Family Guy no laughing matter for Sarah Palin

By Bernard Mendleman

The Griffins, as portrayed on Family Guy, are TV’s most dysfunctional family. The father Peter is an insensitive clout, yet Lois, his wife, keeps putting up with his shtick. Brian, the walking, talking family dog is in love with Lois. Baby Stewie is always plotting to kill his mother. Teen son Chris is an overweight underachiever, while his sister Meg will do anything to attract attention.

This weekly cartoon show, created by Seth MacFarlane, always offends someone or something. Family Guy, now in its eighth season, is an equal opportunity abuser — it attacks women, minorities, religions, as well as those who are physically and mentally handicapped.

So why does it attract such a large viewing audience? One reason is that every one has a family member or a friend that reminds them of a character on the show, but the main reason is that, irreverent as it is, it’s cleverly written, hilariously funny, and up-to-the-minute topical.

In a recent Valentine Day’s episode, Chris goes on a date with a girl who has Down syndrome. When talking about her family the girl comments that her mother was a former governor of Alaska. No surprise that Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska and mother of a boy with Down syndrome, took offence calling it “yet another kick in the gut” adding, “ the writers for Family Guy are classless jerks”.

It must have been difficult for Palin to crowd all that into the palm of her hand.

Obviously the producers of the show — never ones to shy away from controversy, choosing rather to create it whenever possible — anticipated a reaction from Palin. It was then that they revealed that Andrea Fay Friedman, the voice actress who played the role of Chris’ date, was born with Down syndrome.

Friedman had this to say: “I thought the line was very funny. I think the word is sarcasm. In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humour and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”

It’s not the first time that Family Guy has poked fun at Palin. In a 2008 episode Stewie and Brian are transported to Poland during the Nazi invasion of World War II, where they beat up and steal the uniforms of two Nazi officers. Stewie looks down at his uniform and notices a McCain/Palin campaign button attached to its lapel.

Seems to me Palin never took public issue with that.

This entire buzz reminds me of the time in 1992, when Vice President Dan Quayle made the mistake of picking a fight with Candice Bergen’s fictional character, TV reporter Murphy Brown. In the sitcom, Brown gave birth to a child after becoming pregnant by a man who did not want to be a part of the child’s life.

Quayle said, “It doesn’t help matters when primetime TV has Murphy Brown — a character who supposedly epitomizes today’s intelligent, highly paid, professional woman — mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice.”

That led to him being criticized for his intolerance of non-traditional families.

As for Palin, she was incensed enough to take on a cartoon character, but does not have the guts to take on a real person like Rush Limbaugh for his inflammatory degrading uses of the word “retard”.

I think Candice Bergen should consider recreating the role of Murphy Brown once more, and interview Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. I would also like to see Family Guy have cartoon characters in the form of Brown and Palin doing an interview. What fun that would be.

When it comes to dysfunctional families, the Palins belong close to the top of the list. But what frightens me is that there has to be something dysfunctionally wrong with so many other American families for jumping on the Palin bandwagon.

It’s time for her to go back to shooting and skinning moose — and watching Russia from her house.
— riben@videotron.ca