IMHO "The Family Guy": "Family Gay"

 

He just gives lip-service to gay rights so that he can continue to perpetuate negative gay stereotypes.

 

Seth MacFarlane and Jimmy Kimmel were cloned from the same tumor, I believe.

I hadnt see Family Guy in a while and I remember when it was crass and funny, but now its just crass. No speech could ever make up for the relentless tired stereotyping, it went nowhere.

It was awfull.

I watched the episode last night after the B&S liveblog, which was late for me (I go to bed at 11pm like clockwork), and when I finished it, I didn't delete it.  I couldn't decide if it was funny in the Family Guy style, or if they'd missed the mark.  I decided I needed to watch it again to decide, which probably means they missed the mark.  I generally give FG a lot of latitude, because they're pretty equal opportunity offenders, but if I need a second look, it can't be good.  

I found it totally out of character for Brian to take Peter to the Straight Camp - he once held Mayor West hostage to make gay marriage happen for his cousin.  Stewie played against type, even with Brian, being anti-gay and religious, when Seth's come out and said Stewie is gay, and normally outs himself twice an episode.

I guess, after all this rambling, what has me wanting to watch again, is that they seemed to be trying to have the character play completely against their normal personalities - Peter, Stewie, Brian - and when a show does that, they're generally trying to make a point about the new personalities they grafted on the characters for the episode.  I missed the point they were trying to make.  Which probably means they were aiming for something and missed, which does happen in comedy.  Problem is in this case, since they missed making their point, the whole thing became offensive.

I'm hoping I figure out the point for the personality grafts via repeated viewing. 

The "Oh they make fun of everyone" excuse is crap. Why?

 

BECAUSE THEY DON'T!!!!!!

Very telling that the one established gay character on the show is barely used in this episode.  

 

Never in my experience. It started as a total SIMPSONS rip-off, supposedly irreverent and edgy, although it wasn't 1/3 as witty. Since then, it's gone a cruder route to appeal to the Adult Swim crowd...and it's still not funny.

 

 

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...make it an episode of Rick and Steve and you'd be doubled over in laughter.

Like I said, American Dad is better. You're on the money, Lyle, this episode fails, abysmally. There's a good heart at the center of it, saying Seth MacFarlane is a homophobe is more than a bit off the mark. He just also has a chief demographic of 12-24 white males to appeal to, and the show has completely lost any thread of reality, grounded characterizations and somewhat cohesive plots. Homophobia, racism and other touchy subjects have to handled right to be funny, to create satire, irony or even just effective slap-stick. Family Guy just can't do it well anymore.

 

I too thought they'd pick the episode up when it came to the straight camp and Stewie's completely about-face about his own sexuality, and was disappointed when they didn't, but whatever, I wasn't expecting it to be on South Park's level. The American Dad episode was pretty funny, and Greg and Terry is more of how it should be done.

As I posted at www.towleroad.com, I really was looking forward to this episode since the preview clip was shown. I've loved Family Guy since the very beginning. That's not to say they haven't crossed the line of bad taste on more than one occasion. The barbershop quartet singing to a dying patient, "You've got AIDS" comes to mind. That's been a big problem with the show. They seem incapable of censoring themselves. They'll put anything on for shock value, without rhyme or reason.

I'd rate last nights Family Guy as 'catastrophic epic fail'. Having Peter become the stereotypical feminine gay guy came across as lazy writing and horrifically dated. As Ed mentioned, Brian would never take Peter to a Straight Camp. He's too smart to think that would work. Again, lazy writing. The solution to being gay: beat the crap out of a gay guy with baseball bats. Hilarious commentary on society? Hardly. Peter's dream come true: having an 11-way with a bunch of mincing gay guys. Nice message. Of course the second the gay gene wears off Peter is horrified at what he is doing and runs screaming out of the apartment. Another nice message. 

Lois making the comment about a person's sexual identity not being a choice was nice. But as far as I was concerned the message was small consolation for the 20 minute gay assault that preceded it. The story could have worked had Peter been given a placebo, or if Peter hadn't turned into a gay cliché. But, again, the writers took the easy way out. You'd think there would be one gay writer on the series that would have had the guts to say, "This story line stinks. Let's work up another angle." Although in this case, you don't need to be gay to see the lazy effort that was put into this episode.

...has been a very strong and VOCAL supporter of gay rights. Just read this article.

Seth isn't completely to blame for this - he didn't write it (it was written by Richard Appel), and he didn't direct it (it was directed by Brian Iles).

I've always found this website to be over-critical. No matter what the object in question is, someone always finds something to complain about. Seth MacFarlane has been a very passionate and positive person for the LGBT community - if you guys are criticizing and attacking people who do support us, how will that help our community? I think it makes us look obnoxious, and no one will want to help people who are so cynical and analytical. 

This episode was in bad taste, but Seth MacFarlane is NOT a homophobe, and one bad episode doesn't mean the entire series is bad. I've been a fan since the very beginning, and I'm not going to stop because the guys at Family Guy made a mistake.

I watched.  I laughed at the stuff at the race track.  The gay stuff.  Not funny.  Generally, I enjoy the show quite a bit, but there have been a handful of bad eps.  This joins them.

'nuff said.

I dont think that there is anything wrong with it. It is not amazing comidy but it does have its funny parts, I also like when the hourse went off the track.  . I did see some quips that were made to defend homesexuality.  Also people are complaning about how the show only puts things on it to shock people. Thats kind of the point of these shows isn't it Family guy, American Dad, South Park and even the Simpsons (eventhough they are some what toned down compared to the others)?  

 

I deleted my family guy timer on my DVR.  I think Seth has checked out of both FG and American Dad, both have been nothing but shit lately.  So, both are now off my record list.

It was ok, but it really wasn't funny at all. I'm not saying that stereotypes can't be funny from time to time, but it's the same stereotype being used over and over again. It gets boring. Usually I love this show, but I was just waiting for the big punchline throughout the whole show and unfortunately it wasn't delivered. Oh well, at least they had a positive message behind it all...I think.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/gaycomicgeek 

It wasn't bad just terribly boring with some amusing moments,just not enough to sustain a 30 minute time slot.

Not one of thier worst but it's not up to classic "Family Guy"

Oh, come on. You can't tell me you didn't get a laugh out of this exchange:

MEG: So Dad's going to be gay forever?

LOIS: Possibly, Meg. So we're all just going to have to get used to this, and learn to accept your father for who he is, now.

STEWIE: Oh, great plan, Lois. Hey, here's a nutty idea: Ever read the Bible?  Leviticus 18:22!

BRIAN: Stewie, you're judgmentally quoting Bible verses, and you don't even know how to read.

STEWIE: Welcome to America, Brian!

Funny because it's true, as they say.

Overall, I enjoyed the episode.  Of course, I'm a big fan of the show and enjoy every episode, even the really crap ones.  And "Family Gay" was far from the worst.

I laughed numerous times, even at some of the "offensive" stereotype gags. As for the argument that Brian should have known better than to send Peter to "Straight Camp," I disagree.  It's a case where a born straight man was turned gay through gene therapy. Underneath, though, he was still straight.  He's the one "gay" on the planet that straight camp might actually have worked on.

Was it perfect?  Hell no.  But who expects perfect on American televison these days.  I do think they missed something by not having the doctor at the experimental clinic try (and perhaps succeed) to turn Peter back by injecting him with the "straight" gene. Oh, well.

And to answer the question of whether you're taking the episode a little too seriously, ask yourself this: Can you honestly expect a serious message about gay issues -- or any issue, for that matter -- from a show like Family Guy?

clearly gays are good at overreacting. sheesh. my boyfriend and i laughed out loud during the entire episode.  espeically the squeal peter made about the 11-way... we had to rewind to watch again and again!

it feels like the gay community is spewing just as much hate as can be spown (?) to anyone who they find offensive... maybe it's time to look in the mirror and decide who we are going to be, those who promote tolerance or people who seek out those who don't agree with us and attack them (hmmm remind you of anyone?).

Well, one good thing came of the episode, regardless of how you feel about it - it totally pissed off the conservatives.  The Parents Television Council has filed an indecency complaint with the FCC about the episode.  Gotta love how they distill the episode down in their complaint, though:

 "Fox treated viewers to everything from an ‘eleven-way’ gay orgy to baby Stewie eating a bowl of cereal with horse sperm instead of milk ... if that isn’t enough, the show’s leading character is also shown fanaticizing about his wife and moaning while a horse licks his bare behind.  Clearly, the explicit content was not isolated to one instance in one segment of the show; it permeated the entire program."

 

Even better is Seth's response to the media about the complaint:

 "Oh, yeah. That’s like getting hate mail from Hitler. They’re literally terrible human beings. I’ve read their newsletter, I’ve visited their website, and they’re just rotten to the core. For an organization that prides itself on Christian values — I mean, I’m an atheist, so what do I know? — they spend their entire day hating people. They can all suck my d**k as far as I’m concerned."

 

The article is here: http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/03/parent-group-discovers-family-guy-files-fcc-complaint.html

I've since reviewed the episode again, and I may back off my initial impression of it - maybe it was shock from going from Brother's & Sisters watching to this, but it wasn't as bad as the first viewing.  I think what slapped me around was that I felt they were really trying to make a point around the whole thing, and it never showed up.  I felt more cheated that they didn't cleverly tie up the plot than any individual gag.   

I have watched Family Guy in the past, and have found it occasionally funny. To me the most offensive thing about the episode was how unfunny it was. Even before the introduction of the gay s/l there's not one funny moment. After watching the only positive message that seems to come from the episode is yes gay people are weird, and have really freakish sex, but they can't help it.

 

I think the episode sums itself up with the injection of the Seth Rogen gene:

"the appearence of being funny, although you haven't done anything funny."

I can't really say that I've found Family Guy to be all that funny overall (my main exception is the scene with the ipecac contest from one of the earlier seasons - that still cracks me up).  I learned, oddly enough, from the Cartoon Wars episodes of South Park that you can't really expect any depth/thought/provoking social commentary from it and should just figure on vapid, shallow attempts at cheap laughs. 

This is just another instance where the manatees bobbed some balls around, but this time one of the balls had the word "gay" on it.   I wouldn't suggest that I didn't find the jokes funny because they were "offensive" (I didn't find them offensive really) but rather because I haven't found the show all that laugh-provoking at all in such an amazingly long time to the point where I attribute my previous enjoyment of the show to "naïve youth".  I certainly have a hard time watching an episode of Family Guy and NOT thinking of South Park, negating any enjoyment.

and afterwards I thought, their getting exactly what they want in reactions. so I went back and re-watched it and TOOK my laughs worth out of it. we're right they're wrong, we know it, thats all that matters.

I'm a fan of the show, and I saw that episode when it premiered; I laughed. You know, I'd be a hypocrate if I wass offended by what they say of gays, and then laugh at what they say of women, Jewish people, black people, Asians, children with diseases, Canada (as I'm from there)and the list goes on. It's just like South Park.

The show is ridiculous, and hops onto a plethora of different peoples and subjects to make fun of. One of their main characters- Stewie- is [at least!] bi, and so it was an interesting choice of characters to have say the Leviticus quote.

Show like these aren't ment to offend people, but make them laugh. SOMETIMES there's an underlying moral making a parody of America's society. What about the episode were Brian's gay cousin gets married- I thought that it was a very liberal stance. And so, its probably a good thing that they had a gay-mocking episode to bring balance to their material.

 

Oh- this is my first comment here--- heyy everyone! =D