Your New Oscar Host: MacFarlane's Funny … and Categorically Liberal

Seth MacFarlane wasn’t an obvious choice to host next year’s Academy Awards telecast.

He’s known primarily for creating Fox’s animated hit show “Family Guy,” and his time in front of the camera is limited to occasional Comedy Central roasts and a recent gig hosting “Saturday Night Live.”

It’s still a shrewd gamble. There’s no other “It” comic who demands getting the honor. Billy Crystal proved last year that he can’t top his own great performances. Past hosts, from Jon Stewart to David Letterman, simply didn’t do the gig justice.

Oh, and did we mention he can carry a tune?

Conservatives should still be leery of what the liberal MacFarlane will bring to an already perilously progressive broadcast.

• Here’s MacFarlane weighing in on the Arizona immigration law which roiled the nation back in 2010:

“Nobody but the Nazis ever asked anybody for their papers,” MacFarlane told Reuters Television. “Walking down the street, a cop can come up to you and say ‘May I see your papers?’ — I think they should be required to ask that question in German if the law sticks around.”

• His signature series “Family Guy” dedicated an entire episode to trashing the Tea Party.
• He had no problem speaking in crude sexual terms about Christine O’Donnell, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress two years ago.
• The comic creator used “Family Guy” to attack the Palin family, going so far as to use Trig Palin, who has Down Syndrome, indirectly to the show’s comic advantage.

We’d be remiss not to mention a more positive note on MacFarlane, an episode in which he put ideology aside to bring smiles to children’s faces – specifically the late Andrew Breitbart’s children.