Why Family Guy Can Still Be So Controversial Today (And Get Away With It)

Cartoon Seth MacFarlane “Family Guy” has long traded in shock humor and crude jokes. Like the brothers’ version of The Simpsons, Family Guy came about when many comedians and TV shows were testing the limits of what was considered acceptable on television. Many of the comedians named railed against the still-memorable manufactured utility of Reagan in the 1980s. MacFarlane was born in 1972, so he grew up watching the blandness of the “classic American sitcom.” The 1990s saw a general cultural bristling of the tendency toward “politically correct language,” even by those who agreed with a sense of sensitivity.

McFarlane’s “Family Guy” opened with a riff on the title sequence of “All in the Family” and then exploded into a brilliant song and dance about (ironically, of course) restoring “good old values.” However, the title was ironic. Peter Griffin (MacFarlane) was not a “family guy” at all, but a rude, media-blinded, alcoholic, prone to sexism and bigotry. The old-fashioned values, Macfarlane declared, were actually terrible and outdated.

Much of the shocking humor in “Family Guy” is meant to channel the sexist, bigoted views so common in “good old” TV shows, showing just how rotten America’s core conservative values ​​really are. However, with many of the jokes in the show, the line is blurred. McFarlane occasionally comments. Sometimes he just acts rude for the sake of it. Every episode will have at least one joke that will offend most people.

“Family Guy” holds that streak for 426 episodes over 23 seasons. The show has been canceled and renewed, and there’s no sign of it ending anytime soon. U interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2022McFarlane, along with producers Alec Sulkin and Rich Appel, theorize how they managed to get away with it for so long. McFarlane claims that few people are genuinely offended by his show.

McFarlane found no evidence (at least anecdotal) that anyone was genuinely offended by any of his cutting jokes on “Family Guy.” He said he’s come across some thoughtful essays and reflections on how someone might be offended by “Family Guy” or how the series is some kind of cultural vehicle for our fellow citizens to be disrespected, but he’s never spoken to someone who openly resented (except for the occasional celebrity he made fun of).

He noted that there was some outrage from Twitter users (turned into the social media nightmare that X is now), but McFarlane was wise enough to recognize that Twitter users were not a significant part of his audience. He knew that social media was not reality. McFarlane said:

“Presumed outrage, I don’t find much of it in the real world. I’ve been reading a lot about this on Twitter, which is statistically very marginal as far as we believe it goes. Most people aren’t on the But from a comedy standpoint, I don’t think I’ve ever talked to a person in the real world — outside of social media and outside of thinking — who’s really upset about the state of edgy comedy. If anything, I hear the opposite.

It’s also worth noting that Family Guy, being animated, has a lot more freedom to say and do rude things. When a live actor says something clearly anti-Semitic in a comedy show, it’s hard to take because a real person is saying it on tape. In “Family Guy”, dark jokes are repeated by caricatures with big eyes, talking dogs and other fantastic characters. Absurd visuals take the edge off a lot.

Producer Alec Sulkin notes 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 can’t be done legally. Satirizing a public figure is fair game, but “Family Guy” has come close to legal libel at times. Then Apel himself joined in, noting that animated shows are able to go beyond the boundaries of shocking humor thanks to their medium. After all, The Simpsons and South Park, Family Guy’s big brothers, also get away with “offensive” material, so Family Guy just followed suit. Apel said:

“I think if you look at ‘South Park’, ‘The Simpsons’ and our show, it’s no coincidence that they’re all cartoons. And I think that people’s “outrage” and their willingness to be offended by anything is no accident. another world, when they’re animated characters, it’s proof that people don’t get offended like that.”

McFarlane pointed out that characters like Peter, Lois, and Stewie Griffin are not allowed to chirp angrily because they are animated characters. You can’t even pretend that they live in the real world, and the audience has to accept them abstractly.

It’s easy to “get away” with being abusive when all the evidence points to people not being offended. There will always be a market for edgy, offensive humor, and “Family Guy” has been ready to offer it for more than two decades. Of course, one can reasonably criticize “Family Guy” — the creators of “South Park” openly satirized the show puts its pop culture references ahead of its story — but the show’s slapstick humor, I think we can all agree, is not one of its great weaknesses.