General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If you are the member of a privileged group AND call yourself progressive [View all]Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)I'll grant that the bit was poorly done -- clearly because we're having this conversation, it means that MacFarlane and whoever else was responsible for the bit didn't do a good job in directing the satire toward its intended target. I don't think the actresses themselves took offense (Charlize Theron did a pre-recorded bit, so she was in on the joke), but the fact remains that other people watching the bit clearly were NOT in on it and believed it to be mockery directed at the actresses and not the system. MacFarlane could have done better.
The only point I would like to make is that I honestly and truly don't believe Seth MacFarlane meant any disrespect to the actresses. The more I read about the guy (and I've learned more about him in the past four days than I ever dreamed possible), the more he looks like a decent enough guy with an extremely edgy sense of humor. He's not Bob Hope, that much you can be sure of. But Bob Hope was also a right wing tool, whereas MacFarlance seems to be pretty much on our side.