[LadyPox]

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/funny-or-...propriateness/

On Monday night, Showbiz Tonight anchor A.J. Hammer was joined by Wendy Walsh, co-host of The Doctors, to talk about Family Guy‘s latest episode, “Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q.” The episode dealt with Quagmire’s sister, Brenda, coming to town to help him recover from an auto-erotic asphyxiation accident and being constantly abused by her boyfriend, Jeff. “Like so many other people, I was just shocked by what I saw on Family Guy last night,” Hammer said of the explicit beatings administered by Jeff, and the sad reaction of Brenda. “It was really just a depressing half hour of television.”

Family Guy fans have grown accustomed to the show pushing limits of taste and appropriateness, but this episode — which was widely panned (The A.V. Club gave it a relatively generous “C+”) — seems to have pushed some buttons beyond it just not being funny and not having the anticipated Halloween theme. Jezebel’s Whitney Jefferson, for instance, in a post suggesting that the show hit a “horrible new low,” said she had long ago been numbed to the offensiveness of the show, but that this episode went too far. “What I saw,” she wrote, “was seriously awful.”

Hammer asked Walsh what was wrong with the episode, and she said that because Brenda’s responses to concerns and rationalizations about her beatings were typical of domestic abuse sufferers, it was too close to real life and, therefore, not funny:

“They made fun of the victim more than they made fun of the assailant,” Walsh explained. “The main theme of the show was about this poor ‘stupid’ woman who was too dumb to leave her relationship. And domestic violence is far more complicated than that. We’re watching someone rationalize a domestic violence relationship and this is the kind of thought process that actually goes on in real life. It’s not satire anymore.”

Plus, it’s kind of stale. Writer Alec Sulkin also wrote the brilliant “Stew-roids” episiode, so it’s not like he has a bad track record (although he did court some controversy with a terrible tweet after the Japanese earthquake earlier this year). And there’s always a chance that the Family Guy writers were purposely pulling a Halloween prank on viewers by producing a “very special episode”-type stunt — eliminating most of the humor and instead playing it on a dramatic level. There was even (spoiler alert!) the brutal murder of a minor character at the end of the episode, with Quagmire squashing Jeff against a tree with a car. But the end result, if that was even the case, may have been that they turned off more viewers than they pleased. The show has dipped into sensitive material before, and FOX has actually refused to air two episodes — one dealing with abortion, the other with heavy Jewish themes. Sunday night’s episode, if reaction to it can be used as a good measure, may have been better joining those two episodes in exile.


<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-7Pr0Gs5Fu0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[LadyPox]

There's a clip of the episode in the link.

Everybody needs to chill out.... it's a cartoon! Women understand domestic violence these days. Those stupid enough to stay in an abusive relationship now, making all kinds of excuses, are there by their own volition.

[davidcopafeel]

People need to grow a fucking spine. Its a cartoon for fucks sake

I found it to be hilarious!!!

[BigFoot]

This episode could have used more Punchlines.

[Hoppynz]

Why not do what Muslums do when offended by cartoons, death threats and beheadings..

[güttsfükk]

they're like the hypocrisy of the type of people who can hand it out but not take it.

it's funny to laugh at every stereo type the show presents, except the ones that strike close to home. fuck these type of people

[kellyhound]

FOX has actually refused to air two episodes — one dealing with abortion, the other with heavy Jewish themes.

i wanna see them too and i don't need any concerned people telling me what's funny and what's not.

it's not satire anymore, it comes too close to home.

That's the meaning of it. fuck off.

[TheCapn]

It did exactly as Seth Mcfarlane intended then, its brought more attention to and got people to think about domestic violence.

Well done to him.

[scubahood]

i lold

[daughterofthenight]

family guy IS a disgusting cartoon. why not do what i do? turn the fucking show off!