It sucks how much they changed the characters!

I esp agree with you about how each character’s degenerated into a stereotype except Stewie (who is the only great part about that show nemore >.>)

And I rly do hate what they do with Meg. :( For ppl who say it’s harmless, just look at youtube and how ppl make montages of Meg being “owned” and the comments about ppl talking about how ugly she is, how much they hate her, and how much they hate ugly “fat” girls in general. :(

The problem is that a lot of ppl aren’t getting the idea (prolly b/c Family Guy doesn’t make any effort to encourage this idea) that they might be satirizing ppl who make fun of “ugly” women or that everything in Family Guy is supposed to be surreal. What they do get is that Family Guy is “funny” and debasing a girl for being “unattractive” if hilarious!

I kinda also see this happen with the Simpsons in that in the first 8 seasons, Homer and Marge genuinely cared about their family and Homer was a well meaning father who was slow-witted so even tho he thought he was doing the right thing, he wasn’t, but he tried to correct it. >.>

Then it turned into “Homer is insane and stupid and never goes to work, Bart is mean and evil, Lisa is a bookworm, Marge is a repressed housewife” >.> But they never went to the depths that Family Guy went to.

I completely agree with you that humour has to be more than “haha ur ugly!” Sadly, it seems that being malicious or mean these days can be easily camoflaged under “humour”. :\

How is that not excessively misogynist? I mean, a boy who wants to kill his mother….
Can we say “Eminem”?

I don’t know if I feel this is specifically misogynist. There are definitely times when Lois is treated in an extremely misogynistic way – lately both Chris and Peter have said things to her like “Let’s buy a bolt and shut your trap” or “How about doing some damn laundry around here?” and when Lois says “What?” like she didn’t hear/understand her, they say “What?” right back and suddenly it’s over. That always makes me go WTF.

But with Stewie… I can see why you feel that way, it just never struck the Eminem kill my mom! chord with me. I don’t know why. maybe because I always felt Stewie’s hatred of Lois was because he is a genius trapped in baby’s body and he’s frustrated with everyone. But your reading could be more apropos.

“I laughed my ass off when Bill Clinton said ‘Eww’ to Meg and when people keep poking and prodding at her. I admit that a couple times I find it a bit reaching but she does fight back a few times and it’s developed her character into an edgy one with the newly found pot jokes, sexually repressed attitude and so on. Which actually made her loved by more viewers.”
People like Meg because she conforms to every stereotype of the “unfeminine” female: sexually-repressed and doing “masculine” things like smoking bud. Gee, it’s so goddamned funny when men make fun of women for being “fat” or “ugly.” Do YOU know what it’s like to be taunted like that, for your body to be hated and desired so much all at the same time that you are dehumanized? Do YOU know what it’s like to have people laugh at the fact that you could be raped and murdered simply because you’re a fucking female? Do YOU have any clue of how freaking calloused you are? And what the hell is your point about angry black woman’s discussion being “simply an opinion”? Are you some sort of “objective” know-it-all? Even though you claim that your stupid piece was “just opinion” you write in it as if we ladies and minorities are just irrational overemotional freaks who take things too seriously. Get a clue! This racist sexist crap is not some disconnected abstract concept, it has real tangible consequences on the lives of those who are not white and male and seemingly heterosexual and middle-upper class.
That’s the problem with people like you, you’re a “hipster”. You think we’re so freaking beyond “the old days” of sexism and racism that making those kinds of jokes comes from nothing in particular, and has no consequences. The only reason people would make sexist and racist jokes or laugh at them is because they ARE sexist and racist! How is being sexist and racist “edgy”? When was it “in” to be truly feminist or anti-racist? The fact that you see racist and sexist attitudes as “going against the grain” is the exact problem!
And if the messages are not a big deal because “it is just a cartoon” than why did you rant and rave just before that it is this cartoon show that is intellectually stimulating? Sheesh, get a reality check. I don’t typically go off like this on people at blogs but oblivious writing like yours just irritates the crap out of me.

Because racism is ever so funny.

If you don’t like it anymore, but the old seasons and don’t watch the new stuff.

Why would we support something that we don’t like by buying it’s products?

By the way, I’m always hoping for better from the show. However, not 5 minutes into the episode, the guys are in the bar watching the TV as Tom Tucker reports on a group of Spring Break vacations found murdered, mutilated, and “sexually violated”. Peter responds:

“It’s seems like everybody is getting laid but me.”

W…T….F….

That went beyond tasteless, that was outright disgusting. And I also want to know why none of the female staff spoke up about that line.

Interesting note: In the original tale of Hua Mulan, when the other soldiers grow suspicious of the soldier, they grab her/him, rip force her clothes off, and that’s how they discover Mulan’s true identity. When the female staff at Disney discovered this, they begged the writers and director not to let this happen in the film. (Source is a “Making Of” documentary, I can’t remember where I saw it.) I am not only pissed off that they put that line on the show, but that none of the female writers spoke up – or made a big enough stink about it – before it went to air.

I admit by the first few episodes that same of the jokes were running a bit thin but by now I’ve grown to love them all over again.

As a grown audience we retain a higher capacity to remember jokes, gags and what nots from previous episodes and are able to recollect them when another episode recalls an old joke. Some play this too a serious plot degree such as when Stewie beat up Brian, afterwards Brian lets terrible things happen to Stewie because of it. Other examples of jokes include the Chicken Fight ( twice now ), the Vodville piano brothers, and the Barnaby weightlifters. These jokes only are tasteless when you didn’t really enjoy them the first time and if your like me and enjoyed them, then you are satisfied and laugh as soon as the character appears again.

Also on another note about replaying gags, the creators often add in a bit to try and keep it fresh or end it for those who hate it. Example, Stewie shoots the barnaby brothers, The Barnabies get a role as the trainers in the gym, and the Chicken stops fighting Peter over the coupon and now it’s about offending the Chicken’s wife.

New gags also that are new season oriented such as Bruce “The Performist Artist” voice being used for his character, Jaws, a huge Bee and the what like is something we’ll probably see very often, but is hysterical to me every second.

I admit the Stewie Griffin movie was slightly a let down and should’ve been coded as 3 episodes strung together but I thought Road to Rupert was hilarious and it’s reference to the old dancing bit with the mouse replaced by Stewie was a welcome twist mid-way.

I find most of what you wrote in this article to be a matter of opinion, and so thus my statement back is made of such, opinions.I find that with an adult audience most of the edgy racist jokes, fat meg jokes, and repeated gags are what make Family Guy essentially one of the funniest tv series of all time, because it expects the viewers to be intelligent enough and smart enough to realize that it’s just a cartoon.

I laughed my ass off when Bill Clinton said ‘Eww’ to Meg and when people keep poking and prodding at her. I admit that a couple times I find it a bit reaching but she does fight back a few times and it’s developed her character into an edgy one with the newly found pot jokes, sexually repressed attitude and so on. Which actually made her loved by more viewers.

If you hear any of the commentaries or take anything more from Meg’s character, the creators of Family Guy agree that she’s not an ugly, fat or hideous character at all, it’s just for fun, and if you the viewer can’t handle edgy jokes of any nature, then you probably shouldn’t be watching a show that’s labelled at the ‘Edgiest’ show in Television history.

Above all just remember:
- It’s A Cartoon
- It’s Rated 18+
- For every stupid gag, there’s a reference to something pop culture or historic that’s actually intellectually funny
- If you don’t like it anymore, but the old seasons and don’t watch the new stuff.

Later Days

How is that not excessively misogynist? I mean, a boy who wants to kill his mother….
Can we say “Eminem”?

Besides all that I agree with a lot of what you just said. And you hit the nail on the head when you made a distinction between “satire” and “subversion.” In the case of Family Guy it’s just shallow satire. There are too many pedophilia/molestation moments in the movie version (about Stewie) to ignore the sexism in the show. They make it all light-hearted when it’s a real problem that women face.
When a show is so ambiguously “satirical” that it could possibly be interpreted as literally reinforcing sexist and racist ideas or stereotypes it’s time to shut the tube off. Too many people are too comfortable with that show for it to be subversive.

I still love Stewie, but was very disappointed with the “Road to Rupert” episode which couldn’t hold a candle to “Road to Rhode Island” or “Road to Europe”. Bummer.