by Jacob Woods

Created on: August 31, 2010

“Where are those good old fashion values on which we use to rely?” This seems like a rhetorical question you may hear in a deeply involved church committee meeting. Fortunately, this is not true for the topic which is to be discussed, Family Guy. Family guy is a philosophically hilarious, tactfully rude, and a brilliant bash of a broad range of hypocrisies in humanity. Along with its contradicted comedy it incorporates music, adventure, change, love, lust, Ludicrous, God, and a lot of life. Comparing its use of comedy, plot, characters, tactics to discuss current events, and its unveiling truth of mankind to other comedy series, we can digest many ideas from simple to broad in this series.

To see the unraveling of the truth of mankind in any comedy that makes the daring attempt to do so requires one to be open minded and to accept our everyday lives. As with many comedies, Family Guy takes an event every human has dealt with and exaggerates it. For example they have Stewie, an infant who is bent on evil, who gets on a plane when a passenger says, “Why do I always get stuck with a kid on planes?” Stewie responds with a ranting and kicking of the seat because he is so disgusted of the stereotype that babies are always annoying on planes. Though other comedies attempt to exaggerate these situations the effect is not the same. South Park would more than likely attempt to use a child cursing to get the point across. Futurama or Aqua Teen hunger force would put a similar situation of a kid on a plane in a completely inappropriate place in comparison to their plot. A sit com like Seinfeld would have the adult complaining about the child being whiny. Family Guy’s fresh spin on the clique event had Stewie respond with his rant and acting out about the passenger’s problem with Stewie’s presence. This is a complete role reversal in which the child gets to express his point of view causing the audience to outburst with fresh laughter instead of a buzzer queuing the audience.

Instead of fresh laughter, a nervous laugh of acceptance is given when a current event is being bashed whether or not it is appropriate. Seeing videos on YouTube of George Bush throwing planes into Lego towers may cause some to laugh, but others may turn away with complete disgust because of the rudeness displayed to a previous President of the United States and to humanity in general. There is a difference between the acceptance of a problem and the use of

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