Why does anyone care if the Oscars succeed in attracting a demographic they've been lagging with? Especially if the joke breaks one of the primary rules of comedy: laugh with victims, not at them; laugh at the powerful, not with them.

Attracting a posse of mouth-breathing heterosexual dudes may in fact be a good business decision, but who gives a shit?

There was a time when it seemed that in order to win the academy award for best actress you HAD to show your boobs or at least some skin. Check out this run:

'97 - Helen Hunt (no boobs, but a nude bathtub scene)
'98 - Gwyneth Paltrow
'99 - Hillary Swank
'00 - Julia Roberts (never saw this one - I assume there were no boobs, but she was definitely designed to look her “sluttiest” - even more so than Pretty Woman)
'01 - Halle Berry
'02 - Nicole Kidman for the Hours (didn't see it and I have no idea)
'03 - Charlize Theron

That's 6 out of 7 in a row where the actress who won showed more skin than she ever had before. Maybe in the current era of nudity-on-demand internet, it's no longer “brave” to go topless?

Maybe not the best Oscar moment, but I'm willing to give McFarlane a pass on any PC-related criticism considering the Academy has their own history of objectification in the name of high art.