Ranting On...Neil Patrick Harris Hosting the Oscars

So, it has officially been announced that Neil Patrick Harris will be hosting this year's Oscars, and as you may have guessed, I have an opinion on this.  As I noted in my article last month, I'm not really a fan of this idea.  There are a few reasons for this-for starters, Harris generally makes the awards show all about himself.  The job of the host is really to be as funny as possible moving the movie stars onto the screen.  That's really it-while everyone complains and talks about the host the next day, the reality is that we're far more concerned over the fact that we saw Cate Blanchett or Matthew McConaughey or Jennifer Lawrence.  The show is about the public getting a chance to gawk at movie stars for the evening (and to celebrate cinema, blah blah blah).  Hosts that try to put their own spin on the Oscars are generally unsuccessful: think of someone like Chris Rock or Seth MacFarlane for two recent examples.

Secondly, it's hard not to see that the list of other contenders would have been much, much better.  If rumors are to be believed, the Academy offered both Ellen Degeneres and Julia Louis-Dreyfus the job and they both turned it down.  Ellen has proven multiple times in the past that she can do this, and I would have been fine with her hosting again-she has that nice spin of "include everyone, poke fun at everyone, make no one feel bad" that the host desperately needs.  Louis-Dreyfus has never hosted a show, but I just adore her.  She's always a hoot at awards shows, and more importantly, this is at least a risk.  With NPH, you know roughly what you're going to get; given the choice, I'll go with the awards show I don't know what to expect.

Harris also is in a movie this year that could be a major player on Oscar night, but probably won't be the major player on Oscar night.  Do we really want to listen to the host whine about losing all night?  Or how he never got nominated (as I reviewed here, he shouldn't have been)?  I don't think so.

Finally, it's time to admit that Harris has kind of worn out his welcome as a host.  His Tony and Emmy Awards gigs have all been an act of diminishing returns-the songs have the same jokes, the "I'm gay" cracks are less and less amusing, and the entire act has gotten cockier and cockier without any precise reason for them to do so.  Sure, they still have their moments, but they have little to do with Harris (think of Laura Benanti, Andrew Rannells, and Megan Hilty adding excellence to that "I'm cancelled" number at the Tonys a couple of years back).  I have to admit, barring something truly awful like Justin Timberlake hosting or MacFarlane coming back, this is probably toward the end of the "hate it" scale, and while I would never dream of skipping an Oscars, I'm not looking forward to an evening with Barney Stinson.