Family Guy – talk about a misnomer. The animated Fox television series crossed sexual, moral and religious boundaries on Sunday evening when it aired content inappropriate for its young target audience.
The controversial material was not limited to one subject, or isolated in a single scene. Images of gay men kissing, a baby eating semen, physical abuse, sexual touching and a half naked male were just a few of the disturbing images viewers were treated to in the March 8 episode.
The Parents Television Council has issued a press release regarding the indecent content. Tim Winter, President of the PTC has alerted the Federal Communications Commission to the controversial content aired at 8:00pm CT, during the so-called family hour.
“Our organization is taking its concerns directly to every parent, every Fox affiliate and every advertiser -- as well as to those whom the Congress has instructed to uphold the law: the FCC. We encourage our members and concerned citizens to contact their local broadcasters and their public servants with their complaints. Each and every advertiser who paid for this show to air will also be personally contacted by the PTC and asked if bringing orgies and bestiality into American living rooms resonates with their corporate image,” Winter said in the press release.
The episode centered on the main character Peter, the family’s deadbeat father, attempting to earn extra cash by subjecting himself to a variety of experimental injections. One of those injections contained the so called “gay gene,” injected by a doctor who admitted that “if we’re correct, we will have successfully proven that homosexuality is genetic and not a matter of choice or environment.”
Once injected, the character began acting in stereotypically gay ways, including listening to musical soundtracks, wearing fashionable clothing, speaking in a high voice, and suddenly finding a knack for baking. It all sets up some predictable shots at Christianity:
MEG (daughter): So, dad’s gonna be gay forever?
LOIS (mother): Possibly Meg, so we’re all just going to have to get used to this and learn to accept your father for who he is now.
STEWIE: Oh great plan Lois. Hey here’s a nutty idea: Ever read the Bible? Leviticus 18:22.
BRIAN (dog): Stewie you’re judgmentally quoting Bible verses and you don’t even know how to read.
STEWIE: Welcome to America, Brian.
Later, when Peter is attending “Straight Camp,” the camp counselor greets his campers by saying “You’re all here because you’ve made a choice to renounce your evil sinful ways and redeem yourselves in the eyes of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who hates many people, but none more than homosexuals.”
But the bashing doesn’t stop there – even former president Ronald Reagan was a target by the writers. When Peter turns down his wife’s sexual advances in which she touches his penis, she says, “You mean we can’t have sex… Peter, we’re married!” Peter responds by listing off married gay men including Ronald Reagan. The scene switches to a press conference in which a reporter asked Reagan if he had reached a missile pact. “Well, you could say that,” Reagan replied. “There was a missile and something definitely got packed. (laughter)”
Peter eventually found a homosexual soul mate and told his wife he was leaving her because he couldn’t deny who he is. He then asked his son Chris, to “take the lessons I have taught you and be the best leader of this household you can,” because he is now the “man of the house.” After Chris agreed to follow in his father’s footsteps, he proceeded to flatulate on his sister’s head and punch out his mother.
The episode ended when Peter’s gay gene vaccination wore off during the gay orgy arranged by his partner. The news of Family Guy’s divisive content shouldn’t be too shocking. In 2007, Colleen Raezler of CMI noted that Family Guy has "out-cruded" itself. Similarly in October 2008, MRC President Brent Bozell pointed out that Family Guy writer Seth MacFarlane is not afraid to offend “millions of Christians.”
Some family show.
