r/conspiracy: Family Guy

Family Guy

14 2017-10-14 by polkadotgirl

Edit: This post has been linked to TMOR. People are downvoting like crazy.

Family Guy

Seth McFarlane

Before I begin analyzing anything about Family Guy, I wanted to share that Seth McFarlane conveniently avoided his flight on 9/11 due to hangover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWnkEUS6sNI

That seems reasonable enough, right? Honestly, though, despite his popularity, I never really did anything real research on him. I never actually thought about him. Where did he come from? How did he end up making something as big as Family Guy?

Digging into his history, I was surprised to see that he was an animator and writer for Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory, and many more classic and popular TV shows:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_MacFarlane

I kept digging deeper. He went to the Rhode Island School of Design, one of the best design schools in the United States. Still, it was really, really hard to dig deeper than that. I could not find any information on how he was actually ‘discovered’, other than he went to a good school and he came from a wealth family.

So, all I can gather is that he grew up in a rich family, and he went to a rich school, and he worked hard, and he somehow got discovered, and now he’s famous. Oh, and he, avoided 9/11. Oh, and he’s a gay rights activist. That was noted several times in many articles.

Anyway, Family Guy has its funny moments, but when you really sit back and analyze it, there are some disturbing messages spread in the majority of the shows, and I wanted to discuss that in this post. This post may not be profound, but I feel the majority do not really think about the things they are watching. Humor can be a form of brainwashing - a way to normalize certain extremes.

Women

I find it interesting that feminists speak out about a lot of things, but they never speak out against TV shows that degrade women consistently. I wanted to start with women because of all the current celebrity scandals going on right now regarding the abuse of women.

In the show, women are painted as consistently unintelligent and only valuable if beautiful. Lois sometimes breaks the mold, but never too much.

*For one, they idealize abortion consistently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlP7n9Amakw

This show paints Lois as the “progressive liberal” – she is intelligent enough that many may be influenced by her views. In contrast, Peter is usually the stupid one, so Lois seems like the voice of reason. They use Lois to promote a certain feminist ideal. The writers do not seem to think women can think profoundly, but they sure tell women what to think.

*They degrade motherhood:

In one episode, Lois is changing Stewie’s diaper, and he is cussing her out. He says something along the lines of, “You’re proud of this? This is what you do with your life?” Lois’s maternal role is seen as lowly.

I can’t find that particular video now, but there are many episodes where Lois’s role as a housewife is degraded. I mean, much of the show has been centered around Stewie wanting to kill Lois simply because she is his mom.

*They Normalize Abuse of Women

This happens much in the show, but what greater example than how they treat Meg? Meg is consistently emotionally abused. In fact, every single episode seems to have at least one attack on Meg.

Whenever I watch shows centered around Meg, I truly grow saddened. She is shown as unworthy because she is not good looking (mostly that’s it).

There is so much more here, but the point is that it is all shown with humor. Seth McFarlane is sure concerned about LGBT equality, but he does not seem to care about how his TV show degrades women.

Let’s not forget Quagmire. His entire character centers around how he drugs and even rapes women. Where is the feminist outrage? Here is a scene where he drugs and rapes a woman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pFU6zjGe8w

How funny!

But Seth McFarlane is so outraged by Harvey Weinstein:

http://ew.com/tv/2017/10/11/seth-macfarlane-harvey-weinstein-jessica-barth/

Does anybody else see the contradiction? His entire TV show is devoted to degrading and mocking woman, yet he is just so emotional about Harvey Weinstein. If degrading women is done through humor, it’s ok, right?

Christianity

Family Guy hates Christianity. There are numerous episodes mocking Christianity. Whatever your religious beliefs, I feel it is important that anybody asks, why? Sure, they have the occasional quip about Islam, but there are not entire episodes devoted to the absurdity of Islam.

Here is an episode that mocks Jesus’s birth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKS4VixzIj4

Here is in episode where they promote Richard Dawkin’s “God Delusion.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE5UkbZQYyM

Remember just how popular this show is, and how easily manipulated people by celebrity endorsements.

Stay away from the church. In the battle over science vs. religion, science offers credible evidence for all the serious claims it makes. The church says, “Oh, it’s right here in this book, see? The one written by people who thought the sun was magic?” I for one would like to see some proof that there is a God. And if you say, “a baby’s smile,” I’m going to kick you right in the stomach. The 'Family' guy commences to Harvard, Entertainment Weekly, 13 June 2006.

Moral Relativism

Even if you dismiss Christianity and religion, there is no doubt that Family Guy centers around extremism. It is my view that we become desensitized to extremism through comedy. I have written much about this in other posts (I linked at the bottom of this post).

The entire show centers around extremes in moral behavior. Interestingly, here is a clip where Peter explains that people are idiots if they take their values from tv shows in the first place:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2OdDl4jSIE

While I agree with this clip to an extent, it is manipulative. Yes, parents are absolutely responsible for what their children watch, but this clip is undermining the fact that television has a huge influence on adult minds as well.

Seth McFarlane can implant all of his political views through extreme humor, yet at the same time, he criticizes anybody who might be manipulated by the views of his show in the first place. It just seems like a complete paradox.

It’s his way of justifying what he does, I suppose.

Either way, the show consistently paints morals as useless. I’m not even sure what clip to use for this. What is “good” and what is “bad” on Family Guy? If it gets a laugh, it seems to be okay.

“If something is shocking without being funny, it is hard to justify.” – Seth McFarlane

"Religion notoriously claims that they invented morality, they didn't. Morality exists in animals, ya know.” Really?

Nihilism

Like many popular cartoons, nihilism is often promoted on Family Guy. Brian is an atheist, and he consistently promotes the view that nothing happens when we die:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeuqldbTluA

We should “live in the moment” and not concern ourselves with anything else, right?

Brian seems to be a direct reflection of Seth – perhaps his alter ego.

Humiliation

The entire concept of humor in Family Guy centers around humiliation. As mentioned earlier, Meg is consistently abused and humiliated.

Here is the best of bullying Meg Griffin, seasons 1-6:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHhZ19_BJYU

Besides Meg, every episode is centered around humiliating or degrading somebody or something. Here is a scene where Peter gets raped:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6Lsx5QBwW4

This is the tv show this generation and the upcoming generation are “growing up” with – the normalization of everything.

Predictive Programming

Like the Simpsons, Family Guy has been known to predict some strange, "coincidental" events.

Supposedly it predicted the Boston Marathon incident and Robin William’s death:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X289sq1pLk

Creepily, Family Guy hinted that Bruce Jenner was a woman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOwjCS8PBSM

Did Family Guy predict Joan Rivers’s death?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0SDjLQLnNc

That one may be a little far-fetched, but you get the point. Perhaps it is all just coincidence, or is there something more?

Desensitization

Perhaps children should not be watching this show, but should adults be watching it either? The entire show seems to be focused on creating the most extreme situation and getting us to laugh at it.

There is no subject that seems to be off limits in Family Guy. Ultimately, desensitization is normalization.

Here is my post on modern comedy and indoctrination if you are interested:

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/6nhupx/modern_comedy_and_indoctrination_how_humiliation/

What is the next stage in humor? Can it become anymore depraved?

Maybe Seth McFarlane is innocent, and he is not purposely promoting anything. However, I highly doubt that. Even if he is not, somebody helped him and his show rise to insane popularity. The question is, as always, what are they trying to promote?

Again, this post is nothing profound, and that’s the problem. Because this type of humor is so normalized, nobody stops and thinks about it.

Until you realize how easily it is for your mind to be manipulated, you remain the puppet of someone else's game.” ― Evita Ochel

78 comments

1 Jackarii 2017-10-14

Seth Mcfarlene hasn't written any family guy episodes for over 4 years