Ever see that video of Seth Rogen doing stand-up comedy as a 13-year old? OK, great. Because, oddly, it’s exactly the same as Seth Rogen now. Like he isn’t that funny! Sorry! Winning, yes. Charming, yes. Funny? Sigh.
That isn’t to say the man can’t land some zingers.
Here he is hosting the Independent Spirit Awards! I like the Spirit Awards a lot. You can hear people eating, and it’s very much more like prom. Seth Rogen curses a lot! He’s really uncomfortable!
Here’s a joke I liked: “I was committed to watching all your movies—that’s one of the things you have to do when you host—and I made it through the first five minutes of every single one of them. And, uh, some of ’em start pretty slow! I will tell you that right now! Pretty f—king slow!”
But Rogen will be better remembered for his takedown of Chris Brown (it’s at 5:25). The joke:
“I honestly bet, though, that Brett Ratner really wishes that he was organizing the Grammys, because they seem much more forgiving than the Oscars altogether. Seriously. You say a few hateful things, they don’t let you within a hundred yards of the Oscars. You could literally beat the shit out of a nominee, they ask you to perform twice at the Grammys.”
And as soon as he lands his punchline, check out Patricia Clarkson! She is freaking out! That woman hates Chris Brown! (Kirsten Dunst is more like “oh, my God,” but Kirsten Dunst is always like that in the face of controversy, grabbing her pearls and promising whoever is sitting nearby that she completely disapproves.)
Finally, John C. Reilly’s hat! Hi there, John’s hat!
Erm. The Oscars keep on awarding Roman Polanski, even though he raped a minor. Same for Woody Allen. Seth Rogen himself raped Anna Faris on one of his films (“Observe and Report”), and then went on to say that date rape is “funny”. I think he should shut the fuck up and stop pretending he cares about women because quite frankly, with the shit that happens on his films you can tell he doesn’t consider women to be sentient human beings. He was just trying to jump on the bandwagon.
I don’t know. I think you could also reframe the joke as, “You know, in the music industry, we barely punish bad behavior. In fact, in the music industry it’s rewarded! Like, a lot!” It’s hard for actors to recover publicly from any perceived wrongdoing the way singers and musicians do, and let’s be real, Polanski will never really recover. He is a pariah. In some ways, society works.
But with music? Eh. The only career-killing I can think of is New Kids on the Block. Their moment was passing anyway, I guess, but I remember they really ruined their image after reports emerged that they’d trashed a hotel room. Like, in that isolated case, the “bad boy” schtick wasn’t “cool.”
woody allen just won an oscar and no bad press…ever
i dont see where it evens out…….
Sean Penn famously put Madonna’s head in an oven when they were together, Woody Allen married his daughter… I guess for NKOTB it didn’t work because they had that good, wholesome vibe, like the Backstreet Boys, and that incident alienated them from their public. The Rolling Stones or any rock band for that matter haven’t had any problem getting away with unjustifiable behaviour.
That is the first thing that Seth Rogen has done that I have ever liked.
Patricia Clarkson file! Come on!!!