I need a native opinion

Greetings all

In our translation class, we tried to translate a paragraph from the article "5 ways to Fix the Oscars", which you may have read. We had great trouble with one us the sentences.

I would like a native English speaker or someone else feeling him/herself proficient enough to comment on that sentence.

I will paste it in bold together with the paragraph:

1. Stop hiring bad hosts
In fact, every new host of the Oscars for the last decade—Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, Ellen DeGeneres—bombed. Steve Martin lacked any flair during solo duties in 2001 or 2003, so why would anybody bring him back? Instead, the Academy paired him with the unpredictable Alec Baldwin, who was completely predictable. The two comedians opened the show like the old uncles at your family reunion, and told a handful of jokes worthy of Saturday Night Live. They wore a Snuggie, they got into bed with each other to parodyParanormal Activity, they even donned their own 3-D glasses. All of it was forced, and sometimes desperate. The best moment of the night belonged to Ben Stiller, who took the stage in a blue-man costume from Avatar. The runner up: Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr., who introduced the best screenplay award as if they were bickering characters out of a Christopher Guest movie.

Source: http://www.newsweek.com/id/234604

This is NOT a translation request.

If you can contrubite your ideas about what that sentence tries to communicate, I will really appreciate

Hello!

This part I understand it like: Even though Steve Martin didn't do a good job in his previous "parts as Oscar presenter", he was called back, but this time with another comedian, who already played with Steve Martin in some movies, so the two actors were brought together, "as a pair" , to present the Oscar Awards. Alec Baldwin was unpredictable because maybe he wasn't present in this type of ceremonies before, not as host. But completely predictable the thing that he was chosen to be "pair" for Steve Martin, probably because they made a good appearance in the movies that they did together.

This was my opinion. I hope it was useful.

Your opinion has been very useful indeed. This clarifies Alec Baldwin's state of being both predictable and unpredictable

I have just one more confusion: The writer probably doesn't consider Alec Baldwin either suitable to be a host because of the fact you stated that he was'nt present in ceremonies of this type does s/he?

By the way, thank you very much

Yes, I guess so. Baldwin wasn't invited in the past to be host of a awards ceremony like the Oscar. But you can check this information easily on the internet.

You're welcome!

Ok then.
I will bring up this subject again next week in the class and suggest that we should re-translate the sentence in accordance with all the information you provided.

This single example shows how important the cultural background is in translator's job.

Thanks a lot again Freya!!

hi guys! new member here!
I'm sorry to disappoint you both but Freya's interpretation is incorrect.
Rise, here is the background: the host chosen for the Oscars should be funny; so were all the people mentioned in the first sentence = 'they bombed'[+]. But not Steve Martin. He flopped his performance totally twice = 'lacked any flair [-] in his solo performances'. Anyway, the producers decided to re-hire him, this time along with a co-host to add some variety and heat up the stage. Since Alex Baldwin is known for being 'unpredictable'(as: one cannot predict/forecast/expect how he will react in a given situation) in terms of having his own, sometimes controversial opinions and expressing himself through not always politically correct jokes or ironical statements, he was chosen for this job. Nothing like this happened, because instead of ad libbing he probably stuck literally to the script, which the viewers didn't find funny at all, therefore he behaved 'predictably' = according to the common rules, boringly.
Tip:
When translating the text, find the meaning of the words such as adjectives or adverbs which modify the nouns and verbs to find out whether they carry a positive, neutral or negative meaning. Always note the key phrases, such as: 'like the old uncles [-]at the family reunion[-]' = old-fashioned, boring jokes.
Or: 'handful of jokes [-]worthy of Saturday Night Live'[-] = comedy show of mediocre value, full of cliches and unrefined jokes.
Also note the keywords, such as: 'it was forced and sometimes desperate'[-].
To sum up: the viewers expected unpredictable = interesting performance with the twist, instead got predictable one = boring.
Enjoy your translation classes!

A second point of view is always appreciated and in this case the correct one.

It was a non-native's opinion anyway.

My opinion was based on a tv news and there it said that Steve Martin wasn't host of the Oscar for the first time, but Baldwin yes. This is how I got to this conclusion of predictable and unpredictable...my point of view.

If Rise hasn't shown any sign of appreciation or hate towards me so far, then no one suffered a great loss because of my interpretation.
Don't shoot the piano player!

I'm sorry you're feeling being shot...
We learn all our lives and in fact, only those who make mistakes have a real opportunity to live their life to its fullest. It's because they're adventurous, not afraid of challenges, open to new experiences, add here your own...
You, Freya, should be praised though, for having courage to speak your mind and for having a big heart, willing to help the helpless. If you go on the forum, you'll see MY cry for help, so there! there is a proof for you that nobody is omniscient and we all sooner or later might need a helping hand...
So, STOP WHINING and GET BACK TO THE PIANO!!!