Discussion Questions:
1.) Is Family Guy a positive or negative influence?
2.)How do you think of the way Family Guy portrays the average American family?
18 January 2010
The television show Family Guy revolves around a middle class, white, American family. The father, Peter Griffin, is portrayed as the classic unintelligent, beer drinking, over weight father of three. His wife Lois is the caring, hard working mother who is also much better looking than Peter. Chris Griffin, the oldest son, is in the midst of adolescence and is slowly becoming like his father. Meg, the daughter, tragically did not inherit her mothers good looks but rather received Peter's. The youngest and perhaps most interesting of the children is Stewy who is extremely intelligent for his age. Obsessed with world domination, he schemes and derives plans to kill his mother which he hates and ultimately take over the world. The last member of the family is a dog named Brian , an atheist who speaks English and functions as a completely normal human being. It's safe to say that Family Guy has been frowned upon by the Christian religion ever since its premier. It encourages crude humor and of racial jokes but what it doesn't do is encourage allegiance to the empire. I would go as far as to say that it rejects many crucial aspects that the empire relies on. If fact, in almost any given episode, Family Guy displays mockery of the american empire and people who fall into the system. Religious questions arise in certain episodes which evoke a desire to search for the kingdom. Family Guy has been misinterpreted by many people and has earned an unfair reputation as a completely harmful television show.
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Interesting take on Family Guy, Graham. I would have liked to see some more specific examples to support your thesis that "what it doesn't do is encourage allegiance to the empire. I would go as far as to say that it rejects many crucial aspects that the empire relies on. If fact, in almost any given episode, Family Guy displays mockery of the american empire and people who fall into the system. Religious questions arise in certain episodes which evoke a desire to search for the kingdom." The episodes I've seen occasionally contain some spot-on mockery of the empire, but don't seem to challenge viewers to envision or enact anything better. It's clear in what it's against, but not really what it's for. The Simpsons and even South Park seem to do a better job of articulating what they're actually for, whereas Family Guy just seems to show us what a bunch of ignorant dopes we are and we know it and we're not going to do anything about it. But I'm certainly willing to change my mind, given some examples to the contrary!
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