Ellen hosting the Oscars

[manTOman]

MrMiniver,

You are tough man!

And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, and certainly everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

 

The pizza gig - was more unpredictable than funny. So was the selfie. It's not stuff that you usually see, especially not at the Oscars. It wasn't an uptight, carefully planned moment (even though it might as well have been) and thus made it for more interesting viewing. I'm not saying order pizza every year, but the show does need some unpredictable factors to keep it from going stale. That's at least my view of it.

 

I don't think the June Squibb joke was mean spirited, because I'm not aware that she has a hearing problem, and certainly didn't seem to have trouble hearing what Ellen said the first time. Thus the joke is on us and how we treat old people.

 

The Liza joke - I see how some people can perceive it as mean spirited, but here's my take: I've heard Liza herself joke how some of her impersonators are better looking than her. I've heard Cher say the same thing. Along with these two, Madonna, Streisand and Midler have a similar following. Most of the time those impersonators are drag queens, and while I'm not a huge fan, some of them do a damn good job. Thus the joke is also a semi compliment to a huge following and popularity that Liza has.

 

Finally Ellen did joke about Jonah Hill for "showing her something she hasn't seen in a long time" in The wolf of Wall Street. (SPOILER: his penis - which BTW was a prosthetic). Then later she indirectly called him a pervert by telling him on the air "No, I don't want to see it!".

She also ridiculed education of Amy Adams - and Amy didn't seem to mind that at all, and she's certainly done better in life than a lot of people with higher level of education than her.

There were also jokes about JLaw being clumsy, Leto looking damn good as a female and McConaughey looking dirty-pretty.

 

And for the record I'm not a huge Ellen fan at all, but I don't think it's fair to say that she resorted to poking fun at old people when those were only two jokes out of many. And she did joke at the expense of all the nominees. Maybe the jokes weren't all equally funny, but they certainly were evenly spread across the generations.

 

And by the way, I'm in no way saying that your opinion is not valid, or that you're not allowed to dislike these jokes and find them distasteful. I'm just trying to tell you how I saw it, and why I hold a slightly different view.

[+ WilliamM]

Here's Liza on Ellen's comments. Liza was not pleased, but she was nice about it.

 

http://www.tmz.com/2014/03/04/liza-minnelli-ellen-degeneres-drag-queen-man-joke-oscars/

[bostonman]

I tend to think that with many of these "roast" style jokes, they would come off better in private (or in a closed event with just the industry people and friends) than in a nationwide telecast format. Unless of course the idea is that it IS a roast of a certain celeb, and then those kind of barbs are to be expected, and meant in a good-natured way. But I don't really think the Oscars are meant to be that sort of evening. Good taste is knowing what's appropriate for the moment, and what might not be. And there's no right answer to where the line is, but regardless I tend to think Ellen was daring to cross that line a bit too much. She may not have thought so, of course.

[JT Brooklyn]

Well she was a "Memorable Host" as to just what she will be remembered for Time Will Tell!

 

I'm guessing one of the Biggest Jokes on her was the fact she does not get the "Rights" to the Selfie Pix as she didn't take it according to TMZ!

[MrMiniver]

MrMiniver,

You are tough man!

And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, and certainly everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

 

The pizza gig - was more unpredictable than funny. So was the selfie. It's not stuff that you usually see, especially not at the Oscars. It wasn't an uptight, carefully planned moment (even though it might as well have been) and thus made it for more interesting viewing. I'm not saying order pizza every year, but the show does need some unpredictable factors to keep it from going stale. That's at least my view of it.

 

I don't think the June Squibb joke was mean spirited, because I'm not aware that she has a hearing problem, and certainly didn't seem to have trouble hearing what Ellen said the first time. Thus the joke is on us and how we treat old people.

 

The Liza joke - I see how some people can perceive it as mean spirited, but here's my take: I've heard Liza herself joke how some of her impersonators are better looking than her. I've heard Cher say the same thing. Along with these two, Madonna, Streisand and Midler have a similar following. Most of the time those impersonators are drag queens, and while I'm not a huge fan, some of them do a damn good job. Thus the joke is also a semi compliment to a huge following and popularity that Liza has.

 

Finally Ellen did joke about Jonah Hill for "showing her something she hasn't seen in a long time" in The wolf of Wall Street. (SPOILER: his penis - which BTW was a prosthetic). Then later she indirectly called him a pervert by telling him on the air "No, I don't want to see it!".

She also ridiculed education of Amy Adams - and Amy didn't seem to mind that at all, and she's certainly done better in life than a lot of people with higher level of education than her.

There were also jokes about JLaw being clumsy, Leto looking damn good as a female and McConaughey looking dirty-pretty.

 

And for the record I'm not a huge Ellen fan at all, but I don't think it's fair to say that she resorted to poking fun at old people when those were only two jokes out of many. And she did joke at the expense of all the nominees. Maybe the jokes weren't all equally funny, but they certainly were evenly spread across the generations.

 

And by the way, I'm in no way saying that your opinion is not valid, or that you're not allowed to dislike these jokes and find them distasteful. I'm just trying to tell you how I saw it, and why I hold a slightly different view.

 

I was just trying to convey that I thought her targets were cheap and too easy. Old people and drag queens. Not edgy, not particularly funny, way too easy. And while I agree that we all have our own opinions (and are entitled to them) I just don't see how those kinds of jokes are anything but mean-spirited. Can you imagine how a similar type joke about gay people or blacks would have gone? Not very well.

 

I like Ellen but I thought none of her hosting gig worked very well. And she screwed up and missed her marks quite a few times. The whole thing smacked of "Ted Mack's Amateur Hour" and now I really just aged myself!