It's no secret the Oscars haven't lit the world on fire of late. Hosts Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen DeGeneres, Seth MacFarlane and especially Anne Hathaway/James Franco didn't live up to expectations, and ratings followed in suit. Had they gone with Will Ferrell's pitch, however, there's a good chance that would have changed.

In an interview with The Huffington Post to promote Get Hard, his latest comedy which just premiered at SXSW, Ferrell revealed he and his The Campaign co-star Zach Galifiankis agreed take over the awards show in an unusual way in 2012.

In case you don't remember, Eddie Murphy initially was the host of the Oscars that year. When his Tower Heist director Brett Ratner and producer for that year's award show got in hot water for his controversial gay slur and stepped down, he also left and made the Academy not have a host for that year's awards. As they scrambled to find a replacement, Ferrell and Galifiankis called up replacement producer Brian Grazer and agreed to replace Murphy, if he could do it in an unprecedented and seemingly awesome way.

"We will host the Oscars if you do a campaign that you can't find an Oscars host up until the last second," Ferrell said. "It's going to be a surprise and we'll walk out on stage. The whole premise of our hosting was that we were asked at the last second. So we're always flustered. We don't know the jokes. We don't know where the cameras are. We do the entire show as if it's unrehearsed."

To the credit of the Academy, they liked the quirky idea. They decided not to go forward with it, though, when they couldn't find a way to market it.

"They said, 'Ha ha ha, we think it's so funny, but no, we have to do promos.'" Ferrell said. "We said, 'Why do you have to do additional things?' We gave them gold and ... they've got to be willing to be unconventional."

Even though 2012 Academy Awards host Billy Crystal did a decent job, there's no denying this would have been a more memorable show. Ferrell is right, though. The Academy really needs to mix things up. There are certainly ways they could and people who would make it work but if they can agree to switch things up is dubious.

Ferrell and Galifiankis were not shut out of the ceremony, though. They did show up to present the award for "Best Original Song," which went to Bret McKenzie for his song "Man or Muppet" in The Muppets. In case you forget, you can relive their minute at the show before and get an idea what could have been.

Image courtesy of Peter West/ACE/INFphoto.com