Family Guy and Michael J. Fox

[Relish in Chaos]

It can't just be me that's noticed this, but why does Family Guy always seem to make fun of Michael J. Fox and his Parkinson's? Yeah, I know, "nothing's off limits" in comedy and "they make fun of every celebrity, whether it's about their appearance or films" and blah blah blah...but, come on, this is a genuinely nice guy with a family suffering from a disablement who just happens to be apparently considered "fair game" to have cheap laughs thrown at because he was a famous actor in the 1980s (and publicly seems to tolerate it and McFarlane, but if anything, the fact that Fox acts cool about it - when, for all anyone else knows, it hurts him a bit - should be even more incentive to not take the piss just for the sake of taking the piss). This recurring "joke" is even worse than Seth McFarlane's gross misunderstanding of the trans community.

No, I'm not going to boycott the show. Yes, I'm going to continue watching it. I do like Family Guy, and McFarlane comes across as a decent guy who understands his audience (and, therefore, must be aware of all this, but doesn't care because he's still rolling in the money), and I guess asking it to be a bit more clever with its humour rather than just throwing out-of-context reference after reference at the screen, but the joke I saw last night in Tiegs for Two (I know it's an "old" episode, but I hadn't seen it before then) just seemed unnecessarily mean-spirited, even for Family Guy.

Any thoughts?

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Low hanging fruit? It's a pretty easy shocker joke, and after so long, I imagine you'll take any laugh you can get. That's not to say all their jokes are like that (Although I haven't really watched the show in a while, so maybe they are?), but if it helps the scene transition humorously, I can't really blame them.

But...it didn't help the scene transition humorously. I mean, most of the cutaway gags don't, and I guess that's part of the point of them, but at the end of the day, they're still laughing at a man with Parkinson's because he can't stop shaking. It's not even good shock humour.

EDIT: I mean, I don't mean to turn this into another Family Guy rant thread, but...I think the reason people rant about Family Guy like this is because it could be so much better if the writers just put more time into, y'know, actually writing. We already know about all the flaws, so I won't get into that. But it's just stuff like, how Meg seems to have no purpose in the show anymore, other than being the Butt Monkey, with the odd occasion where she gets an episode to herself and then goes back to being the stock-teenage-girl-stereotype with the added benefit of everyone hating her for no real reason.

And it has its really good moments, too. Probably my favourite episode is that extended one where Brian and Stewie got locked in a vault (or something like that; I think it was some kind of anniversary special-type thing, but part of it was something to do with Brian keeping a gun in his safe in case he ever wanted to commit suicide); an example where they actually used the screen-time effectively. But far too often, they just get lazy, or they descend into some of the most basic social satire (e.g. "Republicans are stupid" or "Muslims are sexist, but they're not all like that, so you're wrong for believing us" or "It's alright to be gay, but we can laugh at you if you're effeminate about it") because they know it'll sell anyway.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Yeah, I suppose. At least American Dad is better, and uses its characters more effectively.

 

[shootthebandit]

Yeah, I suppose. At least American Dad is better, and uses its characters more effectively.

American dad is very hit and miss. Family guy is atleast consistantly mediocre (used to be good though). American dad can either be extremely funny or really bad. Recently the ones they have been playing on BBC 3 have been abismal. Its not just me that says this but we watch them on night shift and everyone agrees

OT: offensive jokes are a stable of family guy if you dont like then its probably not for you. I sat through an episode last night were peter becomes muslim. It was refreshingly positive until he was involved in a terrorist plot. All the jokes came from islamic extremism

 

[Quaxar]

Yeah, I hear Michael J. Fox is pretty shaken by all the Parkinson jokes.

When was Family Guy ever good anyway? These fucking 10 minutes of chicken fights every few episodes are juts awful, not to mention the whole Conway Twitty ordeal. It would do better being a Youtube short series so they wouldn't have to put all those awful fillers and extremely lose story arches.

 

[BoogieManFL]

I love the recurring chicken fights personally..

And I doubt Michael J. Fox cares what they say, I doubt he's that weak willed a guy.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Eh, Michael J Fox seems to have a pretty good sense of humor about it, and tends to joke about his Parkinson's himself.


The guy just owns his disability and gets on with his life. If someone makes a joke about it, I honestly don't think he's getting too broken up about that.

 

[hermes]

Almost all the jokes in Family Guy are like that. They have made jokes about Sarah Jessica Parker having a horse head, Walt Disney being a racist, and Christopher Reeve and Stephen Hawking being invalids... The list goes on forever.

I am not going to justify them, I think those jokes are poorly done, besides being of poor taste, but I still understand that is the appeal of that show for some people. Are the MJ Fox ones worst because you think he is a nice guy? That is a pretty hypocrite attitude.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

It's part of the fact that Family Guy doesn't know what it wants to do anymore; the original series was sort of like a level 2 of the Simpsons, and they had some genuinely funny jokes there, the addition of social satire made it all the more memorable(the 20th century song where Brian sings about stuff that happened recently).

Now, it's a mix between; sending a message(the abortion episode), relative to life humour(those crap jokes like "Dad noises) and just plain offensive stuff(the one where the two guys are talking about "this magical baby that was just born" and how they "should kill each other over it": I'm not Christian, but I still thought that that was just plain rude).

Everything after the season in which Stevie kills Lois has been going downhill, and American Dad is following FG closely in terms of quality.

 

[Trivea]

I used to love Family Guy for the first couple of seasons. I can deal with shock humor if it's genuinely funny shock humor, and at the beginning, it really was. However, they've had pressure on them to just be more shocking and, eventually, it's going to be so tasteless that the only people who find it funny are people you wouldn't, you know, want to invite over to dinner or anything. I think it just tries too damn hard to shock people, just like Howard Stern.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Because if they made Muhammed Ali the butt of the joke it would be offensive to people with Parkinson's as well as racist! In reality it's probably because the show isn't good and they need to be offensive to get laughs, although I say that as a fan of South Park so what do I know? Plus they probably wanted to make a Parkinson's joke and since most people would think of MJF if asked to name someone with the disease they went with him rather than make up a throw-away character and then explain to the audience that this character has Parkinson's disease and the visual gag is very funny please laugh now thank you next scene.

 

[shootthebandit]

Because if they made Muhammed Ali the butt of the joke it would be offensive to people with Parkinson's as well as racist! In reality it's probably because the show isn't good and they need to be offensive to get laughs, although I say that as a fan of South Park so what do I know? Plus they probably wanted to make a Parkinson's joke and since most people would think of MJF if asked to name someone with the disease they went with him rather than make up a throw-away character and then explain to the audience that this character has Parkinson's disease and the visual gag is very funny please laugh now thank you next scene.

making fun of ali for his parkinsons isnt racist unless they bring his race into it. The difference with ali is that ali is just so widely respected by everyone that instead of the likes of mr fox where people will be commenting saying "that was a bit close to the bone" people will get angry with the show. Thats not to say that ali is any better of a human or less deserving of being insulted but he is a massively respected person

Its ok because micheal new about his parkinsons years ago. He went back in time and gave himself a note

 

[Saltyk]

Well, here's food for thought. By making fun of him, they give attention to his illness and help keep him in the public mind. Michael J. Fox does have or support a fund for Parkinson's disease research. If you really want to help, donate some money.

Sure, you can get mad that they mocked him, but don't they sort of help him in a way?

 

[Atmos Duality]

In reality it's probably because the show isn't good and they need to be offensive to get laughs, although I say that as a fan of South Park so what do I know?

About as much as this guy, who isn't a fan of South Park, and who agrees.

For me, it's not even the content of the jokes; I love plenty of offensive, not-at-all-PC humor. My favorite comedy of all time is EXTREMELY politically-incorrect and based entirely on an "offensive subject".

It's their delivery. Family Guy's delivery is so...I don't know how to quite describe it, but it's like they have this subtle hate-boner for every subject they mock.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Its ok because micheal new about his parkinsons years ago. He went back in time and gave himself a note

Pfft, surely he read it on a newspaper!

And I know making fun of Ali for having Parkinson's isn't racist, I was making the point that people would call them racist because (whilst irrelevant to the joke) he's black. Obviously didn't do a good job there. Sorry.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Eh, Michael J Fox seems to have a pretty good sense of humor about it, and tends to joke about his Parkinson's himself.

The guy just owns his disability and gets on with his life. If someone makes a joke about it, I honestly don't think he's getting too broken up about that.

You know that's the first time I think I've heard Michael J. Fox say the F-word.

 

[Smeatza]

I think he's okay with it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

He seems to be OK with it, which I think is a fantastic worldview.
I think it's one of those cases of Family Guy trying to be offensive without actually being funny.