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This ability to stay true to his comedy instincts is why he was such a daring choice to host the Academy Awards.

Many of the people in the crowd last night are the ones he has lampooned over the years. After all, his pop culture riffs have made him a celebrity. Telling the same jokes on a television show is altogether different from telling a George Clooney joke with Clooney sitting in the front row, lording over his people, the members of the Academy. I found myself remembering that this is the same George Clooney MacFarlane masterfully lampooned in an American Dad episode. MacFarlane’s willingness to tell truth (or at least crack wise) to power was the story of the evening, for better and for worse.

Generally, I felt that MacFarlane fell on the "for better" side of the ledger much more often than "for worse". Even though I am not a huge fan of his, he cracked me up several times. Yes, the William Shatner bit at the start of the show went on too long, but a lot of that had to do with Shatner’s mugging. Which bit would you have removed out of the set? We Saw Your Boobs was silly fun, the Charlize Theron/Channing Tatum dance sequence represented classic Hollywood grace, the Flight puppets had some of the funniest jokes of the show and the Sally Field/Smokey and the Bandit bit overcame some awkwardness to become wildly entertaining. There was probably a superfluous dance sequence, whether you feel that is the Rubber Tree or Be Our Guest bit, but I understand the argument in favor of each one.

Overall, there were many great ideas to start the telecast. Oddly, this is where MacFarlane’s struggles began. I presume he expected that with a few clever jokes and dance numbers, the audience would warm to him. Instead, he was treated like unwelcome medical news. I mentioned last night that using a DVR to examine slow motion shots of the crowd was entertaining. The micro-expressions MacFarlane received would have thrown anybody.

Ed Begley Jr. somehow received great seats for the show (which is probably a great story in and of itself), and his wife apparently feels the same way about MacFarlane that Begley Jr. does about carbon emissions. Samuel L. Jackson and Helen Hunt were sitting side by side on the front row, by all accounts having a smirk-off. Even Kathryn Bigelow, who was married to James Cameron long enough to learn how to hide her displeasure at aggrandizing people, shot MacFarlane some dirty looks.

MacFarlane had to have been thinking, “If they don’t like these jokes, the next four hours of my life will feel like an eternity.” And from that point forward, MacFarlane turtled a bit. The aggressive comedy that has made him a media juggernaut was neutered, and he became somewhat docile. There were a couple of valiant attempts to recover but after taking his best shot, MacFarlane accepted his grim fate. He was much better than history will remember him being. In my estimation, he deserved a better fate because this was as good as Seth MacFarlane can be. Anybody who did not like it simply does not like him and will never bend on the topic.

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