MacFarlane had an idea here. He wanted to get in front of the fact that he'd be expected to fail as host (although that actually really wasn't the case), by setting up a scenario where he mocks the entire show in a "no matter what I do they'll hate it" way.  He intentionally starts bombing in his monologue - which the audience thinks is just "him" - and then has Captain Kirk (William Shatner) arrive from the future to tell him exactly what we know already, he sucks.  MacFarlane than tries to fix his monologue again and again to change the future.  The problem is this is the Academy Awards. This was a meta comedy bit that might work at the MTV Movie Awards or "maybe" the Emmys.  Unfortunately, there is a flow to this show that the industry crowd and TV audience is expecting.  That doesn't mean you can't play with it and do something different, but MacFarlane implementation of his idea was too frat boy (to reference HitFix's own Alan Sepinwall) and disjointed to work.  Moreover, McFarlane is not part of this Hollywood group.  "Ted" or not, he's not one of "them" yet.  Could Billy Crystal, Hugh Jackman or Steve Martin pulled something like this off?  Maybe, but MacFarlane?  This was the total wrong way to go.

- Gregory Ellwood