Seth McFarlane & Misplaced Outrage

Posted on March 4, 2013 by elizabeth

Last week, Seth McFarlane hosted the Oscars and we got very outraged about it. Seth McFarlane was Sexist! Insensitive! OMG! HE SANG ABOUT BOOBS! I Am Outraged. And I will Rant About This On Twitter Because That Changes Things.

Ok. Hold up a sec.

Seth McFarlane is the reason Seth McFarlane was hired to host the Oscars.

Seth McFarlane is just the hired-hand. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t the power broker. The Academy hired McFarlane to bring in younger viewers. And it worked. From what I read yesterday, viewership in the highly coveted 18-35 category was up 11%.

So, here’s the thing: ranting about Seth McFarlane accomplishes nothing. Getting outraged about a comic is pretty much the punchline. Seth McFarlane is a comic. A comic. If I get mad at him, I become part of the joke.

McFarlane was hired because his humor is funny to dudes aged 18-35. Period. I mean, we can be offended all we want but the real problem is not Seth McFarlane.

Seth McFarlane’s jokes were aimed at a generation of people who grew up in broken homes, whose idea of “family” is a cobbled-together assortment of friends: gamer buddies, Facebook “friends” and friends with benefits.

If Seth McFarlane is funny it’s because the center of American life is no longer the church and family. The center of American life is pleasure and entertainment.

The real problem is not Seth McFarlane. The real problem is that we live in a culture of divorce, a culture of death, a culture that is increasingly utilitarian: if you don’t serve some productive purpose, you are worthless.

So, if we’re going to be outraged and offended, we need to closely examine the ways we all contribute to the problem. How do we practice sex? How do we treat marriage and family? Is sex primarily about pleasure and recreation? Are children and family optional side-effects?

How do we practice marriage? As a sacrament? As the foundational building block of stable society or as an outdated relic of bygone times?

If McFarlane was offensive, it was only because he was willing to expose to us our true, American values: that everyone does what is pleasing in their own eyes.

And that is no laughing matter.

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  • http://www.kellyjyoungblood.com/ Kelly J Youngblood

    I didn’t watch it, because I don’t have much of an interest in awards shows (and I never see any movies anyway…). I saw a lot of the outrage but I didn’t have a frame of reference for it because, as I said, I didn’t watch it. I think you make some good points about what we value in our culture though.

  • Melanie

    Yes! This. Is. Awesome.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ron-Kerns/100000658746013 Ron Kerns

    and, from what I have read…that was his first and only Oscars show….he’s done….not coming back

    (meanwhile, his show, “the family guy” is on several times a day, and is more “rude and crude” than an Oscar’s show ever could be)……
    Seth was just being Seth on the show…and, no, I didn’t like it either…but, yes, I watched it, because I am an avid movie goer….

  • Jennifer

    Yes, exactly. I’ve never had much interest in award shows so I didn’t watch the Oscars, but I never get why Christians expect non-Christians to have the same values as we do and then get all outraged or surprised when they don’t. I am saddened, however, when I think about how far gone our culture is. So many empty people, who think that “cool” and “meaningful” are synonymous.

    • Mistie Holler

      I’m not sure it’s fair to call people empty for finding certain things funny. Humor is very, very subjective. Ask everyone who thought MacFarlane was funny if they also thought he was meaningful. I doubt they’ll say yes.

      • Anonymous

        Jennifer is not calling people empty because they like a particular type of humor. People are empty because they don’t have Jesus. Even Christians don’t all have the same values. That is why there are so many so-called Christians taking part in obviously unedifying stuff.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ron-Kerns/100000658746013 Ron Kerns

    even “non Christians” were disappointed/outraged
    at his “performance”….and, the guy got “Gonged”….

  • fancystephanie

    I actually thought it was funny. I wasn’t offended. But then, I watch “Family Guy” all the time, and I think that show is awesome.
    For the record, I’m a happily married 25 year old Lutheran female, and I grew up independent fundamental Baptist.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ron-Kerns/100000658746013 Ron Kerns

      I did like the “Von Trapp Family” schtick…right before Christopher Plummer came out…

  • KatR

    Seth McFarlane is one of the most successful writers in Hollywood. He is not an intern. Interns don’t get chosen to host the Oscars. And yes, his hiring by the Academy producers to deliver the message that boobies exposed during rape scenes in movies (or in the case of Scarlett Johansson, images stolen from her email and distributed with out her consent), are high-larious is indicative of a Hollywood culture that doesn’t value women. But saying that McFarlane (again, successful, powerful writer) should be exempt for being the mouthpiece is like saying that Mark Driscoll should get a pass for being the public face of the misogynistic version of Christianity.

    • Anonymous

      I’m not giving McFarlane a “free pass” but I am saying that outrage alone isn’t enough. Anyone and everyone can react. But we need to go deeper than outrage. Outrage alone is a poor source for creating better ideas, better art, fairer treatment and equality. We need change rooted in love. And that has to start with me.

      • Mistie Holler

        I understood what you meant. MacFarlane is just the most visible face of a wider cultural problem.
        And I’ll add that Twitter is a black hole of impotent, self-regarding mob outrage. I hate it.

  • http://twitter.com/byzcathwife priest’s wife

    yes yes yes

  • Amanda

    I was an atheist for awhile, and I couldn’t stand him, or Bill Maher. Both of them cross the line several times. You don’t have to believe it, you don’t have to like the concepts or even the believers, but you DO HAVE TO HAVE RESPECT!

  • Madge

    I am not outraged about the stupid boob song. I mean I don’t like that, and it totally contributes to the rape culture we live in, but that is consistent with his frat boy “humor”. i’m outraged that he called a nine year old black girl a loser.

  • colleen

    I watched the show… and cringed at some things, laughed at some things, and got “like, seriously offended!!” at others. But did that surprise me? Nooo way.

    In fact, i thought it would have been even worse. Look at his creative track record! I’ve seen his shows and more than once have had to turn them off out of disgust. But unlike me, the majority of people LOVE that stuff. Consumers are the ones that keep this guy going, and keep him pushing and pushing “comedic” irreverence.

    When all the outrage and huffing and puffing erupted after the Oscars i kept thinking: Were people REALLY that surprised? What the heck were they expecting?? If they didn’t want Family Guy-style humor they shouldn’t have let him host the oscars!

    Anyway…i think the media is just so ridiculous. It doesn’t know what it wants. It creates entities, grows them, and pushes things and glorifies things, and then punishes them when they put them on display.

    I’m not necessarily defending McFarlane, i think he’s out of line and i pray for the guy. I’m just so sick of the hypocrisy of the media/showbusiness/academy/MPAA whatever form you want to put it in. You can’t claim no lines or boundaries and then freak out when people cross them.

    Meh. And now i’ve already spent too much energy writing about something that i claim to not even care about. Ha! Thanks A LOT Elizabeth! Way to get me riled up! ;)

  • http://www.suzielind.com/ Suzie Lind

    A well stated and very depressing truth.

  • Anonymous

    The whole point of this blog entry is your last 3-4 paragraphs. But you have to have the prelude in order to have the ending make sense.

    How many times does it say in the Bible that people did what was pleasing in their own eyes? So sad, but that is the way humans are bent. Unfortunately, I’m not so sure our churches are helping to unbend. The questions you asked are rarely, if ever, discussed. Maybe in a small group setting.

    It is sad that something that should be a normal part of life has the good side hidden away and is exposed when it shows the bad side. “Teach your children well. (Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young)”