Thursday, December 8, 2016

The Dark Underbelly of Family Guy

Family Guy.


It’s no secret that this show about a dysfunctional family in suburbanite Rhode Island is controversial. On one hand, it’s expected; after all, it, like South Park and The Simpsons, has dealt with some pretty taboo topics. Also, like South Park, it relies on shock humour, a fact made easier by all of its characters, even the central cast, being fair game for offensive jokes and stereotypes. Sadly, it’s also one of the most vile and tone-deaf cartoon sitcoms currently airing on TV, specifically because all of its jokes are thrown in without much thought. And what better way to demonstrate this than by picking some of the worst and discussing them?

To be clear, Family Guy does make me laugh sometimes. Sadly, the ratio of funny/not funny is about 1 in 50. That’s not good, especially for a sitcom. It’s like playing darts while blindfolded: sure, you might hit the bullseye occasionally, but mostly you’re gonna pray that no one’s in the way. And, unfortunately, a lot of people are with this show.

*Sigh* Here goes nothing! (FYI, major trigger warnings.)

Let’s start with the most-glaringly obvious one to me personally. For those unaware, I’m Jewish. I practice Judaism to the best extent I can, and I’m a proud supporter of causes that the Torah promotes (i.e. giving to the needy, visiting the sick, respecting the elderly, you get the gist.) I also know that Antisemitism, though more muted than even 70 years ago, still exists, and that it’s been growing in recent years at an alarming rate. 2015 saw about 941 reported incidents of Antisemitism in the US on college campuses alone, according the ADL website (which you can see here.) That’s frightening, and I doubt the numbers will drop now that we have a KKK-endorsed president-elect.

Family Guy was created by Seth MacFarlane. MacFarlane’s notorious for having aligned himself with liberalism, championing social justice causes and even being hyper-critical of American conservatism with American Dad. That’s fine and dandy, but his obnoxiously disdainful views toward “political correctness” (more on that later) keep popping up in the ways he depicts minorities. This is especially apparent in how he writes his Jewish characters, featuring every possible stereotype imaginable because “funny”. I understand that MacFarlane thinks he's clever, but that doesn’t give him a green flag to be so blatantly disgusting.

Take this clip, in which he pays homage to a scene from Schindler’s List:


0_0 (Courtesy of zujaner’s channel.)

When I first saw this, my jaw dropped in horror. Why would a clearly-awful moment in a movie about The Holocaust be played for laughs here? For one, it’s not Amon Göth shooting Jews in a ghetto from his window, this is Peter shooting at his wife as she goes to collect the mail. The show thinks it’s being cute by mimicking Göth’s body language, but in Schindler’s List it emphasized how awful a human being he was. Here, it’s Peter being Peter, a completely sociopathic idiot with no regard for the safety of others.

Two, it’s not funny. I get that this show loves doing homages, but here it comes off more as bad taste than funny. Gun violence isn’t a laughing matter, especially given the recent shootings in places like Cherry Hill, Orlando, Newton, San Bernardino and Aurora. I get that the debate over gun regulation is complicated, but by making this into a joke it spits in the face of people who’ve been killed by maniacs with automatics.

And three, why Mort? I get it: Mort’s the token Jew. He’s been targeted with bad jokes since its inception. But that he gets shot at by both Peter and Joe, the latter a cop, and takes it in stride is insulting. “That’s how people say hello to me”? The Jewish guy has people saying hello to him this way? And he’s okay with it? What?!

Family Guy has routinely demonstrated that it cares not how it sets up its Jewish jokes, see the gag involving a racially-charged brawl outside a pub, but most are somewhat forgivable because their biggest offence is that they’re dumb. This, however, is terrifying and tone-deaf. Who in their right mind acts casually about almost being shot? Mort’s reaction isn’t normal, hence not funny.

Moving on, Family Guy’s attempts at tackling other races has also been piss-poor. Take this clip where Peter chokes Cleveland with a plastic bag:


CIVIL ABUSE FTW! Seriously, what?! (Courtesy of FamilyGuy035.)

Family Guy loves to poke fun (read “insult”) of other races and cultures, but this one moment in particular bugs me to no end. Why? Because with the recent incidents of violence against black civilians in the US, to see the show’s token black character (are we noticing a pattern here?) get suffocated by Peter, once again, makes him a sociopathic douchebag. And again, this isn’t funny. It’s too horrifying to be funny, especially since nothing’s done to help Cleveland post-facto. Perhaps some genuine humour could’ve been milked if it had more nuanced writing, but I’m demanding too much from the guy who wrote in a poor-taste soap opera gag in another episode.

And that’s the problem: MacFarlane thinks he’s being funny, when in reality he’s not. Family Guy has taken a lot of flak for its racially tone-deaf humour, and it’s not hard to see why. Besides, I know MacFarlane can actually be funny. Ignoring that most of the best jokes and episodes in Johnny Bravo were written by him, he’s proven to be funny even in the context of Family Guy. I thought his blaxploitation spoof on Back to the Future was spot-on, so I wish he’d deliver more often.

But wait, it gets worse! We’ve covered Antisemitism and racism, right? Well, how about sexism and domestic violence? Those are always fun, right? Right?!

Well, Family Guy has you covered there too. I won’t talk about the episode involving Glen Quagmire’s sister, because that’d take too long to deconstruct, but that doesn’t mean the show doesn’t have its share of horrible moments involving domestic abuse. Whether it’s Peter beating up his wife, Peter beating up his kids, and, um…Peter beating up his wife once more, the show makes absolutely no attempts at hiding how bad a husband, and perhaps father, Peter is. But what about when the show covers gags about domestic abuse? Surely there’s a goldmine there, right?

Actually, there is. I was debating between this and one other clip involving short people being treated like sock puppets, but in the end this won out:


I have no words for this… (Courtesy of Joshdog98.)

I think one of the commenters on the video itself says it all:
“So they use this for a joke. But then in Season 10, they make an episode that plays domestic abuse COMPLETELY straight. What a bunch of hypocrites.”
How is this not valid? You can’t have it both ways, Family Guy! Either be awful and poke fun at violence against women, or be nuanced and show the traumas of violence against women! (Actually, don’t do the former. You’ll save yourself plenty of angry letters and emails.)

The worst part is the resurfacing of the “two sides” argument, for several reasons: one, it’s domestic abuse. It’s obvious what’s going on, and you should report it. I actually think there’s a law about complacency in the face of a real crime, but don’t quote me on that. Regardless, this is domestic abuse.

Two, “two sides” is often a straw-man argument. Yes, there’s validity to having two sides to any l situation, I’m sure South Park has made that pretty clear after 20 seasons. But that doesn’t mean that both sides are equal. I’m sure the Nazis had their version of events about The Holocaust during The Nuremberg Trials, that doesn’t make their actions excusable. I’m sure a suicide bomber has their version of events when they get captured, that doesn’t make what they were about to do less-horrible. Yes, “two sides”…but not “two equal sides”.

And three, people often bring up “two sides” to avoid responsibility. It’s gotten to the point where I’m not even sure if people who espouse this argument know what it means. It’s like how “political correctness” has lost its meaning over time: respecting a woman’s body isn’t “political correctness”, it’s human decency. Saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” to someone isn’t “political correctness”, it’s acknowledging that not everyone celebrates Christmas. And giving a person of minority status a high-paying job if they’re actually good isn’t “political correctness”, it’s acknowledging and rewarding merit. The term “politically correct” needs to be updated and/or contextualized in the modern world.

Also, domestic abuse isn’t funny!

Okay, Antisemitism, racism and sexism. What else is there to pick on? Well, there’s that one-off mocking Caitlyn Jenner pre-coming out as a transgender woman, but discussing that would feel dishonest coming from me so I’ll leave it to someone who’s trans. Instead, I’ll focus on something that lasts an entire episode: child abuse. Remember Stewie, the British-accented, megalomaniac baby with a genius IQ? Remember how he was always the best character, especially when he and Brian would go on adventures? What if this were to happen:


Wow… (Courtesy of k70848.)

The clip is 10 seconds long, but even if it were longer I’d freak out. Stewie falls down the stairs, cuts open his head and vomits. He ends up needing to go to the hospital, but the rest of the episode, from what I recall, deals with him enduring all forms of abuse: being hit again, being run over with a car, even having a raccoon rip open his scalp. This is beyond disturbing, mostly because, big-shocker, it’s more horrifying than funny. I don’t even think this could be made funny, particularly because child abuse isn’t funny. Also, considering how vulnerable babies are, this’d still be scary. It’s also the most brutal and insensitive moment I’ve seen in the Griffin household, and that says a lot considering Peter Griffin once asked his wife how to “properly commit suicide”.

Yes, comedy is subjective. What may be funny to me will probably be offensive to someone else, and vice-versa. Also, like I said, Family Guy does occasionally make me laugh! But it’s mostly awful, tone-deaf humour that encourages people to be intolerant and insensitive and rewards its main cast for doing so. I can’t say I don’t see why it’s still on the air, or that it doesn’t have fans, but it’s one more example of how being “progressive” doesn’t make you a decent human being. Seth MacFarlane should feel guilty for normalizing these “jokes”, and while it might be cliché to criticize him, that doesn’t mean I’ll sit back and let this slide.

Shame on you: you should know better. Also, I apologize for such a downer this time, I promise my next blog article will be more exciting.

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