Family Guy has a few different races throughout the show. First there's Mort, hes Jewish. Cleveland, although not in the newer episodes, is African-American. And finally we have Peter, he is Irish. During the show all of these Racial stereotypes are made fun of.
To start, we have Mort. He owns a pharmacy and falls into the stereotypical thrifty Jew. The creators really play this up. At one point in the show, Peter and Lois have Mort and his wife over for dinner. They talk about how they plan on suing someone from high school for bullying them over 25 years ago. This is obviously a joke played to show how money concerned they are since they are of Jewish descent.
Cleveland is African American. His stereotype isn't made fun of as bad as Morts, but more so his now ex-wife Loretta is the butt of the joke. Loretta is overweight, loud, and often says things like "mmm-hmmm". Cleveland is also overweight, he is not very educated and has a low end job. He spends a lot of time at the bar. Loretta eventually cheats on Cleveland. This also is part of the black stereotype in todays world, showing how African Americans seemingly can't stay monogamous.
Finally, we have Peter. He is a Catholic, alcholic, Irish man. He gets drunk in front of his children and says very disrespectful things to his wife Lois. This is a typical Irish stereotype: The man is a drunk who treats his family awful. Peter is selfish and expects Lois to wait on him hand and foot. At one point he even misses a homecooked dinner, just to get drunk in his basement.
Knowing Family Guy, these racial stereotypes are meant to poke fun at societal views. However, I can't help but wonder, what if younger children are watching and they take this seriously? The show has a rating of TV-14, but I doubt many parents supervise their children that much. I think the show's producers need to be a little more careful with how they portray certain people on the show, funny or not.
You make a great point about the younger viewers, because I highly doubt parents will be supervising their children that much either. You seem to imply, and if so, I'd agree, that the stereotypes and general content on family guy is actually so over the top that most older audience members wouldn't take any of it seriously for a second. I highly doubt, even subconsciously, material that is so over the top would have much of a negative effect. However, I would imagine that children would be highly susceptible to taking the material seriously. Hopefully parents are aware of the show and will monitor their childrens' viewing habits to the best of their ability.
ReplyDeleteThis social prejudices that have been created in society over the years is a result of what the media recreates in tv shoes like Family Guy. These social and religious stereotypes feeds into the minds of young adults and children alike who are watching this show without supervision.
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