'Oscar' producers on Boobs Song: "You missed the joke"

There was a fair amount of grumbling and rustled-feathers following Seth MacFarlane’s hosting gig at this year’s Oscar’s, and a lot of the controversy was aimed at his seemingly low-brow humour. MacFarlane came under a lot of fire from critics, bloggers and other special interest groups for his jokes, but Oscar producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan have come to McFarlane’s defense.

"We were really really proud of Seth MacFarlane, he did an amazing job,” Meron said Saturday at the GLAAD awards in Manhattan. "He did the job at we wanted him to do. Seth is irreverent, he comments on things that happen in our culture, and that's what he did and we thought he did an extraordinary job."

One of the most highly criticized moments of the show was MacFarlane’s “Boobs Song”, in which he sang about various female actresses topless scenes. I personally (as a female) was not offended in the slightest by this bit of comedy, and Zadan says that the critics who were did not understand the bit. "It was not about the women that were mentioned, the song was about him being a bad host and him being a juvenile, which was why he was a bad host."

"Everyone who complained missed the joke, it was satire," Meron said.

"I spoke to somebody yesterday and they were disappointed that he didn't go further," Zadan continued. "So you can't really gauge; somebody thinks it's too much, some people think it’s just enough... he brought in the youngest demos that the Oscars have ever had.”

What did you think of MacFarlane’s “Boobs Song”? Do you think audiences and critics have taken his jokes too seriously?