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The American animated sitcom Family Guy has been the target of numerous taste and indecency complaints. One source of these complaints comes from the Parents Television Council, a conservative non-profit watchdog group that has not only expressed moral opposition to the series, but also has filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission.
Contents
- Moral controversy
- Parents Television Council
- FCC complaints
- Accusations of anti religious sentiments
- Allegations of insensitivity towards transgender people
- Sarah Palins son controversy
- Terri Schiavo controversy
- Domestic violence controversy
- Boston Marathon controversy
- Rape joke controversy
- Media critics
- Controversy and criticism from other cartoons
- Censorship
- References
In addition to criticizing the show's perceived controversial or offensive content, critics have also targeted the show's stylistic choices including reliance on meta "cutaway sequences", poor writing, and unoriginal storytelling. Other contemporary animated sitcoms such as South Park and The Simpsons have satirized Family Guy's writing.
Moral controversy
The show's use of jokes and satire have led to much controversy, for instance, the "You Have AIDS" sequence from the episode 'The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire'. In a sequence of this episode, Peter and a barbershop quartet sing and dance around the bed of a man with end-stage AIDS. This angered audience members and led to protests by several AIDS service organizations. In his 2006 book The Decency Wars: The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture, author Frederick S. Lane described Family Guy as among several television sitcoms that he felt were "aimed at the darker side of family life."
Parents Television Council
The Parents Television Council, a conservative non-profit watchdog group, has published critical views of Family Guy. In May 2000, in an email newsletter, the PTC launched a letter-writing campaign to the Fox network to persuade the network to cancel Family Guy. This followed the show's return from a long hiatus in its second season, due to what the PTC claimed were "strong advertiser resistance and low ratings". Family Guy made the PTC's 2000, 2005, and 2006 lists of "worst prime-time shows for family viewing", with over forty Family Guy episodes listed as "Worst TV Show[s] of the Week". This was due to profanity, animated nudity, and violence. The series was also named the worst show of the 2006–2007 season by the PTC.
The PTC has targeted Fox criticizing the network of failing to include "S" (sexual content) and "V" (violence) descriptors in content ratings for some Family Guy episodes. The Council has cautioned parents that children will be attracted to the animation, even though the show is only intended for adults. For this reason, the PTC has objected to Fox scheduling Family Guy during early prime time hours. Additionally, the Council has asked Family Guy sponsors such as Wrigley Company and Burger King. The PTC has urged these organizations, along with others, to stop advertising during the show and have frequently accused the Fox network of marketing the show to children. Family Guy executive producer David Goodman responded to the PTC's criticisms by claiming that Family Guy is "absolutely for teenagers and adults" and noted that he does not allow his two children to watch the show.
FCC complaints
The PTC, which has generated most of the indecency complaints received by the United States Federal Communications Commission, has filed formal FCC complaints against Family Guy episodes.
Accusations of anti-religious sentiments
In 1999, Entertainment Weekly TV critic Ken Tucker criticised the show for being anti-Semitic. The same year, L. Brent Bozell III wrote that he felt the episode "Holy Crap" promoted anti-Catholicism and after that episode, Family Guy was pulled from the schedule due to low ratings. The show returned in March to finish airing the second season.
The PTC has criticised what it perceives as Family Guy's negative treatment of religion, concluding in its 2006 report Faith in a Box: Entertainment Television and Religion 2005-2006 that "mockery of God is a constant" on the show. The Media Research Center, also founded by Bozell, was strongly critical of the 2014 episode "The 2000-Year-Old Virgin" in which Jesus emotionally cons people to have sex with their wives. This included Bozell writing “'Family Guy' is known for constantly crossing the lines with vulgarity and blasphemy but thus far this latest 'Christmas' episode takes the cake for most blasphemous and vulgar".
On October 3, 2007, the Bourne Company publishing house, sole owner of the song "When You Wish upon a Star", filed a lawsuit against the makers of Family Guy, claiming copyright infringement over their song "I Need a Jew". The suit claimed harm to the value of the original song due to the offensive lyrics of the parody. On March 16, 2009, U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts ruled that Family Guy did not infringe copyright when they transformed the song "When You Wish Upon a Star" for comical use in an episode.
In 2014, a writer in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz claimed that a scene in the episode "3 Acts of God" was evidence of long-held anti-semitism by MacFarlane.
Allegations of insensitivity towards transgender people
AfterElton.com writer Brent Hartinger gave a negative grade to the episode "Quagmire's Dad", in which Dan Quagmire (Glenn Quagmire's father) undergoes sex reassignment surgery and changes her name to Ida Davis. While noting that the episode deserves credit for making important points about transgender people, he found its inclusion of the vomiting scene and Lois and Peter's transphobic remarks about Ida to be "shockingly insensitive." Hartinger continued, "Frankly, it's literally 'impossible' for me to reconcile last night's episode with MacFarlane's words, unless I come to the conclusion that the man is pretty much a complete idiot." The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, an LGBT media watchdog organization, released a statement about the episode, noting that "GLAAD shares the serious concerns being voiced from members of the community and GLAAD’s Entertainment Media Team is addressing these with Fox."
Sarah Palin's son controversy
In February 2010, the episode "Extra Large Medium," aired in which Ellen, a female character with Down syndrome, mentions that her mother is a former governor of Alaska. Bristol Palin, daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, criticised the show for mocking her brother Trig, who has Down syndrome. She wrote a piece on her mothers Facebook page stating, "If the writers of a particularly pathetic cartoon show thought they were being clever in mocking my brother and my family yesterday, they failed. All they proved is that they're heartless jerks." Sarah Palin herself also criticised the episode in an appearance on The O'Reilly Factor, calling those who made the show "cruel, cold hearted people."
MacFarlane responded that the series uses biting satire as the basis of its humor, and that it was an "equal-opportunity offender." Andrea Fay Friedman, the actress and public speaker who voiced Ellen and who herself has Down syndrome, responded to the criticism, saying that the Palin joke in the show was aimed at Sarah and not her son. She ended this statement concluding that "former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor." In a subsequent interview, Friedman rebuked Palin personally, saying she was angry with Sarah Palin for using her son Trig as a political prop to pander for votes, explaining that she has a normal life and that Palin's son Trig should be treated as normal rather than like a "loaf of bread."
MacFarlane characterized Palin's outrage as a presumptuous attempt to defend people with Down syndrome, and characterizing Friedman's statement as her way of saying that she does not need feigned pity from Palin.
Terri Schiavo controversy
During the episode "Peter-assment" (season 8, 2010), a musical number featuring animated children singing lines such as "Terri Schiavo is kinda alive-o" and "[She's] the most expensive plant you'll ever see." This was seen as mockery of the disability and death of Terri Schiavo, a woman who suffered massive brain damage and stayed in persistent vegetative state for many years. Once again, many protests emerged from people who claimed the program showed prejudice against people with brain injuries. That included protests from the American Life League and from Schiavo's family, who were upset over Family Guy's parody of Terri's case. Bobby Schindler Jr., her brother, urged FOX Network to cancel Family Guy altogether.
Domestic violence controversy
Media analysts reacted negatively to the treatment of domestic violence in the episode "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q" (season 10, 2011). A. J. Hammer of Showbiz Tonight said of the episode, "Like so many other people, I was just shocked by what I saw on Family Guy last night...It was really just a depressing half hour of television." Whitney Jefferson of Jezebel, a feminist website, also strongly criticized the episode for its storyline involving Brenda and her boyfriend, Jeff: "Personally, I'm way beyond being offended by the show — I've long been numbed to shock-value offensiveness — and had stopped watching years ago anyhow. But being a sucker for a Halloween-themed episodes, I tuned in to Fox's "Animation Domination" comedy block last night. What I saw was seriously awful." Jefferson ended her review of the episode by stating that the show was "Definitely the scariest Halloween special we've ever seen."
Boston Marathon controversy
The episode "Turban Cowboy", aired on March 17, 2013, contained a cutaway gag showing Peter committing mass murder at the Boston Marathon by plowing his car through the runners. After the bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon, which occurred about a month after the episode's air date, April 15, Fox promptly removed the "Turban Cowboy" episode from Fox.com and Hulu. The network also stated it had no immediate plans to broadcast the episode again (although it was back on the air by 2014). The episode still airs on Adult Swim and TBS.
Rape joke controversy
The episode "The Simpsons Guy" (a 2014 crossover with The Simpsons), featured a rape joke which was shown in the trailer for the episode and almost immediately generated controversy before the episode aired. Tim Winter, the President of the Parents Television Council, wrote to Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Seth MacFarlane and Fox about the joke. In it, after Bart's prank call to Moe asking for a man with an innuendo name, Stewie makes his own call telling Moe that his sister is being raped. Winter felt that jokes about rape make it "less outrageous in real life", and that children who watch The Simpsons but not Family Guy would be unfamiliar with the latter show's brand of humor. A Fox spokeswoman declined to comment on the joke. MacFarlane, interviewed by Entertainment Weekly, said that although he would be attacked for stating it as such, the joke was "pretty funny... in context". A spokeswoman from the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network said "I think the show is making it clear that rape is not funny by how they are positioning the joke."
Media critics
In addition, Family Guy has been panned by some media critics. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly has frequently panned the show, grading it with a "D", and naming it the worst show of the 1999–2000 television season. Tucker responded to a reader's question in 2005 that he continued to dislike the series. Mark Graham noted "MacFarlane's incredibly rocky relationship with both the magazine and its lead television critic, Ken Tucker" in a blog on the New York magazine website.
In the commentary for the Family Guy direct-to-video film, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Seth MacFarlane notes that Entertainment Weekly had been much nicer to them recently, giving them a cover story upon their return to the air. In that same film, Stewie breaks the neck of a reporter as soon as he discovers he works for Entertainment Weekly.
In the 2000 Family Guy episode "There's Something About Paulie", Peter wipes himself with a page of Entertainment Weekly when he runs out of toilet paper, declaring, "Well, that's two problems solved."
Controversy and criticism from other cartoons
Other cartoonists have criticised the show as well. The show's animation has come under fire by Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi, who expresses concern that the simplistic animation of Family Guy will negatively impact the new wave of content creators.
The show's writing style has also come under criticism by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. In a 2006 interview, Parker and Stone stated that they dislike having their show compared to Family Guy. After the episode "Cartoon Wars" aired, Parker states they received support and gratitude from the staffs of The Simpsons and King of the Hill for "ripping on 'Family Guy.'"
The show has been criticised for being too derivative of The Simpsons, with both exemplifying a working-class family with three children. Several episodes of The Simpsons, including "Missionary: Impossible," "Treehouse of Horror XIII," and "The Italian Bob", have poked fun at Family Guy, with the latter two implying that MacFarlane's show is guilty of plagiarism. However, both MacFarlane and Simpsons creator Matt Groening have said that there is no serious feud between the two of them and their shows. At the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International on July 24, 2010, The Simpsons writer Matt Selman jokingly referred to MacFarlane, stating, "Come on, Seth MacFarlane does one show three times." Selman later backed away from the comment, adding, "Those shows are all really funny – they deserve to exist." The animated film Bender's Big Score, based on Groening's show Futurama, featured a Family Guy Laugh a Month calendar. In a comic book crossover between Groening's two shows, The Simpsons / Futurama Crossover Crisis, Family guy character Brian Griffin is depicted on a television in Hell.
In 2003, The Simpsons writer/producer Al Jean described Family Guy as "a little too derivative of The Simpsons" and said it "should be more original."
Writer Chris Ware, author of Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, has noticed several similarities between the title character of his work and Family guy character Stewie Griffin. Ware has remarked, "[The similarities are] a little too coincidental to be simply, well, coincidental." He further stated, "I don't want a book of seven years' worth of my stuff to become available and then be accused of being a rip-off of Family Guy." 20th Century Fox has insisted that Stewie is an entirely original character. In a 2003 interview, Seth MacFarlane said that he had never seen the comic strip before, described the similarities as "pretty shocking" and said that he could see how Ware would reach that conclusion."
Censorship
In the episode "420," Stewie and Brian try to legalise marijuana. The Venezuelan government reacted negatively to the episode, and banned Family Guy from airing on any local station which generally fill their schedules with re-runs of old US shows. Local station Venevisión was threatened with financial sanctions for broadcasting the show, which was avoided by broadcasting Baywatch instead. The station was forced to show public service films as an apology. Venezuelan Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami stated that any cable stations which refuse to cease airings of the show would be fined, and also criticized the show for promoting the use of marijuana. Later, the Venezuelan government showed a clip of the episode which featured Brian and Stewie singing about marijuana; they then stated that the show is an example of how the US supports the use of marijuana.