Comments on: Seth MacFarlane Loves Rape Jokes

By: abipolarguy

abipolarguy — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 20:12:04 +0000

In reply to Wendy. Macfarlane's an ass who even ridicules specific famous women for their physical appearance in Family Guy scripts ( as just another example of his misogyny), but Wait, Tina Fey? Was I not paying attention watching 30 Rock? Not doubting you, just asleep at the switch I guess.

By: frank armani

frank armani — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 14:08:00 +0000

I love the female body. It is to be appreciated, not maligned. The argument that some humor, “makes fun of” proponents of rape or violence against women, is stale and misguided and simply a thinly veiled excuse. I teach Martial Arts and a self defense course specifically for women. Self defense is 80% cerebral, awareness and attitude. There is no five finger death punch. Anyone who pokes any sort of humor at rape or brutality, is fueling the fire, not providing any sort of social panacea. Only dialogue, programming, and awareness will help the issue. I’ve read all of the comments on here and as Phyllis said, we, as a culture and society, find ourselves brought to a lower level of conscientiousness along with being ‘dumbed down.” I know I’m a couple of years late here,but I just found this wonderful blog site and have become an elle fan. Ok, I’m done. Carry on.

By: Ethan

Ethan — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 07:45:00 +0000

In reply to Ethan. Ummm... That was MUCH longer than I thought; sorry.

By: Ethan

Ethan — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 07:44:15 +0000

For starters, holy crap, I used my name and not my go-to pseudonym; anyway, the point of my comment is that, yes, Family Guy is, frankly, a pathetic show that panders to the “lowest common denominator”. The first season was the only one that was, to me, truly and (added after searching through the episodes: ALMOST) fully enjoyable. I’m sorry if there are rape jokes in it; I honestly don’t remember, though I do remember many other deplorable jokes, but the worst didn’t come until a couple of seasons later. I try to keep my watching of the show limited to those episodes that focus on Brian and Stewie, particularly the “Road to…” episodes, since they’re the only ones that still bring more complex humor than “bodily functions and sickening sex ‘jokes'”. However, one episode did something I still can’t believe Family Guy could do: it made me cry. The season 3 episode “Death Lives” starts, as often, with Peter being a moron (keep in mind, this was back when Peter was just a bumbling oaf, but still a decent father; not the jackass he is today) and ditching his wife on their anniversary. Yes ladies, he didn’t forget; he CONSCIOUSLY DITCHED HER. During this, he crashes his car, gets struck by lightning and dies. Death visits him and shows him all the things he messed up over the years. After this, Peter convinces Death that he’s worth a second chance, and as Lois storms up to him (he’s smiling and waving), Peter Frampton (Death tricked him into being there, I think) comes out from behind a tree with his guitar, playing “Baby I Love Your Way”, apparently “their song” (I never understood that sentiment, but that’s beside the point). That scene, right there, as they’re both crying, always hits me hard.
Anyway, while the show may generally be trite rubbish, occasionally sifting through the dung will get you a lovely diamond. Sadly, that’s only slightly more common than it is in the literal sense; however, for all its offensiveness, it does occasionally have honestly funny episodes, and sometimes it even has a beautiful moment. While it may not get the same reaction from you, or most people, I felt the need to share that.
I’m sorry for the rambling, and if anybody gets to this line, thanks for putting up with it. As I’ve said before, I am…. I can’t say just as furious as you, Elle, but I am very furious at the show for many of the same reasons, and several different ones…. anyway, I’m furious at the show’s preferred “humor”, and gladly condemn it. I know I said that at the beginning, but it felt like I should reiterate. Thank you again, whoever was willing to put up with my rambling.

By: Elle

Elle — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:42:25 +0000

In reply to Sarah Woolley. Thanks Sarah! I will read that right now.

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 01:48:39 +0000

In reply to Jessie Nicole. I never could stomach Family Guy but it got progressively worse in it's blatant misogyny. It makes me ill when I see women have ringtones and screensavers of Quagmire, the ultimate date-rapists.

By: Sarah Woolley

Sarah Woolley — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:43:12 +0000

After many were asking “Why can’t Tina Fey host the Oscars” I wrote a piece on why a Mean Girl is no better than a Family Guy.

http://sarahwoolley.tumblr.com/post/44633816012/tina-fey-for-the-oscars-only-a-mean-girl-can-top

I’ve linked to the Tits & Sass ‘Tina Fey Hates Sex Workers’ and Anna Breslaw’s essay, at the end.

By: Brodie

Brodie — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 20:48:14 +0000

In reply to Irony Butterfly.

That’s fair, and I definitely think it’s possible to enjoy things while being aware that they have problematic aspects.

That said, I’m strongly opposed to Family Guy and other shows with that brand of humor because I just don’t feel like there’s enough distance between the sincere sexists (and racists, and transphobes, and homophobes, etc etc) and the jokes made on that show. It’s one thing to explicitly parody harmful attitudes in a way that it’s quite clear that the jokes are laughing AT bigots instead of with them, and quite another to make jokes at the expense of marginalized people. There’s a great post on the now-defunct blog Fugitivus called “a woman walks into a rape, uh, bar” about rape jokes that explains it better than I do (I’d link to it but I’m on my phone here, so I recommend googling it).

By: Irony Butterfly

Irony Butterfly — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 15:39:43 +0000

I’m in the camp that finds Family Guy funny (although I wouldn’t want to actually defend single every family guy joke). I watch it, and I find it engages with hyperbole and irony – like I don’t think the joke is that “dead strippers are funny” – I think the joke is “old white dudes view the dead stripper as a minor inconvenience in their evening.” Like it is not meant to be “funny because its true” – it’s meant to be funny because it is ridiculously not true. Like when I watch it, what I see is that it is bringing out stereotype, often one that is poorly defined and kind of amorphous and totally blowing it right up and then saying “look at it.”

This is why I find it funny (sometimes – again, don’t want to defend every single joke) – I’m not trying to convince anyone else to find it funny because that would be weird, but I watch family guy and I laugh and I don’t think I’m misogynist and I don’t think I’m callous to actual abuse of actual sex workers. However, I don’t think the benchmark for acceptable humour can be “does it make slow, middle-class undereducated men think what we want them to think?” or, for that matter “do slow, middle-class undereducated men really get it?” If that is the benchmark, relatively little of what I’ve loved from Gosford Park to Buffy the Vampire Slayer will pass a test.

By: D

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 02:00:46 +0000

I like edgy humor as much as the next guy, but Family Guy has never done it for me either. I think it’s a little too self-satisfied, plus they tend to overdo the non-sequitur detours.