different spin. The jokes were crude and not very family friendly. Some can argue they were borderline insulting and inappropriate. This different approach can be explained through the Incongruity Theory as defined by D.H. Monro. It can explain why the jokes Seth MacFarlane used were actually humorous and that people who thought they were inappropriate may have not understood the intention. This means Mr. McFarlane was not actually The Worst Host Ever. D.H. Monro defines the Incongruity Theory as, The abrupt intrusion into the attitude of something that is felt not to belong there. The reason an audience will find a situation like this funny is the absurdity of the situation. The fact that something doesnt belong typically makes

Ladowski 2 the entire joke or situation impossible enough that people understand it is a joke and laugh. Monro also claims that, What is essential to humor is the mingling of two ideas which are felt to be utterly disparate. One or the other may be "degraded" in the process; but this is incidental. He is accurate in his proposal that humor comes from a situation of mixing parts that dont mix. In the case of the Oscars, the two portions that shouldnt have been mixed were the inappropriate jokes and the formal atmosphere of an extravagant event. The inappropriate jokes in effect somewhat degraded the Oscars reputation of formality, which is consistent with Monros theory. The only part left to question was would the audience find the mix humorous or tasteless? Ideally, the viewers would laugh. According to the definition of the Incongruity Theory, this is a humorous situation. The drastic mix should also enhance the humor of the performance. Monro supports this by stating, Humor is more penetrating when it brings to light a real connection between two things normally regarded with quite different attitudes. At times Seth MacFarlanes jokes were slightly racist, sexist, and explicit. But these are real world issues. So to bring them into a world of high class that stereotypically doesnt pay attention to these mundane issues is humorous, and at the same time rhetorical. The jokes should have made the audience laugh and think. One joke, or skit rather, was very explicit. Seth MacFarlane sang a song entitled We Saw Your Boobs. It was a litany in lyrical form of all the times that actresses revealed their breasts on film. It was catchy and light hearted. The audience laughed. However, critics such as Katherine Lanpher claim that the direct and blatant mention of the female anatomy made the opening number nothing more than a juvenile ditty. Her position is that misogyny such as this is a large reason why women only account for 33 percent of all characters in top-grossing

Ladowski 3 films. She believes lack of respect like We Saw Your Boobs maintains the male centered culture that todays Hollywood is. To her this was a failed attempt at humor. Her argument is understandable, yet there is one major flaw. Seth MacFarlane was singing about real events. In movies, women do indeed reveal their breasts. If they really wanted to they could say no. But instead they are willing to do it. Mr. MacFarlane wasnt being misogynist. He was stating facts; being profound even. The only category this joke can fall into is inappropriate. Inappropriateness is what the writers were aiming at. Monro addresses this fine line between appropriate and inappropriate topics in humor in his following argument, Humor, according to incongruity theories, may be said to consist in the finding of the inappropriate within the appropriate. MacFarlanes song fits perfectly here. It has become appropriate, whether people approve or not, for women to show their breasts in films. The host acknowledged this and made an inappropriate reference to an appropriate topic. The only reason the reference was inappropriate was simply because the setting was so formal. It was an incongruity. Another controversial Macfarlane joke was one pertaining to homophobia. After singing with a gay choir, He clarified that he wasnt actually a part of that choir. He wanted to make sure people knew he wasnt gay. He appears to be looking down on it by not wanting to associate with it. Then a few seconds later, a man informs MacFarlane that he joins the choir in a few years. This revelation generated a laugh from the crowd. There are negative stereotypes surrounding homosexuality and in todays society, it is still looked down on. Monro says, The humorist drags into light the inconvenient facts which shatter these attitudes and puncture these stereotypes, claiming that jokes not only produce laughs, but also serve as a means for directing attention to serious issues. Once again Seth MacFarlane brought to light a serious issue through an inappropriate joke. He did not want to be considered gay. The audience then assumed he

Ladowski 4 wasnt gay. Then the incongruity theory comes into play by MacFarlane turning out to be gay in a few years. It inspired a laugh. This joke is another rhetorical piece. MacFarlane didnt want to be gay. Theres a negative connotation with it. Why? The audience might realize that this joke is more profound than just self-deprecating humor. A final example of an inappropriate joke made by Seth MacFarlane is when he accidentally confused Denzel Washington with Eddie Murphy. Its slightly racist by the subliminal message of all black people look alike or they are all the same. While this is obviously not true, it is unfortunately a relevant ideology in America. Mr. MacFarlane has another rhetorical joke in his repertoire for the night. Peter McGraw would claim that this joke would actually fall into the Benign-Violation Theory. This theory separates a joke into a benign part and a violation. The violation here is the racist remark. Racism is rude and offensive, so public display is a violation of social morals. The benign part of this joke would be that it is part of a skit created by a comedian. His intentions were purely comical and in no way represented an attack on African Americans. This is a very good argument. But its not why people laughed in this situation. It can explain why racist jokes can be humorous. But it doesnt explain why this particular situation was humorous. Why would a group of higher-class individuals laugh at an inappropriate joke? Its because it wasnt expected. That particular type of humor doesnt appear on this type of stage. Its out of place and therefore gets a much bigger laugh. McGraws theory can only explain why some people didnt laugh. They must not have found the negating setting as an intended joke as benign enough to render a laugh. But people did laugh, so the better example of why they did is that the incongruity of a racist joke in such a public and high class event is absurd.

Ladowski 5 Obviously there are critics of Seth Macfarlanes work. Numerous women found his sexist comments too blatant. Many felt that his target audience was too similar to his audience in his other comedy gigs. The Oscars are an elegant and high-class event. The humor should follow suit. And for the most part, the past Oscars have done just that. Using appropriate humor and sensible jokes is what previous years hosts have done. This year, Seth MacFarlane ignored that tradition. And it worked. The stars in attendance had much praise for the host. Russell Crowe commented, Congratulations, Seth, you did great mate, handled it all with grace. The reason they thought it was funny was because of the incongruity theory. Year after year the audience goes through the same style of humor. This year the humor didnt belong. Some of it didnt match the setting. And that added degree of variance is why people laugh. The incongruity theory proved to be imperative to Mr. MacFarlanes strategy. And because he was successful, Seth MacFarlane is not the worst Oscar host ever.

Ladowski 6 Works Cited "The Banality of Seth MacFarlane's Sexism and Racism at the Oscars." The Atlantic. Ed. Spencer Kornhaber. The Atantic, 25 Feb. 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. The Benign Violation Theory of Humor. By Peter McGraw and Caleb Warren. YouTube. Colorado Leeds, 26 Aug. 2010. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. Lanpher, Katherine. "Seth MacFarlane's Oscar Jokes Were Bad, but They're Just Part of a Bigger Problem." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 27 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. MacFarlane, Seth. "85th Academy Awards." Oscars. ABC. ABC, New York City, 24 Feb. 2013. Television. Monro, D. H. "Monro's "Theories of Humor"" Monro's "Theories of Humor" Foresman and Company, 1988. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.