Ruining stuff is what Seth MacFarlane does best. Animation, 20th Century popular music, teddy bears… You name it, he can leave an indelible, foul-smelling stain on it.
Now he’s screwing up the easiest thing in the world: Making a Hitler joke.
The Academy made the rare choice this year of having ceremony host Seth MacFarlane also announce the Oscar nominees, giving viewers a taste of what’s to come February 24. And that taste elicited some laughs, some wariness, and a lot of genuine discomfort from all around the world of Hollywood…
After he and actress Emma Stone unveiled the foreign language film nominees, MacFarlane said: “I read Amour was co-produced in Austria and Germany, right? The last time Austria got together and co-produced something it was Hitler, but this is much better.”
Why bother going to all the trouble of crafting a Hitler joke? Merely saying the word “Hitler” is the joke. Comedy Writing the Seth MacFarlane Way!
Not that I can do much better. The best I could come up with was: “I read Amour was co-produced in Austria and Germany, right? The last time those two countries collaborated on something, Spielberg finally won Best Director.” Ehhhh.
Speaking of horrifying events in world history, MacFarlane would’ve been on American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11, 2001, but he was hung over and missed his flight. Mark Wahlberg was supposed to be on that plane too, but he ended up taking a different flight. Say what you want about Osama Bin Laden, but at least he did his best to prevent Ted.