Photo used under Creative Commons license from commons.wikimedia.org
Ever since “funny guy” Seth MacFarlane went too far with jokes about women, Jews, domestic abuse, African-Americans and even Abraham Lincoln at last year’s Oscars, I’ve been hesitant about awards show hosts. Luckily, last Sunday, when Neil Patrick Harris hosted the Emmys, my faith in awards show hosts was restored.
Harris is a veteran awards show host — in fact, the show poked fun at this by staging a hosting intervention with his “How I Met Your Mother” cast mates. The sketch exemplified how to make fun of other people, including yourself, in a tasteful manner.
People often say that because I am a feminist I don’t have a sense of humor. While sometimes, I will admit, I do look at things with a more critical eye than others would, that’s not to say I can’t take a joke poking fun at women or others for that matter — as long as it’s tasteful.
I believe that the opening act and monologue of an awards show is what sets the tone for the rest of the night. Harris’ opening act and monologue was filled with jokes about women, African Americans, gays and others.
While talking about the show “Orange is the New Black,” Harris said that Paula Deen refers to the show as “Orange is the New African American.” Yes he brought the issue of race up, but I found the joke to be directed toward Paula Deen rather than African Americans.
During the opening act, past hosts of the show — including Jimmy Kimmel, Jane Lynch, Jimmy Fallon and Conan O’Brien — appeared on stage to say why they weren’t asked back and to give Harris tips. When Lynch appeared on stage, she said that she wasn’t asked back because she was a woman and Harris responded, “No one thought you were a woman that night.” Did this offend me? Nope. People need to know how to make fun of themselves and I don’t think Jane Lynch would tolerate anything worse.
When Jimmy Fallon appeared on stage, he told Harris that he should tap dance and even did a dance himself. Harris’ response was, “I’m not going to do any dance, that’s far too gay.” I feel like Harris got off the hook with this joke because he is gay and was making fun of himself, which is humbling, but if anyone else said this, they would have been attacked by the press the next day.
After Harris kicked everyone off the stage, he asked if anyone else had any more advice and of course, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were sitting in the front row with popcorn and 3D glasses. The two yelled at him to take his pants off and twerk — a reference to Miley Cyrus’ performance at the VMAs. Harris replied, “Twerking would be degrading,” and Poehler answered, “It would be degrading but we would be degrateful.” Well played Amy, well played.
Like I said, the opening act sets the tone for the rest of the evening. Although there were some moments where I had to think things over, like when Harris said “Jimmy Kimmel is excited to present the next award with them, I mean her, ladies and gentleman Jimmy Kimmel and Sofia Vergara.” Sadly, there will always be a comment about Vergara’s chest and at least it wasn’t a musical number like “I Saw Your Boobs.” Overall, the night was pretty tasteful.
To the future hosts of upcoming awards shows, learn some lessons from Harris, it’ll save your reputation in the long-run.
