Thursday, October 24, 2013

Family Guy's Satirical Humor

Brianna Luna
Television Criticism
10/24/13
Family Guy’s Satirical Humor
            Family Guy is an American adult animated sitcom that was created by a man named Seth Macfarlane. The center of this show is the Griffin family who includes the parents, Peter and Lois, their children, Meg, Chris, and Stewie, and their talking pet dog, Brian. This show is famously known to be based on satirical humor which not only pokes fun at political figures or stereotypes, but is aimed to bring about the issues in today’s society. It also uses cutaway gags, which is a short interruption of a continuously filmed action by inserting a view of something else; in this show’s case, more satirical gags of American culture. However, Family Guy has been criticized for its cutaway gags because the accumulation of so many jokes at one time which diminishes the show’s satirical humor. The cutaways in this show are used for the sake of comedy. Moreover, they complement the original joke which does not affect the plot advancement of a particular episode.
            This sitcom satirizes many topics from our government/political figures and religion to cultural stereotypes and other “touchy” subjects such as 9/11. The use of satire is meant to be funny, but its greater purpose is to use constructive criticism by using whit to bring about the wider issues in society today. For example, in season seven, episode six, Peter Griffin references Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign’s key words “Hope” and “Change” when he gives a homeless man hope. The purpose was to bring awareness to the audience about their significance in the Presidential Election while MacFarlane simultaneously stated his support for Barack Obama in the episode.
In episode three of season ten, Family Guy featured an episode that was reflective of the topic of domestic violence. Quagmire’s sister, Brenda, struggles with the physical and mental abuse of her boyfriend, Jeff. Quagmire, Peter, and Joe contemplate ways to relieve Brenda of her anguish. It was then that Quagmire thought the only way to save his sister from further abuse was to kill Jeff. Quagmire eventually ends up killing Jeff by running him over into a tree with his car in the woods. This episode exaggerated multiple instances of abuse that did not sit well with critics as they saw this episode should not have satirized such a sensitive topic. The topic of domestic violence was portrayed in a serious manner while also contributing to the show’s signature satire.
            In episode fourteen of season two, the sitcom introduced the topic of peer pressure and drugs. Meg sees a girl named Lisa, also the girl who bullies her, doing toad behind the school with all of the popular kids. Lisa bullies Meg some more when she finds out that Meg does not do drugs. Meg however, wants to become popular and is peer pressured into holding drugs for them in order to get a date to the Winter Snow Ball that week. It goes to show that this sitcom also addresses important issues that our society faces, especially among teens. Although there are multiple instances of satire, it does not diminish the importance of this issue. Besides, that is an aspect of satire: to use whit to bring these issues in the light.
            Like all episodes of Family Guy, there are cutaways that satirize different topics in our society such as cultural differences or discrimination. Some of which that seem to be random in the context of the show. For instance, within the first few minutes of an episode it featured a parody of the Jurassic Park film. Peter is entering the executive bathroom when all of a sudden there is a helicopter waiting to take him away to oversee the island of dinosaurs. This cutaway parody was aimed to poke fun of the lawyer who tried to hide in a bathroom stall but was then eaten by the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Although most people would view this parody as a distraction to the show’s original theme, it is used to for a humorous effect.
            Some of the famously known cutaways of Family Guy involve making fun of the stupidity of one of our former Presidents, George W. Bush. In one particular episode, there was a cutaway of George W. Bush playing with a slinky in the White House. He was trying to get it to roll down the stairs when, at first, he was unable to. Then once the slinky started to go down on its own, he started to shout at his wife Laura, to check out what he had accomplished. Another one he was addressed in was the issue of Hurricane Katrina. In this one, Brian was set out to find George W. Bush because he was avoiding having to deal with this tragedy. In both cutaways, it emphasized the satire in how the show was making fun of Bush’s stupidity.
            Overall, Family Guy is a sitcom that entertains people through its satirical humor. It accomplishes that by making jokes about stereotypes, religion, political figures and many more topics. The satire also brings about constructive criticism by using whit to bring audience’s attention to the issue at hand. The cutaways may be random at times but they complement the joke made by the character and it does not jeopardize the integrity of the episode. It is what makes this show unique and in a league of its own. This show has its own sense of humor and is one of a kind.




Sources
Booker, Keith. Drawn to Television: Primetime Animation from Flintstones to Family Guy. Praeger Publishers: 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT.
Crawford, Alison. (2009). “Oh Yeah!: Family Guy as Magical Realism?”. Journal of Film and Video. Volume 61, Issue 2, pp. 52-68.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Guy

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