Family Guy is a popular television show that incorporates stereotypes, gender inequality, racism, sexuality and politics by using a form of humor to disguise the inappropriateness of the joke. Each episode of this show has a different plot aside from the few that are continuous into the next episode. Family guy is known to push the boundaries to their limits of what content is produced in their show. It is an extremely raunchy and inappropriate show that only gets away with the content because it is done through humor. Many different people and corporations have said the line that "Family Guy has gone too far". Some of the jokes made throughout the show are entirely offensive and leave you with your jaw dropped that they are allowed to say such things on national television. One topic that Family Guy uses in their show is transgenders. This topic is joked about and usually made fun of throughout the episodes it is involved in. Transgender people in today's society already face many difficulties of trying to fit in and feel comfortable and safe in their own skin. This topic should not be mistreated or made fun of in any ways, especially the ways Family Guy incorporates into their show. Family Guy has episodes that direct inappropriate jokes at transgenders, specifically the character of Quagmire’s dad who becomes a woman. One comment about this topic is that “It doesn’t play like comedy; it just feels like unrelentingly cruel to a community that is already marginalized by society at large” (Wojnar). Another topic seen in many of the episodes is sexuality. Sexuality is a topic often times brought up in our society today whether it is in a positive or negative way. In this television show, the negative aspects of sexuality are brought into light. Rape culture is something that is seen in different episodes and is taken as a joke. This issue is already large enough in the real world, the fact that they are making it humorous on a television show is beyond crossing boundaries. An example of sexuality in this television show is seen when the character Brian (an adult dog) tries to seduce a young teenage girl. The show uses humor but seen past the humor is the fact that an adult man is trying to seduce a young girl and that is just plain wrong. It is promoting rape culture even if it is just on a television show. A third topic seen throughout the series is stereotypes. Stereotypes are all seen throughout the world today and are often times joked about. A stereotype can seem funny, but the person being joked about could be sensitive to the topic or have a strong offense to that stereotype that often times is completely wrong and misguided. Stereotypes can be seen in almost any episode, but a specific example is when the character Peter wishes for a Jewish man to help fix his financial problems. There is even a song in this episode titled “I need a Jew”. The stereotype of Jewish people being good with money is demonstrated throughout this episode. Another example of stereotypes seen in this show is when an asian family is shown and the father goes into his son’s room asking “are you a doctor yet?” This shows the stereotype of asian people being highly intelligent and held to the standard of being good in school. Politics is another topic discussed many times in the show Family Guy. This is a very controversial topic in today's society and causes a great deal of arguments to occur. The creator of the show is liberal and often times makes strong and noticeable points that example that. Politics can be seen in many different episodes, but a specific episode was so bold that it was not aired on FOX, and was only allowed to be on dvd series of the show. The episode was centered around the political topic of abortion. In the episode, Lois, Peter’s wife is a surrogate for a couple that then is killed in a car accident. This leaves Lois questioning whether or not she should have an abortion. At the very end of the episode Peter is heard saying “we had the abortion” and the screen then goes black. If aired, this episode would have cause controversy between the democrats and republicans of today’s society. The topic of abortion is extremely sensitive to many people and also involves the killing of innocent children; therefore it should never be seen as a joke or used to create such dark humor. It makes sense that the specific episode was not allowed to be aired, but also should be a wake up call that the show is crossing a line and taking their content too far. Gender inequality is seen even today in our world. Women are not treated equally to men and have been seen as less since the beginning of time. Gender inequality can be seen in almost any episode because Lois, the wife, is a stay at home mom that is always seen cooking or taking care of the children. Peter, the husband, has a job and is never at home cooking or taking care of the children. There are many “jokes” made throughout this series about women not being as equal as men. The character Peter often degrades women and makes it clear that he feels men such as himself are superior to women. Racism is one of the most commonly used topics in this television show. In our world today, racism continues to be an issue that people face. Although times are luckily much better than they used to be, people of color or different ethnicity are often times the targets of racism all because of their outside appearance. An example of racism could be seen in an episode involving a middle eastern man wearing a turban and he is constantly accused of being a terrorist. This could also count as an example of stereotypes. This example is important because of the accuracy it plays in our world today. Many middle eastern people are treated with such disrespect all because people consider them to be the same as people of their ethnicity that were terrorists. We have an enormous amount of white people that have done horrible things, but we are not seen as killers or mass murderers, so why should we define middle eastern people that way? With reading this reflection, a point that should stick out is the comparison of all the topics seen in Family Guy to the real world and society we live in today. I did this because Family Guy uses real world problems and turns them into jokes. This is the point of their show. Now the question that comes from this is are they taking things too far? Or are they using dark humor to try and lighten the destruction of our society going on all around us?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVODv8A5-EM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRqOeFxdwIA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y15bJwFsAOQ
Works Cited:
https://screenrant.com/family-guy-went-too-far-most-offensive-moments/
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.google.com/
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