I responded to the news about Seth MacFarlane hosting the 85th Oscars with a “who? Oh yeah, yeah, right…Ted director, Family Guy guy….got it.” It was a little more exciting than if Todd Louiso had been named to host but somewhat less exciting if, say, Judd Apatow or David Gordon Green had been chosen. No, take that back — McFarlane is better than Green. But he’s less enticing than Jon Stewart or David Letterman.

McFarlane was hired because Ted (which he directed, produced, co-wrote and voiced) made $434 million worldwide. He’s a noodnik voice actor and sometime impressionist-comedian (he was moderately okay on SNL a while back and is always terrific on Real Time with Bill Maher), but he’s basically a behind-the-camera guy — let’s be frank. If you ask me he’s more of a hip and irreverent conversationalist than a “performer” per se. If you were rolling in the aisles as you watched Ted, you might be down with this. A voice is telling me that Hitfix guys Kris Tapley and Drew McWeeny are levitating with delight…no?

This is about as GenX and GenY-friendly a choice as you can imagine. McFarlane is the un-Billy Crystal — a no-offense-but-fuck-you choice for all the squares and boomers out there who’ve never watched Family Guy.

I was going to call this post “Irreverent, Buttfuck-Approving, 9/11 Lampooning Atheist To Host Oscars” but I thought better of it.

McFarlane was booked on the first flight that hit the South Tower on 9.11 (i.e., the one that Berry Berenson was on). A Family Guy plot came out of that:

Bill O’Reilly: “This guy is a hater…I think you gotta call him out”: