Jonathan Ross Won't Host Hugo Awards, After Fan Outcry Sets Twitter Alight

[Karloff]

Jonathan Ross Won't Host Hugo Awards, After Fan Outcry Sets Twitter Alight

Bad choice for toastmaster? Possibly, but who will replace Jonathan Ross?

This year's Hugo Awards, to be held at Worldcon in London this August, is short one celebrity host. Jonathan Ross, comedian and television presenter, volunteered his time gratis but soon withdrew after the announcement of his appointment set Twitter on fire. "If Ross is toastmaster, I can predict that at least one major Hugo nominee/past winner [Charles Stross [http://www.seananmcguire.com/], creator of the Laundry Files, "because Ross has past form for using women with weight issues as the butt of his humour. She says she doesn't feel safe, and I believe her."

on-air radio prank call [https://twitter.com/loncon3/status/439776404876832768]. Two radio executives and Russell Brand resigned over that one, while Ross was suspended for three months.

"It wasn't pleasant having people camp outside my house, and it wasn't pleasant people using me as a whipping boy," said Ross after Sachsgate [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0743552/bio?ref_=nmmi_bio_sm]. "But you know what? You know what? It wasn't a big deal. So what?"

Ross attempted to engage with critics on Twitter, in Tweets [https://twitter.com/wossy/status/439727237542449152], "in response to some who would rather I weren't there. Have a lovely convention." He went on to say that he had only accepted the role because he was a long-time fan of science fiction, and because Neil Gaiman had asked him.

This leaves the Hugos [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_awards] short one host, with no obvious candidate in sight. If you were wondering about Felicia Day or David Tennant, those suggestions have already been made and more besides. However many potential hosts are already booked solid, and August isn't that far off.

Source: Guardian [http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/03/jonathan-ross-hugo-award-host-twitter-backlash]


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[Tom_green_day]

He would have been perfect! What has anyone got against him?

 

[Chairman Miaow]

Not a fan of Jonathon Ross but the outcry seems very over the top. Comedians stepping over the line is not uncommon, nobody can toe it so perfectly that they never make a mistake.

 

[luvd1]

Well, cheeky charm only works when your young but makes you look like a dickhead when you get older... Take note Russell Howard, your starting to look very creepy when you have a woman on your show. It's really uncomfortable watching.

 

[Li Mu]

The man is terrible at interviewing people because he loves himself too much to ever let the guests speak.
I used to quite like him until he was consumed by his own ego.

 

[CriticalMiss]

He would have been perfect! What has anyone got against him?

I think it's because at some point he made a joke about fat women and he is the only comedian in the history of forever to do so. Plus conventions these days have to have dozens of anti-bullying and anti-discrimination rules for attendees so people thought that having him host the awards would be a violation of those rules. At least that is what I can gather from the article and some of the twitter stuff.

I don't like Ross at all and tend to just ignore anything he is on rather than get outraged by his presence. I do like the suggestion people made of getting Charlie Brooker to host it though.

 

[BrotherRool]

It is pretty sad that someone whose a genuine fan of something gets pushed of something he was offering to do for free.

I've never seen him be that offensive towards people, he was always famous for being pretty soft on his chat shows. This all seems pretty hypothetical, if people were genuinely concerned that he might make a joke about them, couldn't they have sent him an email? He's exactly the sort of guy to pull a joke in those circumstances, as long as they're not being a dick about it

 

[Anachronism]

I have mixed feelings on this.

I'm attending Loncon 3 and planning to go to the Hugo Awards if I can, and I won't deny that I was less than thrilled when I heard about him being the host. He's a talented entertainer, certainly, but he can be a bit of an ass and I have no idea what connection he has to SF besides having written a couple of comics. I don't consider myself a fan, and the fact that one of the Loncon division heads actually resigned in protest when he was chosen should have sent a pretty clear message about his suitability for the role.

On the other hand, the explosion of online vitriol doesn't help the stereotypes of fan culture, and I don't like to see people being aggressively hounded out of things they were apparently looking forward to. If the fans could have stayed calm, expressed their grievances, and negotiated a change of host without resorting to openly insulting him on Twitter, it would have been a much better situation.

I'm not sad that he's gone, but I am sad about the manner of his leaving.

 

[omega 616]

Good, can't stand that prick, he is as bad as a lot of American TV hosts ... never lets the guest finish a fucking sentence! I know they can only let the guest ramble about how great they are for so long but jesus, it's like they can't even finish the shortest of answers.

They can get half way through "yes" without "so tell me about that?".

I hope Felicia does it, I love her!

 

[Baresark]

It's amazing, people are children. He made mistakes, no one can deny it. But how is he ever supposed to move on from it or prove that he has changed (if he has changed) if all the goddamn butthurt idiots don't let him. Society needs to learn how to forgive mistakes, and as time goes on, society feels further and further from getting to that point. It's a sad state of affairs. All those "watchdog" group people need to learn to shut the fuck up after the fact. He was punished to a grand degree already. But no, it's not enough for these people. They want blood. They are pathetic. And what's worse, they are guilty of the very thing they purport to fight. The guy was gonna do it for free, and all these people bullied and browbeat him into quitting. Fuckin' amazing.

 

[kurupt87]

Nerds dislike Jonathan Ross. Nerds like Felicia Day.

Yeah, crap like this makes me embarrassed to be part of its culture.

 

[Eiv]

I wouldn't have given in to the angry 'protesters'. People will protest about literally anything on the internet. I would have ignored them and like any other 'internet uprising', it would have died. I mean seriously, the guy is a fan and has made some mistakes (who the hell hasn't). They fact he was willing to do it for free says a lot. Most stars wont get out of bed without some form of financial incentive.

Unfortunately:
Nerd Rage 1
Common Sense 0

 

[FancyNick]

I don't know the man but from what I can gather he is a tv host who is notorious for being a bit of a prick. It honestly doesn't seem like a big enough deal to bully him off the award show he was going to do for free but then again I am not the best person to make this argument. And one of the nominees was going to quit because she was scared of a fat joke? Really? Email the man or the people in charge of the show and request he doesn't make one if it's that much of a touchy subject. I understand that some people have sensitive points about themselves they rather not be addressed but come on, leaving in protest is a bit much.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

F*cking despicable... Jonathan Ross had a whole TV series about Japanese culture where he spent an episode talking about how awesome he thought Ultraman was as a kid and he can't host a Sci-Fi award show (a free one, incidentally) because he makes some bad jokes sometimes? He's a celebrity who actually LIKES Science Fiction rather than casually accepting it because they were in a geeky TV series (Not aiming that at Felicia Day, she's legit as far as I've seen).

Seriously hoping this drives ticket prices up while getting a new host so the arrogant dicks of Twitter can see what they're bullsh*t brings upon them.

 

[Casual Shinji]

F*cking despicable... Jonathan Ross had a whole TV series about Japanese culture where he spent an episode talking about how awesome he thought Ultraman was as a kid and he can't host a Sci-Fi award show (a free one, incidentally) because he makes some bad jokes sometimes? He's a celebrity who actually LIKES Science Fiction rather than casually accepting it because they were in a geeky TV series (Not aiming that at Felicia Day, she's legit as far as I've seen).

He also made a pretty awesome documentary once about Steve Ditko, and how he was as much the creator of Spider-Man as Stan Lee. Both Ross and Gaiman actually got to meet him in New York (off camera ofcourse).

I always liked the guy well enough and enjoyed most of what he did, but then I don't live in Britain so there you go.

 

[luvd1]

I hear Jim Davison is getting poplar again these days, he might do it.

 

[Thaluikhain]

So, people complained that a bully was going to be a host, and now he isn't going to be?

This is awful...apparently. For some reason.

 

[Smooth Operator]

It is pretty sad that someone whose a genuine fan of something gets pushed of something he was offering to do for free.

Well people need to realize this isn't your usual Grammy top trends parade or any similar pop star clown show, this is actually as serious as it gets outside Nobel Prize awards and you don't give the reins to this kind of thing to the first joker that does it for free.

 

[Me55enger]

Not a fan of Jonathon Ross but the outcry seems very over the top. Comedians stepping over the line is not uncommon, nobody can toe it so perfectly that they never make a mistake.

Some would argue that that's the point of comedy.

Gotta say, as far as the last word goes, saying you were only doing it 'cos Gaiman asked you is a pretty good one.