Why Family Guy is still controversial today (and gets away with it)

Seth MacFarlane’s animated sitcom “Family Guy” It has long traded in shocking humor and crude jokes. Like a canned version of The Simpsons, Family Guy came into existence when many comedians and TV shows were testing the boundaries of what was considered acceptable on television. Many of the comedians mentioned were taking issue with Reagan’s 1980s veracity. MacFarlane was born in 1972, so he grew up witnessing the wonder of the “classic American sitcom.” There was also a general cultural push in the 1990s trend toward “politically correct language,” even from those who agreed with the sentiment toward sensitivity.

MacFarlane’s “Family Guy” opened with excitement over the “All in the Family” title sequence, then exploded into a catchy song-and-dance routine about (ironically, of course) restoring “good old-fashioned values.” But the title was ridiculous. Peter Griffin (MacFarlane) was not a “family man” at all, but rather a petulant, media-blind, alcoholic with a tendency towards sexism and bigotry. The old values, MacFarlane declared, were in fact appalling and outdated.

Much of the shocking humor in “Family Guy” was intended as a send-up of the sexist and bigoted attitudes we often see in “good old-fashioned” television shows, exposing how corrupt many of America’s basic conservative values ​​are. However, with many of the show’s jokes, the line becomes blurred. Occasionally, MacFarlane will commentate. Sometimes, he’s just being rude for the sake of it. There will be at least one joke in every episode that will offend most people.

“Family Guy” has ridden that streak for 426 episodes over 23 seasons. The show has been canceled and revived, and shows no signs of ending anytime soon. in 2022 interview with The Hollywood ReporterMacFarlane, and producers Alec Sulkin and Rich Appel theorize about how they were able to get away with it for so long. MacFarlane assumes that few people are truly offended by his offer.

MacFarlane found no evidence (at least anecdotally) that anyone was actually offended by any of his incendiary jokes on Family Guy. He said he’s encountered some thoughtful articles and thoughts about how someone might be offended by “Family Guy,” or how the series is a kind of cultural avant-garde to disrespect our fellow human beings, but he’d never talked to someone who was like that. openly upset)Except for the occasional celebrity he mocked).

He noted that there was some anger from Twitter users (which turned into the social media nightmare that is now X), but MacFarlane was wise enough to admit that Twitter users were not any dangerous segment of the viewing public. He knew social media wasn’t real. McFarlane said:

“Supposed anger, I don’t find much of it in the real world. I read a lot of it on Twitter, which, as much as we give it credence, is very marginal statistically. Most people don’t engage in it.” Twitter But when it comes to comedy, I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to a single person in the real world — outside of social media and outside think tanks — who’s really bothered by the state of edgy comedy we hear about the opposite, people wanting to laugh.”

It’s also worth noting that the animated “Family Guy” has a lot more room to say and do rude things. When an actor says something clearly anti-Semitic on a comedy show, it’s hard to accept that there’s a real person saying it on tape. In “Family Guy,” dark jokes are repeated by big-eyed caricatures, talking dogs, and other fictional characters. Silly pictures take a lot of the edge.

Producer Alec Sulkin points out that “Family Guy” also has to give a lot of credit to fellow producer Rich Appel, who has a keen eye for what can and cannot be done legally. It’s fair game to make fun of a public figure, but “Family Guy” sometimes crosses the line of legal libel. Appel himself then chimed in, noting that animated shows are able to push the envelope with shocking humor thanks to their medium. After all, “The Simpsons” and “South Park,” the big brothers of “Family Guy,” also get away with “offensive” material, so “Family Guy” was following suit. Abel said:

“I think if you look at ‘South Park’ and ‘The Simpsons’ and our shows, it’s not a coincidence that they’re all so racy. I think people’s ‘angry’ and willingness to be offended by anything is there. It’s a different world when you’re cartoon characters, for me “This is evidence that people do not accept such abuse.”

MacFarlane pointed out that one cannot angrily tweet at characters like Peter, Lois, and Stewie Griffin, because they are animated characters. One cannot even pretend to live in the real world, and the audience must accept them in the abstract.

It’s easy to “get away with” being insulting when all the evidence points to people not being insulted. There will always be a market for provocative and offensive humor, and “Family Guy” has been willing to supply it for more than two decades. One can certainly make legitimate criticisms of “Family Guy” – The makers of “South Park” have been publicly mocked The show’s preference for pop culture references over story — but the show’s inappropriate humor, I think we can all agree, isn’t one of its biggest weaknesses.