The day after the Academy Awards is reserved for deep analysis of the previous night. The first thing most viewers analyze is the host.

This year, Seth MacFarlane, creator of “Family Guy,” took on the responsibility of entertaining the audience. It seems like MacFarlane fell flat.

The night consisted of a series of sexist, rude and racist jokes. Misogyny aside, what was up with the “We Saw Your Boobs” number?

MacFarlane’s jokes crossed the line a number of times include when he brought up the prospect of George Clooney getting with 9-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis, a domestic violence “joke” about Chris Brown and Rihanna, and claiming the actresses conveniently got the flu a few weeks ago to fit into their dresses.

We don’t doubt that hosting the Oscars is difficult. If you can’t always be funny, at least be tasteful. If that also fails, give Tina Fey and Amy Poehler a call. They know how to get the job done.

Here’s a look back at the hit and misses of the past few years.

2012: Billy Crystal

In 2012, Billy Crystal returned to host the Academy Awards for the ninth time, though it was his first in eight years.

Crystal’s gig was well received as he returned to formula that’s worked for him before: a witty opening monologue, a song-and-dance number, and an array of jokes that were hitting, but never too harsh.

What also helped Crystal succeed was the help he received from pals such as George Clooney, Tom Cruise and Justin Bieber, who promised him the 18-24 demographic.

2011: Anne Hathaway and James Franco

Disaster, disaster, disaster. Did we mention this was a complete disaster?

The Orlando Sentinel called the show a “disaster,” USA Today said the “pleasure diminished as the night progressed,” and others called it “boring,” “produced horribly,” and “spectacularly bad.”

“Franco seemed distant, uninterested and content to keep his Cheshire-cat-meets-smug smile on display throughout,” THR reported. Some also wondered whether Franco was stoned throughout the whole thing.

Hathaway tried to overcompensate for Franco’s extreme lack of interest but her intensity did not come off well.

2010: Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin

Does anyone even remember these two as hosts? We barely do. Them two together weren’t necessarily a disaster to the level of Anne Hathaway and James Franco, but they also were not memorable. Maybe that says enough.

2009: Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman can just flash a smile and it’s deemed perfect. Jackman’s performance was a good one. It included song, dance and a whole lot of pep.

Given his amazing performance of a Les Mis song during the 2013 Oscars, we’d love to see him back as a host.

2008: Jon Stewart

If there’s someone the Academy should bring back to the Kodak Theater, it’s Jon Stewart.

The “Daily Show with Jon Stewart” host sparked at the Oscars in 2008. He was sharp, witty and on point. He was Jon Stewart.

2008 was an election year, so Stewart fell right at home with make political jokes. It was the 80th Academy Awards and Stewart joked that Oscar should be the presidential nominee for the Republican Party.

There were a few awkward moments with pre-recorded segments in 2008. The Oscars aired right as the writers’ strike ended.

Follow Mary Ann Georgantopoulos on Twitter @marygeorgant

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Rookie Oscar host Seth MacFarlane casually slung a string of zingers at some of Hollywood’s biggest names, including a musical tribute to female frontal nudity in the movies, as he launched the Academy Awards show on Sunday on a decisively provocative note.

In an opening monologue and package of song-and-dance numbers obviously calculated to live up to, and even lampoon, his own reputation for pushing the boundaries of taste, MacFarlane put his biting, edgy brand of humor front and center.

He started off joking that best-picture front-runner “Argo,” about a real-life clandestine CIA operation to rescue American hostages from Iran, was “so top secret that the film’s director is unknown to the Academy.”

The barb was a not-so-subtle jab at members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for failing to nominate Ben Affleck as best director for the critically acclaimed film.

“They know they screwed up,” MacFarlane added, as the camera panned to a shot of Affleck, looking somewhat uncomfortable in his seat. “Ben, it’s not your fault.”

The edgy quotient quickly escalated as MacFarlane described another best-film candidate, “Django Unchained,” as the slavery-era “story of a man fighting to get back his woman who has been subjected to unthinkable violence – or as Chris Brown and Rihanna call it, a date movie.”

The punch line reference to the physical abuse involved in the relationship between the two R&B singers – Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna in 2009 – drew an audible groan from the star-studded Dolby Theatre audience.

“Oh, no, that’s what we were afraid he would do,” MacFarlane dead-panned.

More groans followed as MacFarlane went on to joke that the profanity-laced screenplay from “Django” was “loosely based on Mel Gibson’s voice mails,” an allusion to the public disclosure several years ago of ranting telephone messages the actor-director had left for his then-girlfriend.

SELF-LAMPOONING

MacFarlane’s performance should not have come as too great a surprise. The comedian, actor and singer made his mark as creator of the animated television series “Family Guy,” a show known for its ribald satire, much of it aimed at Hollywood conventions.

And MacFarlane, 39, wasted no time in sending up his own risqué persona, in a comedy bit with actor William Shatner, who joined the host on stage via a video screen in the character of Captain Kirk from the sci-fi TV and film series “Star Trek.”

In his fictional drop-in visit from the future, Shatner warns MacFarlane he is “destroying the Academy Awards” with jokes that are “tasteless and inappropriate.”

But the interlude segued into a song-and-dance number by MacFarlane showcasing his vocal chops to a tune called “We Saw Your Boobs,” in which he rhapsodically ticked off the names of various A-list Hollywood actresses who have bared their breasts in films over the years.

Admonished by Shatner to sing songs that celebrate the movies rather than mock them, MacFarlane proceeded to deliver a more respectful rendering of the showbiz standard, “The Way You Look Tonight,” joined on stage in elegant dance by actress Charlize Theron (“Snow White and the Huntsman”) and actor Channing Tatum (“Magic Mike”).

MacFarlane showed off his own dancing talents in a three-way soft-shoe number with actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Lincoln”) and “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe.

In the way that many cartoons, including MacFarlane’s own “Family Guy” series, operate on different levels for kids and their parents, this year’s Oscar telecast seemed especially designed to play to more than one TV audience.

MacFarlane’s more provocative turns were offset by some of the more traditional pomp typical of Hollywood’s biggest night, including a 50th-anniversary montage salute to James Bond films, capped by veteran singer Shirley Bassey, now 76, reprising her title song from the 1964 film “Goldfinger.”

Early reaction to MacFarlane’s performance was mixed.

In a Twitter message posted during the show, actor-comedian and former Oscar host Steve Martin commented, facetiously: “Congratulations to Seth Rogan (another comically risqué actor with the same first name as the host) on a great monologue. Old-fashioned is back! I’m in!”

CNN host Piers Morgan tweeted, “I doubt there will have ever been a more divisive #Oscars host than @SethMacFarlane – I’m loving him, others are hating it.”

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Though it tends to pull in a fifth of the audience that tunes in to the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards are still considered a television bohemoth. Some of you have even seen some of the nominated films. And though the snubs were nastier than usual this year — sorry, Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow and “Amour”’s Jean-Louis Trintignant — at least you get to see Seth MacFarlane in the flesh, not as a cartoon (though perhaps for longer than you’d like.) We look at the forthcoming ceremony from a number of fresh angles:

Rating the hosts

The choice of “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane may seem like yet another attempt by the older-skewing Oscars to appeal to the kids. The thing is, he actually has a surprising tendency toward Old Hollywood style. At parties thrown at his house, MacFarlane is even known to sing standards backed by a big band. While the jury’s still out on MacFarlane’s performance, we thought we’d see what he has to measure up to from the past few years’ shows:

2009: Hugh Jackman
Grade: 4 Globes
The Australian charmer — who happens to be a Best Actor nominee this year, for “Les Miserables” — turned in the hosting performance to beat the year “Slumdog Millionaire” won. His opening song-and-dance number was the standout, but Broadway veteran Jackman proved he’s an all-around talent.

2010: Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin
Grade: 2 Globes
The likeable comic actors relied heavily on their own charm, but it wasn’t enough to save the show. With stale jokes and awkward delivery, their performance felt too much like an ad for their equally disappointing 2009 film, “It’s Complicated.”

2011: James Franco and Anne Hathaway
Grade: 1 Globe
As we remarked during this train wreck, “Apparently there is something James Franco can’t do.” This brazen attempt at pulling in younger viewers turned out to be a disaster, with current nominee Hathaway seemingly abandoned by Franco, who seemed to have given up on the endeavor before it began.

2012: Billy Crystal
Grade: 2 Globes
After the Franco/Hathaway disaster, the Academy went back to standby Crystal, hosting his ninth Oscars. But the funnyman’s schtick maybe went too old-fashioned, as his bits were generally panned as hokey and out of touch. Case in point: While many in that precious younger demographic might not necessarily know Crystal was dressing up as Sammy Davis Jr. in one bit, they do know what blackface looks like.

Daniel Day-Lewis may win his third Oscar for playing some president in “Lincoln.”
Credit: Reuters

The odds are …
With odds of 4 to 1, Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” is still the favorite to win the big prize of Best Picture at the Academy Awards Sunday, according to Gold Derby, which tracks the chances for Oscar nominees. That’s despite the surge of support — and wins at other awards shows — for Ben Affleck’s “Argo.” The surge started when Affleck was left out of the Best Director race, which Spielberg is also most likely to take, with 12 to 5 odds.

In the acting categories, it’s no surprise to anyone that “Lincoln” star Daniel Day-Lewis is most likely on his way to becoming the first three-time Best Actor winner in Oscar history, with a 39 percent chance of victory. The only nominee with better odds of scoring a trophy is Anne Hathaway, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for “Les Miserables.” The Best Actress race is much more interesting, with “Silver Linings Playbook” star Jennifer Lawrence (33 percent) edging out “Zero Dark Thirty”’s Jessica Chastain (30 percent).

“Life of Pi” made the most money out of all the Best Picture nominees.

Best Picture nominees by box office

It’s no secret in Hollywood that awards season accolades and box office success don’t always go hand in hand — though a high-profile nomination or win will generally boost a film’s gross. So how do the nine Best Picture nominees rank as far as their global ticket sales?

1. Life of Pi: $576 million
2. Les Miserables: $378.9 million
3. Django Unchained: $365.9 million
4. Lincoln: $235 million
5. Argo: $204 million
6. Silver Linings Playbook: $140 million
7. Zero Dark Thirty: $101.5 million
8. Amour: $17 million
9. Beasts of the Southern Wild: $12 million

On the flip side, we take a look at how the highest grossing films of 2012 stack up when it comes to Oscar nominations:

1. The Avengers ($1.5 billion) — 1 nomination
2. Skyfall ($1.1 billion) — 5 nominations
3. The Dark Knight Rises ($1.08 billion) — 0 nominations
4. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ($959.8 million) — 3 nominations
5. Ice Age: Continental Drift ($875.3 million) — 0 nominations

Bryan Cranston, right, says his wife wants to go to the Oscars more than he does

Bryan Cranston on the joys of awards season
If you see “Breaking Bad” and “Argo” star Bryan Cranston at Sunday’s Academy Awards, know that he’s not there of his own volition. “First of all, I wouldn’t go. If I’m not nominated, why am I there?” he tells Metro. “They want me to go the Oscars. I’m not nominated, but ‘Argo’ is, and it’s like, ‘Go, go, go!’ My wife’s saying, ‘You’ve got to go! We’ve got to go!’ And it’s like, ‘Really? I don’t know. Another tuxedo?’ From the outside in, you’re like, ‘Wow! Look at that!’ But when you’re there, I’m telling you … I’ve got to be careful how I phrase this because I don’t want to sound like I’m not grateful. I’m grateful for the opportunities.”

It’s not sitting through the shows themselves that bug Cranston so much as working the red carpets. “I hate red carpet interviews, because you get as a deep into a conversation as you would in a loud bar,” he says. “It’s awful, it’s awful. The publicists, they tell me it’s important and you should do it, but any time I go, I ask, ‘Can I avoid the red carpet?’”

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