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The 85th annual Academy Awards are in the books, and now is the moment when everyone reflects upon the evening’s events. Suffice to say that like usual, people were ultimately dissatisfied. In this column, I will evaluate the awards results themselves as well as the hosting of Seth MacFarlane, the various presenters and scripted sequences and my overall impressions of the show.

For the second time in three years, the producers of the Academy Awards attempted to freshen up the stale nature of the show by selecting a host who appeals to a younger demographic. The rationale for the decision is straightforward. Even though the average age of an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences member is 62, people under 30 have only marginal interest in the show as a general rule. Attempting to attract these viewers has been a treacherous path. Two years ago, James Franco’s stoner hijinks instantly became a part of the show’s folklore as Anne Hathaway struggled to survive the experience. She very well may have won an Academy Award last night for being such a good sport back then.

Despite the prior hosting fiasco, Seth MacFarlane was selected because the creator of Family Guy, American Dad and the other sitcom nobody can name is an iconic figure to the under-30 crowd. His popularity was undeniable last summer when Ted became the least likely $200+ million domestic performer since Wedding Crashers in 2005. I put a great deal of thought into the apt comparison for the Ted situation. The reason I selected Wedding Crashers is that in light of its success, people like Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn became frequent participants in Academy Awards ceremonies, generally with disastrous results. Note that none of them appeared last night. The reason why is that with Seth MacFarlane hosting, the prevailing belief is that other hit-or-miss comedians like him would be superfluous. MacFarlane was given every opportunity to excel or fail on his own.

Personally, I have never been a huge fan of MacFarlane’s work. I am one of those painfully few people who enjoy American Dad much more than Family Guy. The former program at least attempts to have a main story each episode. The latter sitcom delivers too low a signal to noise ratio to keep me entertained most of the time. I felt the same way about Ted although I enjoyed it more than the usual Family Guy episode because a lot of the Flash Gordon stuff was inspired. The debits and credits of Ted reflect MacFarlane’s sense of humor. When he’s funny, he’s hilarious and when he’s not, lengthy awkwardness ensues.

To wit, when people discuss their favorite Family Guy gag, the random chicken fights are inevitably the topic of conversation. What I would note instead is the frequent cutaways to Conway Twitty. The purposeless appearances are the brand of humor that defines Seth MacFarlane, for better and for worse. If he likes a joke, he will relish in it independent of whether the people surrounding him agree.

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