Family Guy

There was an entire episode, "Turban Cowboy", that dealt with Islam. And of course, there's Peter's line "At least they believe in a God, even if it's a smelly brown God."

Adam West, and yeah I was always surprised they were allowed to say that line.

That was one of those times I found myself wondering "Though they are probably just pointing out what a lot of people think, did they still do it in a racist way?"

I've never seen Turban Cowboy, nor heard of it til now. Okay, so this show's on par with American Dad then.

Well, racist characters don't necessarily mean racist writers.

edited 13th Dec '14 12:19:56 PM by redhed311

No, but even knowing that sometimes it's just uncomfortable.

I don't believe the writers are anti-semitic or homophobic but I still get tired of the jokes sometimes because lately it seems they've been relying on them a little too much, especially the jew jokes.

I'd heard a few of the Family Guy writers are Jewish.

Yeah, and here most of the Jew jokes come from them, but even still... Like I said I don't believe they're anti-semitic but sometimes that doesn't make it any less uncomfortable.

edited 14th Dec '14 11:50:45 PM by LSBK

If you consider 70% to be a few. That was the figure that was given.

The plot thickens! Does knowing that the majority of writers on the show are Jewish change how the Jew jokes are perceived?

Them being Jews doesn't really excuse or take away the "offensive-ness" of the jokes, but whatever. Family Guy makes fun of every group.

edited 15th Dec '14 4:21:14 PM by teddy

The FG writers definitely have no problem with Self-Deprecation. The Jewish writers make fun of themselves, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong jokes about Asians and women (often in the same episode), episodes written by Gary Janetti include gay jokes, etc. I think the ability to laugh at oneself is an admirable trait.

But it's not the responsibility of the audience to be aware that when they write jokes, they're joking about themselves.

It also doesn't help that people are more willing to just assume the worst of anything concerning this show.

Seriously, go look on any page about a trope that's generally considered negative and applies to both South Park and Family Guy. The Family Guy entry will have paragraph after paragraph of examples and how it sucks while the South Park page will usually be along the lines of "South Park is known to do this" even if it arguably applies much more to South Park than to Family Guy.

Writer on Board illustrates this nicely, I think.

edited 17th Dec '14 4:08:53 PM by LSBK

No, but it's the audience's responsibility to develop thicker skins or turn off the TV. The people who watch despite being continually offended or who are only offended when something applies to them are the one with the problem.

Paying attention to the person who was credited with writing the episode when it comes up on screen might also help, because sometimes their last name (or first, with female writers) can be revealing. Maybe then people won't freak out as much about a Jewish joke if they remember that the episode was written by Andrew Goldberg, for example (nearly every episode he's written contains at least one, by the way).

You nailed it. I'm actually the person who added the Hypocritical Fandom entry about FG to the SP YMMV page.

edited 17th Dec '14 11:07:06 AM by redhed311

South Park was originally that, Family Guy was more Simpsons-like back in the early years. It...either grew the beard to some, or went through Seasonal Rot to others (like me...though for me the Seasonal Rot didn't occur at Season 4, more like I got tired of the show in the 2011-2012 season...I Just simply didn't find it as funny as I did back in 2009-2010...when 12 year old me started watching)

Also, sometimes shows deserve hate. South Park was ALWAYS like how it is. Shows like Family Guy and Spongebob weren't Sadist Shows when they started.

And if y'all say that FG and Spongebob are still funny...go ahead. I don't think the type of humor that occurs in both shows now is funny, but a lot of people like that type of humor. (I don't like humor when it involves a character being needlessly abused or sex humor...something that separates me from my friends as they love to take things I say that are meant to be innocent and turn them into sex jokes)

I don't consider "It was always like this" a valid reason to give South Park a pass, but even ignoring that, South Park wasn't always like it is now. Earlier seasons were much more light-hearted while at the same time being crude and it goes without saying much less political and preachy, something it is still much more guilty of than Family Guy.

And I've never considered Sponge Bob funny, even in the earlier seasons, so I'm not the person to talk to about still considering it funny.

A instances of this that sticks out to me was a post someone put on the Darth Wiki about the episode "Brian Dies". You may be thinking it has something to do with the person saying it's the worst episode ever because of Brian's death...and you would be wrong. No, the problem this person had was with the opening with the American Indians as it was apparently the most racist thing ever to this person. Reading that entry the only thing I could think was "seriously? If this is the most racist thing you've ever seen you've lived a very sheltered life."

I suppose you should take that as a grain of salt because the Darth Wiki is, as I've heard someone else desrcibe it, "90% whiny bitching and 10% legitimate complaints" but even knowing that it stands out.

edited 17th Dec '14 4:23:00 PM by LSBK

Okay, I admittedly have seen VERY little of SP (mainly the Movie, the first few episodes, the one where the boys get weapons and pretend they're in an anime, and Cartoon Wars), so I don't really know how different it would be than later seasons.

Though SP was darker and edgier than everything that came before it. Plus I said it's more shocking with Family Guy as it wasn't like how it is now. Like Brian wasn't all preachy, Stewie was evil, and Lois and Peter weren't jerks.

You never found Spongebob funny? The pre-movie era is one of the funniest cartoons ever.

Spongebob and Patrick were always too stupid and annoying for me to find most of what they were doing entertaining. There were a few episodes here and there I thought were good, but on the whole I never understood the sucess fo that show.

It can do both. I found Family Guy pre-cancellation to be too preachy. I *loved* it after it came out of cancellation, the first four seasons (yes, including the otherwise infamous season 7). I felt like their efforts to *correct* for season 7 where when seasonal rot took hold and the show became unappealing.

I remember there were some pre-cancellation episodes I could show to my mom! Now, it's impossible.

Season 7 is infamous? Huh, well either way, I too prefer post-cancellation Family Guy to its per-cancelled counterpart. I guess you could say the show has peaked either way, but unlike most people, I don't particularly have a problem with mean-spirited comedy (not saying that's what you liked about it). I actually find that preferable to typical feel good moment like in the early days and The Simpsons.

Though I do hate Peter and Lois, it's not because they're jerks, but because I hate man children which Peter has become to the extreme and I find myself annoyed with people calling Lois hot while bashing Meg when they're basically the same design except Lois being curvier.

edited 17th Dec '14 8:22:07 PM by LSBK

I'm of the opinion the first three seasons were the best; it was laugh out loud funny and there was a good sense of satire to it. When you look at those episodes, you realize why the show was revived.

I am also of the opinion, though, that at its worst Family Guy is just hit-or-miss.

The show is good to watch when I'm around friends or family that want some good cheap laughs, but other than that, I wouldn't really watch Family Guy on my own. Unless I'm really bored.

Season 7 is probably infamous because of the two painful and preachy religion episodes.

People find her attractive? Even with her voice? Wow. Then again, I don't find cartoon characters "hot". The ones I enjoy i find cute.

edited 17th Dec '14 9:16:22 PM by teddy

Neither do I, but I was talking more about characters in show than people out of it.

And people comparing Meg and Lois in the looks department happens fairly often (usually by Brian or Lois herself) which is why it stands out to me.

I'm not sure why it annoys me more than standard Meg dumping or Lois' regular bitchiness but it does.

edited 18th Dec '14 9:39:38 AM by LSBK

Yeah, I never got that. The only major difference between them is that Meg has glasses and brown hair. While Lois doesn't.

At least Meg has a voice that doesn't sound like nails sractched on chalkboard lol. I'm going a bit overboard.