To paraphrase host Seth Rogen, there was this show on Saturday that you didn't watch and barely knew even existed, taking place in a tent for some fucking reason. It was the Spirit Awards, aka the Independent Spirit Awards as they used to call it (we posted the winners on Saturday), and if you want to watch the antithesis of Billy Crystal's pretty tame, often anemic, and self-congratulatory Oscar monologue and jokes, this is surely it (and it's NSFW, btw).
Rogen, in his trademark cheeky "I don't really give a fuck" style swung for the fences, took no prisoners, and was the definition of irreverent (and funny to boot). His targets? The Spirits themselves ("completely inconsequential, nothing will come from this literally, nothing," he quipped), Brett Ratner and the slurs that got him fired from his Oscar gig ("without awards season we wouldn't know what a horrible bigot Brett Ratner was"), the audience ("I was committed to watching all your movies and I made it through the first five minutes of every one…some of them start pretty fucking slow") and Chris Brown and the Grammys ("you could literally beat the shit out of a nominee and they'll ask you perform twice at the Grammys"). Oh, let's not forget the pointed digs at at disgraced actor when discussing the antagonist Jews (Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks) in Nicolas Winding Refn's neo-noir drama "Drive" ("Seriously, that movie made Jews look so scary I thought Mel Gibson directed it," he said).
Overall, this is kind of the irreverence and danger that awards shows need and yet there's something about his flippant nature that didn't make any of it come across too mean-spirited (god forbid a celebrity get truly offended). A host bordering so closely to outrageous you're actually paying attention to what he might say because you might be one of his targets; gee, sounds like a damn good idea, Academy. With Ricky Gervais safely in his penalty box this year, we tip our cap to Seth Rogen for keeping celebrities on their toes, and more importantly, making us laugh. Watch below. And Seth? If Only "50/50" woulda been this funny. 😉 [via Movieline]
I love Seth….but this shit was tough to sit through…..
50/50 was excellent.
These words totally good said, just geniusly true and hilarious.
Really? *This* is how it should be done? A host that giggles uncontrollably at his own jokes regardless of their funniness and does the "fish-out-of-water-what-the-fuck-am-I-doing-here?" routine for 15 minutes? This is called a "hit and miss" at best. Sure, he had some funny ones (Mel Gibson), many others fell flat and he thought he would salvage them doing the self-conscious schtick. He is not even in the same league as Billy Crystal; that guy is a pro and he's hosted the Oscars nine times to prove it. He was smooth, effortless and charming. Was he perhaps too "traditional", poking gentle, reverential fun at the stars instead of roasting them? Yes, he was. Did he play it safe by avoiding topicality? Sure. But inferior to what Rogen appears to be doing here? Puh-lease. This looks like a cut scene from "Funny People".
This was good. Rogen was way too hard on himself. All of his 'bomb' jokes were better than anything Billy Crystal trotted out. His lack of self-confidence was the worst part of this, but at least it was a sign of the genuine nature of the performance, which is a nice contrast to the over-slick Oscar performances.
This wasn't bad, he had a few good lines. But he also had some lame ones, too, and of course the whole set-up of the awards with everyone eating and the less-sophisticated camera work and all that make it harder to seem like you're killing than at the Oscars. Nevertheless, you're crazy if you think they're ever going to try this kind of thing at the Academy Awards. 1. You can't cuss at the Oscars because it's a family show on network TV. 2. You need to be more slick and exciting than this–and despite your obvious disdain for Billy Crystal, he mostly was. 3. The Oscars are voted for by old people, are attended by the elite (and generally old) of the industry, and are watched on TV by middle-aged and old people. They don't want to see Seth Rogen cussing at the nominees or making neverending jokes about Michael Fassbender's dick. The message I've been hearing from relatives and middle-aged friends on the internet is almost uniformly, "Thank God they got someone decent like Billy Crystal to do the awards again, you always know you're in safe hands with him." I would have liked it to be a little more exciting, too, but the desire for youth and cool fell apart pretty badly last year, and it isn't really felt by people who aren't young and cool. People don't want danger and snark at the Oscars–the Oscars are a celebrated institution, an event of no mean gravity to the people involved, the only awards that really mean something, and they want to preserve that level of warmth and seriousness. Sorry if they don't say fuck enough.
Glad someone else isn't drinking the 50/50 kool-aid. Decent flick but the amount of worship its been getting is crazy.
50/50 was fantastic.
50/50 was fantastic.
Yea, that 50/50 cheap shot was lame lol.
Appreciated for this, it's more awesome to me than Oscar.
Alright Playlist, I rarely question your taste but what's your beef with 50/50?! I thought it was fantastic. JGL and Seth really impressed me.