Monday, May 7, 2012

Family Guy- Powered by Safety and Ignorance

While writing the last blog post, Family Guy attempted to be funny in the background. I've realized something. Maybe others have had this realization before me, but I feel special. Because I've had this "ah-ha" moment for myself.


Family Guy is powered by ignorance and safety. Allow me first to elaborate on the ignorance. Family Guy prides itself on jokes concerning protected topics: religion, politics, special needs, gender, and ethnicity. I say protected topics because all of these listed arenas of the human experience have lines that shouldn't be crossed. These boundaries have been put up to protect and respect those individuals inside of it. For example, variations of the word "retard" are often used by Family Guy characters (to much laughter by the general audience). Family Guy perpetuates stereotypes and derogatory remarks, because Americans have reached a level of contentedness with their own little life bubble. If you don't know anyone with special needs, retard jokes are funny. If you are not privy to the difficulties little people face on a daily basis, dwarf and midget jokes are comedy gold. Family Guy feeds off American ignorance.


Second, Family Guy relies on the safety Americans currently reside in. One of Family Guy's major appeals is its mastery of dark humor and the bizarre. Any scene with random, over-extended, horribly strange violence is an example of this. Anyone who has read Night, can understand why this violence can't be considered funny to those who have dealt with violence first hand. But because America is living in realive comfort, we are far removed from the actual results of violence. Go Family Guy, you rely on America's ignorance and safety. Hope your okay with that.

2 comments:

  1. Read the first line few lines and knew that I was going to find a home here. Great stuff.

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    Replies
    1. Dear Annie,

      I cannot tell you how happy it makes me that there is someone out there who agrees with this post. I am beginning to realize that it is more controversial to stick to traditional values and ethics than it is to agree with current trends and TV shows. Thanks again for your support!

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