tobestalks.blogspot.com
May 28, 2007
I admit it, I watch the show Family Guy. I blame all my guy friends from college. They watched the show and I began to watch right along with them. And I often laughed. I loved Stewie, the infant psychopath who always seemed to deliver monologues inspired by Dr. Evil,
Stewie: Well, Well mother we meet again.
Lois: Stewie I thought I tucked you in an hour ago.
Stewie: Not tightly enough it would seem, and now you contemptible harpy, I shall end your oppressive reign of matriarchal tyranny!
I loved his obsession with broccoli and the evil monkey that occupied Chris' closet. There ARE moments that I see and laugh at.
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Family Guy operates on the assumption that you can make a joke out of everything, and therefore you can be offended by nothing. And absolutely nothing is off limits on Family Guy: AIDS, homosexuals, homelessness, pedophiles, handicapped people (either physically or mentally) and jokes about racism. So as a viewer we're never suppossed to be offended because Family Guy doesn't take anything seriously.
Okay fine. I get it. But the more I watch the show, the more uncomfortable I feel about my laughter. So many of the jokes on Family Guy are horribly misogynistic. Take this clip where we're supposed to laugh at Quagmire's "rape machine"
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The more I thought about it, the more I realized that every single episode of Family Guy features violence against women, jokes at women's expense or some reinforcement of women's traditional gender roles. Family Guy's favorite joke seems to be mocking feminism in general.
Take the episode, "I am Peter Hear me Roar"-- where you get such quotes like.
Lois: I guarantee you a man made that commercial.
Peter: Of course a man made it. It's a commercial Lois, not a delicious thanksgiving dinner
I always told myself not to make a big deal out of Family Guy. Enjoy it for what its worth and try to ignore the parts that seem in bad taste. But in a recent episode I felt like the show really crossed a line. Watch this clip-- the joke is in the first minute or so... The punch line is "Everyone's getting laid but me." And I was horrified. Family Guy is taking it too far. If you keep watching you'll catch the obligatory joke made about women's professional sports.
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More clips that offend.
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As you can see, there are plenty of options. And several more that I can't find right now. There are plenty of people who have already criticized Family Guy for these problems. Here and here to start.
I feel like Family Guy has potential to be funny but I think jokes about rape are really out of line and maybe ONE episode without women bashing would be great. It's just getting old.