Lucky there's a Family Guy
Family Guy is seriously the best animated show on TV right
now aside from South Park. It's also one of the strangest
works of art in history. The Family Guy characters often act
like they're aware of being TV characters, or even more often,
as if they're watching TV. Peter even watches himself getting
arrested and beaten up on COPS, live while it's happening.
A lot of the humor arises when one character who behaves like
a real person interacts with an artificial TV being or a passive
TV viewer. All good contemporary comedy is self-referential
and self-conscious,
and Family Guy hops between reference frames as effortlessly
as any body of work since MC
Escher's.
It's common in animated shows for a small core voice cast
to do many characters each. Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer
voice dozens of characters between them on the Simpsons -
HA's characters are the tenors like Apu, while HS's characters
are baritones like Principal Skinner. On South Park, all of
the boys and most of the male adults are voiced by Matt Stone
and Trey Parker, with their voices digitally pitch-shifted
by different amounts (higher for Cartman and Butters than
for Stan and Kyle.) While the Simpsons cast demonstrates breadth
of mimicry, and the South Park guys stick to silly versions
of their natural voices, the Family Guy voice actors do a
small group of highly specific and detailed characters. The
voices are so well-defined that the cast can now do imitations
of one another while clearly in character.
Family Guy creator Seth Macfarlane himself voices several
major characters: Peter the titular family guy, Brian the
dog, Stewie the baby, Quagmire the sex-obsessed neighbor,
newscaster Tom Tucker, Lois' dad Carter Pewterschmidt and
various others. If you check out SM's
much-Youtubed Class Day speech at Harvard, he starts out
in his own voice (much like Brian's), then switches to Peter's,
then Stewie's, then Quagmire's. SM is also an impeccable Broadway-type
singer, with great pitch and phrasing across all of his character
voices, and he's done some magnificent duets with himself
as Brian and Stewie. He frequently lapses into Peter and Stewie
during DVD commentary, and presumably in his day-to-day speech
as well, the way Mike Myers is reputed to do with Austin Powers.
Is Peter based on Seth MacFarlane's actual father, the way
Homer Simpson drew on Matt Groening's dad, and the way Austin
Powers draws on Mike Myers' dad? Nearly all (male) comedians
base their comedic personas on their fathers, in imitation
of them or in defiant opposition. The best comedians do both.
Can we talk for a second about Jon Stewart, born Jon Stewart
Liebowitz? Can we talk about Stephen Colbert and Bill "Papa
Bear" O'Reilly? Colbert was born 'COL-bert' with a hard
't'. He switched it back to the original, more ethnically
French 'Col-BEAR' for his stage name. Remember how in early
promos for the Colbert Report, he said into the camera, "It's
French, bitch"? Check out Steve
Martin's play WASP, or Eddie
Murphy in Coming To America. Consider George
W Bush in his flight suit - recall that Bush Sr was shot
down in a fighter plane over the Pacific in WWII, while Bush
Jr "served" in the effete draft-dodger haven of
the Texas Air Guard. Oh wait, that wasn't comedy, that actually
happened.
Anyway. Family Guy has been much-criticized for ripping off
the Simpsons. As SM is the first to admit, if you were producing
an animated sitcom for adults in this day and age, you'd be
nuts not to draw heavily on the Simpsons. It would be like
doing CGI movies without imitating Pixar, live-action sitcoms
without imitating Seinfeld, pop without imitating the
Beatles or Michael
Jackson. Originality
is a much-overrated virtue. Mastery of and pleasure in
one's craft is a lot more important.
There's naturally a rivalry between the Simpsons
people and the Family Guy people; their offices are down the
hall from each other at Fox. Apparently, the rivalry is a
friendly one, but it does turn up in Simpsons episodes. In
'Missionary: Impossible', a TV is showing the Family Guy logo
before guest star Betty White turns it off, referring to it
as "crude, low-brow humor." In 'The Italian Bob',
a book with a list of Springfield's criminals contains an
image of Peter Griffin, above the caption 'Plagiarismo'. (A
second image in the sequence shows Stan Smith from SM's less-funny
Family Guy followup, American Dad, with the caption 'Plagiarismo
di plagiarismo'.) Family Guy has referenced the Simpsons a
few times as well. The weirdest and best one is in 'Peterotica',
when Peter has a flashback about the family appearing in
animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, drawn and voiced
the way the Simpsons were originally. Also, there's this
tirade directed at the boyfriend of Stewie's babysitter:
Stewie: Ha! I got your hat! Take that, hatless! Now go
back to the quad and resume your hackey sack tourney! I'm
not gonna lay down for some frat boy bastard with his damn
Teva sandals and his Skoal Bandits and his Abercrombie and
Fitch long-sleeved open-stitched crew neck Henley, smoking
his sticky buds out of a soda can while watching his favorite
downloaded Simpsons episodes every night! Yes, we all love
Mr Plow! Oh, you've got the song memorized, do you? So
does everyone else! That is exactly the kind of idiot
you see at Taco Bell at one in the morning! The guy who
just whiffed his way down the bar skank ladder!
South
Park did a breathtaking parody of Family Guy in their two-part
Cartoon Wars episode.
Matt and Trey portray the Family Guy writers as manatees
moving rubber 'idea balls' inscribed with random topics (like
'Gary Coleman' or 'Mexico') into a giant bin that become the
jokes written into each episode. Since then, according to
DVD commentary, the FG writers have taken to using the phrase
'manatee gags' for the cutaway jokes. My favorite manatee
gag is in 'One If by Clam, Two If by Sea'. Lois remarks that
all British men are charming, and Peter replies, "That's
what they said about Benjamin Disraeli." The scene cuts
to the bewigged Disraeli writing with a quill pen in his study.
He looks into the camera and says, indignantly, "You
don't even know who I am!" The whole gag is about a second
and a half long.
During his Harvard class day speech, Seth MacFarlane, in
character as Stewie, rebuts South Park's charge that the manatee
gags are lazy comedy writing:
You're wondering to yourselves: what can I expect from
the outside world? Will I find my niche? What should I know
about the vast territory that lies beyond the confines of
my little subculture of textbooks, Ramen noodles, coin-operated
laundry and TV shows that seem to think they can skate by
with random jokes about giant chickens that have absolutely
nothing to do with the overall narrative? The boys at South
Park are absolutely correct: Those cutaways and flashbacks
have nothing to do with the story! They're just there to
be ... funny. And that is a shallow indulgence that South
Park is quite above, and for that I salute them.
Family Guy's two most significant departures from sitcom
convention are Brian and Stewie. Brian is anthropomorphized
to a much greater degree than is usual for cartoon animals.
He drinks martinis, drives a Toyota Prius, has had problems
with cocaine addiction, votes Kucinich, is kind of a racist,
enjoys the Utne Reader and finds Seinfeld annoying. But he
also sleeps at the foot of Peter and Lois' bed, sniffs crotches,
can't stand up in the back of a moving car, chases tennis
balls and fears vacuum cleaners. All other dogs in the show
behave like normal dogs, which makes for delicious strangeness
when Brian interacts with them. He's consumed with lust for
Carter Pewterschmidt's purebred greyhound, who just wags her
tail and pants in response. Brian's sexuality isn't limited
to dogs, either; he's unrequitedly in love with Lois and drunkenly
makes out with Meg.
Strange as he is, Brian pales before the opulent surrealism
of Stewie, the show's breakout star. Stewie speaks fluently
and eloquently, with an upper-class British accent Seth MacFarlane
describes as "an evil Rex Harrison." He refers to
Lois and Peter as "Lois" and "the fat man"
respectively. For the first season or two, Stewie is bent
on world domination and the death of his mother. The family
hears Stewie's speech as nonsensical baby talk, except for
Brian, who treats him like a twentysomething roommate. Secondary
characters sometimes treat Stewie as a baby, sometimes as
an adult, making no effort whatsoever at continuity.
Stewie: Oh, let me guess. You've picked out yet another
colorful box with a crank that I'm expected to turn, and
turn, until... ooh! Big shock, a jack pops out. And you
laugh, and the kids laugh, and the dog laughs, and I die
a little inside.
The relationship between Brian and Stewie had gay undertones
to begin with, and the show has been gradually ratcheting
up the sexual tension between them. I'm glad to be living
in an age when I can watch a blossoming gay romance between
a dog and an infant both voiced by the same actor on national
network television. No wonder religious fundamentalists hate
America.
Speaking of. Like the Simpsons and South Park before it,
Family Guy aims some of its best jokes at Christianity.
Peter: (drinks communion wine, spits it out): Whoa! Is
that really the blood of Christ?
Vicar: Yes.
Peter: Man, that guy must've been wasted twenty-four hours
a day, huh?
Stewie: Good evening. I am playing the role of Jesus, a
man once portrayed on the big screen by Jeffrey Hunter.
You may remember him as the actor who was replaced by William
Shatner on Star Trek. Apparently Mr. Hunter was good enough
to die for our sins, but not quite up to the task of seducing
green women.
Family Guy doesn't have much of a political slant, aside
from their running gag about Bill Clinton always being nude,
and this:
Peter (riding a circus elephant): Hey, Lois, look. The
two symbols of the Republican party - an elephant, and a
big fat white guy who's threatened by change!
All social commentary aside, though, the greatest strength
of Family Guy is self-conscious absurdity and other metahumor.
Brian: I can't believe they're brainwashing kids like Chris
to serve in the military.
Stewie: Ah, yes. The bottom ten percent of our high school
class is off to fight another battle.
Brian: You stole that from The
Onion.
Stewie: What?
Brian: You stole that. I read that in The Onion. About the
war in Iraq.
Stewie: Well, if that's true, then I'd say they've got some
sharp cookies over at the, uh...What is it again? The Onion?
Brian: So, if I go up to your room right now, I'm not going
to find a copy of The Onion, right?
Stewie: No. (pause, but then Brian pretends to get up. Stewie
tries to run, but slips on his food and falls off his high
chair) OW!!! DAMN IT!!!
Brian: That's what I thought.
Cleveland: I can't believe how terrible the fishing was.
Peter: Yeah, all we caught was a tire, a boot, a tin can,
and this book of clichés.
Peter: Excuse me. Is your refrigerator running? Because
if it is, it probably runs like you--very homosexually.
Lois: Hey, why don't you take Joe along?
Peter: Yeah, Lois. That'll be about as much fun as a lecture
on ontological empiricism.
Lois: What?
Peter: What?
Lois: Why is everybody glaring at us?
Peter: Why, Lois? I'll tell you why. Your faux pas last
night at the concert was so upsetting I had to call a university
professor to tell me what phrase I should use to describe
it.
(cutaway to last night; Peter is on the phone)
Professor: Use 'faux pas'.
Peter: Thanks, Professor!
Peter: Wait a second. Rosenblatt? Greenstein? So you're
saying I need a Jewish guy to handle my money?
Cleveland: Peter, not every Jewish person is good with money.
Peter: Well, yeah, I guess not the retarded ones, but why
would you even say that? For shock value? Jeez, Cleveland,
there's 'edgy' and there's 'offensive'. Good day, sir!
Chris: My dad's smarter than your dad!
Meg: We have the same dad, idiot!
Chris: Yeah, but mine's smarter!
Tom Tucker: A bit of breaking news: a local family is forced
out of their home by ghosts! Who are they gonna call?
Diane Simmons [sighs]: Ghostbusters, Tom?
Tom Tucker: No, Diane, their insurance company. That's just
stupid what you said.
The show was cancelled in 2002, but after extremely positive
response to DVDs and reruns on Adult Swim, production of new
episodes for Fox resumed in 2005. This is vanishingly unusual,
and the writers made sure to crow about it in the opening
to the first episode back.
Peter: Everybody, I've got bad news. We've been cancelled.
Lois: Oh no! Peter, how could they do that?
Peter: Well, unfortunately, Lois, there's just no more room
on the schedule. We've just got to accept the fact that
Fox has to make room for terrific shows like Dark Angel,
Titus, Undeclared, Action, That 80's Show, Wonderfalls,
Fastlane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girls
Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, FreakyLinks,
Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute With
Stan Hooper, Normal, Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddie,
The $treet, American Embassy, Cedric The Entertainer, The
Tick, Luis, and Greg the Bunny.
Lois: Is there no hope?
Peter: Well, I suppose if all those shows go down the tubes,
we might have a shot.
© ethan hein 2007 | back to memebase
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