The show “Family Guy” deals with a dysfunctional family known as the Griffins. The Griffin family consists of Peter Griffin, an obese and low IQ father, as well as Lois Griffin, the daughter of a wealthy businessman. Together they have three kids, Chris, Meg, and Stewie Griffin. Chris, the oldest, takes after his father, with the same body structure and a very low IQ. Meg, the forgotten middle child, is always looking for attention and the approval of her parents and peers but is only despised. Stewie, a genius baby with an incredibly high IQ, is only understood by his best friend, Brian and his brother Chris. Brian is a dog who is always having personal problems and he looks to Stewie for help.
Overall, the show surrounds the Griffin family and involves countless stereotypes and political issues addressed in the modern world. Now the question is, is “Family Guy” politically correct? Many of the political issues addressed in “Family Guy” tend to involve religion in the formation of modern stereotypes. “Family Guy” shows no direct relation to anti-religious or religious ideas formed on the show. It takes a previously conceived idea and converts it to amuse the watcher. In doing so, it spreads unrealistic and inappropriate ideas throughout the minds of its watchers.
For example, many episodes take on the idea of anti-Semitism within large corporations that exist today or use the events of 9/11 to attack Muslim cultures. They use these ideas to create scripts for the show without considering the outcome to watchers affected by these stereotypes. During a TVLine interview, executive producer Richard Appel stated, “the culture changes.”
He later goes on to say that “Family Guy” has changed too. Although this may be true, people have changed their thoughts and opinions about what Peter or Lois have said in the past. So, when it comes to religious views, “Family Guy” is politically incorrect and could be the cause of many larger issues.
Another political issue addressed in “Family Guy” is the idea of race and how it affects people in a general area. Unlike before, “Family Guy” does directly talk about race without an outlying “lens” to project altered views. Many times on the show, Peter and other characters abuse the sanctity of race. Race can be interpreted in many ways but all the ideas include a grouping of people based on similar characteristics. On “Family Guy,” characters use color as a qualifier of race. In one scene, army men are seen using a “cheat sheet” to determine the enemy from an ally. The sheet had various shades of skin colors with the captions, okay, near lighter colors, and not okay, near darker colors. Again, these stereotypes generated by “Family Guy” cause extra troubles by creating unreal and unnecessary accusations toward race groups.
In lots of cases, we have seen people with darker skin be the victim of a situation rather than the culprit. All these stereotypes just raise suspicion of other races for no justifiable reason. “Family Guy” is causing more of an issue by putting these stereotypes in the public and changing the watcher’s minds. Again, when the race is the topic, “Family Guy” is politically incorrect and the show only aggravates issues rather than solving them.
To conclude, the TV series, “Family Guy” can be amusing at times, but its claims about religion, race, and various other political topics cause political trouble. “Family Guy” alters views about a particular topic in a person’s mind by promoting stereotypes that can be perceived as incorrect and offensive, thus, “Family Guy” is politically incorrect.
