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Abstract
Recent media scholarship has devoted considerable attention to the progressive role that controversial, satirical humor can play in American public discourse. Programs such as South Park, The Simpsons, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart have been the subjects of numerous academic studies and have received considerable popular acclaim. This article considers the case of Family Guy, a show often discursively associated with the pro-social satire of the aforementioned programs but rarely the subject of close critical consideration. Through a combination of textual and industrial analyses, the article contextualizes Family Guy's use of highly fractured narratives and remarkably incendiary representations of marginalized identity groups in its comedy. These tendencies combine, we argue, to limit Family Guy's potential for productive satire while attempting to maximize its appeal to commercially desirable young male viewers. Conceptualizing the impact of the American television industry's efforts to reassert the medium's centrality in the contemporary era of media convergence, we offer the descriptor “click culture” as a means of understanding the aesthetic and industrial discourses of Family Guy, as well as those of similarly structured programs.
Notes
[1] See Charles Ramírez Berg, Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion, Resistance (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002), 66–86.
[2] See, among others, Hugo Dobson, “Mister Sparkle Meets the Yakuza: Depictions of Japan in The Simpsons,” Journal of Popular Culture 39, no. 1 (February 2006): 44–68; Jonathan Gray, Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality (New York: Routledge, 2006); and Stephen Groening, “Cynicism and Other Postideological Half Measures in South Park” in Taking South Park Seriously ed. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008).
[3] See, among others, Hugo Dobson, “Mister Sparkle Meets the Yakuza: Depictions of Japan in The Simpsons,” Journal of Popular Culture 39, no. 1 (February 2006): 44–68; Jonathan Gray, Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality (New York: Routledge, 2006); and Stephen Groening, “Cynicism and Other Postideological Half Measures in South Park” in Taking South Park Seriously ed. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008). and Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx, “Beyond a Cutout World: Ethnic Humor and Discursive Integration in South Park,” The Journal of Film and Video 61, no. 2 (Summer 2009): 5–18.
[4] Suzanne McCorkle, “An Analysis of Verbal Language in Saturday Morning Children's Programs,” Communication Quarterly 30, no. 3 (1982): 210–16.
[5] Suzanne McCorkle, “An Analysis of Verbal Language in Saturday Morning Children's Programs,” Communication Quarterly 30, no. 3 (1982): 210–16.
[6] Jason Mittell, “Cartoon Realism: Genre Mixing and the Cultural Life of ‘The Simpsons’,” The Velvet Light Trap no. 47 (Spring 2001): 15–28.
[7] See Karma Waltonen and Denise Du Vernay, The Simpsons in the Classroom (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2010); William Irwin, Mark T. Conrad and Aeon J. Skoble (eds.) The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh of Homer (Chicago: Open Court, 2001); Toni Johnson-Woods Blame Canada!: South Park and Contemporary Culture (New York: Continuum, 2007) and Jeffrey Weinstock, Taking South Park Seriously (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008).
[8] William Savage “So, Television's Responsible!” in Leaving Springfield ed. John Alberti (Detroit, MI: Wayne St. Press, 2004) 197–224.
[9] Dobson 2006, 63.
[10] Dobson 2006, 64.
[11] Sienkiewicz and Marx, 2009.
[12] Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P. Jones and Ethan Thompson “The State of Satire, the Satire of State” in Satire TV eds. Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P. Jones and Ethan Thompson (New York: NYU, 2009), 4.
[13] See Jeffrey P. Jones, Entertaining Politics (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004); Amber Day Satire and Dissent (Bloomington: Indiana University, 2011) and Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan S. Morris (eds.) Laughing Matters (New York: Routledge, 2007).
[14] Baumgartner and Morris, 2007, p. 4
[15] Ethan Thompson “Good Demo, Bad Taste: South Park as Carnivalesque Satire” in Satire TV eds. Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P. Jones and Ethan Thompson (New York: NYU, 2009) p. 221
[16] Alessandra Stanley, “Ah, Homer, It Seems Just Like Yesterday,” The New York Times, January 7, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/arts/television/08simpsons.html?_r=0
[17] Andy Denhart “‘Family Guy’ is no Cheap ‘Simpsons’ Knockoff,” msnbc, November 5, 2007, http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21627779/ns/today-entertainment/t/family-guy-no-cheap-simpsons-knockoff/#.UJQBfvk-v8M
[18] Joe Flint “Seth MacFarlane is too much for Microsoft, but ‘South Park’ and ‘Two and a Half Men’ are no Problem,” Los Angeles Times, October 28, 2009, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2009/10/seth-macfarlane-is-too-much-for-microsoft-but-south-park-and-two-and-a-half-men-are-no-problem.html
[19] Caleb Hannan “Microsoft Finds ‘Family Guy’ Offensive, but Thinks ‘South Park’ Is Good, Clean Family Fun” October 29, 2009, http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2009/10/microsoft_finds_family_guy_off.php
[20] Sara Bibel, “Sunday Final Ratings: ‘Once Upon A Time’, ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Bob's Burgers’ Adjusted Up; ‘666 Park Avenue’, ‘60 Minutes’ Adjusted Down & Final Football Numbers,” TVbytheNumbers, October 2, 2012, http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/10/02/sunday-final-ratings-once-upon-a-time-the-simpsons-bobs-burgers-adjusted-up-666-park-avenue-60-minutes-adjusted-down-final-football-numbers/150988/
[21] Megan Mullen, The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003) and Amanda Lotz, The Television Will Be Revolutionized (New York: NYU Press, 2007).
[22] Joseph Turow, Breaking Up America: Advertisers and the New Media World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997).
[23] See Michael Curtin, “On Edge: Culture Industries in the Neo-Network Era,” in Making and Selling Culture, eds. Richard Ohmann, Gage Averill, Michael Curtin, David Shumway, and Elizabeth Traube (Hanover, NH: Weslyan University Press, 1996).
[24] Philip Napoli, Audience Evolution: New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), 4.
[25] Philip Napoli, Audience Evolution: New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), 9.
[26] Bill Carter, “In the Tastes of Young Men, Humor Is Most Prized, a Survey Finds,” The New York Times, February 19, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/business/media/comedy-central-survey-says-young-men-see-humor-as-essential.html
[27] Tim Stack, “Timeline: A Brief History of the ‘Family Guy’—Important Dates in the Life of the Animated Series from Fox,” Entertainment Weekly, April 18, 2005, http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,1049746,00.html
[28] Evan Elkins, “Cultural Identity and Subcultural Forums: The Post-network Politics of Adult Swim,” Television & New Media, forthcoming.
[29] FOX press release, “FOX 2006/07 Season Highlights,” May 17, 2007, http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2007/05/17/FOX-2006-07-season-highlights-through-5-15-07-24454/20070517FOX03/
[30] FOX press release, “FOX 08/09 Season Highlights,” May 18, 2009, http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratings/2009/05/18/FOX-08-09-season-highlights-31385/20090518FOX04/
[31] FOX press release, “FOX 09/10 Season and Summer 2010 Performance Highlights,” August 2, 2010, http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratings/2010/08/02/FOX-09-10-season-and-summer-2010-performance-highlights-36809/20100802FOX06/#cTOuisVBekUz3oTf.99
[32] FOX press release, “FOX Sets New Broadcast Industry Record With Eighth Consecutive Season Victory Among Adults 18–49,” May 24, 2012, http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratings/2012/05/24/FOX-sets-new-broadcast-industry-record-with-eighth-consecutive-season-victory-among-adults-18-49-614111/20120524FOX01/#hTJbOR0WlDGFx2lc.99
[33] Cara Garretson, “Broadband Forecast Still Looks Hazy,” PCWorld, January 24, 2002, http://www.pcworld.com/article/81284/article.html
[34] Tim Stephens, “82% of Americans Own Cell Phones,” Switched, November 14, 2007, http://www.switched.com/2007/11/14/82-of-americans-own-cell-phones/
[35] The Nielsen Company, “State of the Media 2010: U.S. Digital Consumer Report Q3-Q4 2011.”
[36] The Nielsen Company, “State of the Media 2010: U.S. Digital Consumer Report Q3-Q4 2011.”
[37] The Nielsen Company, “State of the Media 2010: U.S. Digital Consumer Report Q3-Q4 2011.”
[38] Robyn Greenspan, “Media Lifestyles of the 18 to 34 Year-Olds,” Clikz, April 21, 2004, http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1716181/media-lifestyles-34-year-olds.
[39] Frank Rose, “The Lost Boys,” Wired, August 2004, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.08/lostboys.html
[40] Frank Rose, “The Lost Boys,” Wired, August 2004, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.08/lostboys.html
[41] See, for instance, popular Family Guy clip videos on YouTube such as “Family Guy—Best Moments 1” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5SC64DpAEE) or “Family Guy season 9 deleted scenes better quality” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT0Q-cPHfXw) the latter of which, with 15 million hits, has earned double the average viewership of a broadcast episode of Family Guy in just over a year.
[42] Jim Collins, “Postmodernism and Television,” in Channels of Discourse, Reassembled: Television and Contemporary Criticism, ed. Robert C. Allen (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992), 255.
[43] Jim Collins, “Postmodernism and Television,” in Channels of Discourse, Reassembled: Television and Contemporary Criticism, ed. Robert C. Allen (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992), 246–50.
[44] Scott R. Olson, “Meta-television: Popular Postmodernism,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication, vol. 4, no. 3 (September 1987), 284–300.
[45] Scott R. Olson, “Meta-television: Popular Postmodernism,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication, vol. 4, no. 3 (September 1987), 285–89.
[46] Scott R. Olson, “Meta-television: Popular Postmodernism,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication, vol. 4, no. 3 (September 1987), 296.
[47] Jonathan Gray, “Television Teaching: Parody, The Simpsons, and Media Literacy,” Critical Studies in Media Communication, vol. 22, no. 3 (August 2005), 234.
[48] Alison Crawford, “Family Guy as Magical Realism?” The Journal of Film and Video, vol. 61, no. 2 (Summer 2009), 53.
[49] Alison Crawford, “Family Guy as Magical Realism?” The Journal of Film and Video, vol. 61, no. 2 (Summer 2009), 65.
[50] William Urrichio, “The Future of a Medium Once Known as Television,” in The YouTube Reader, eds. Patrick Vonderau and Pelle Snickars and P Vonderau (Stockholm: National Library of Sweden, 2010), 24.
[51] Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an investigation),” in Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, pp. 142–7, 166–76, translated by Ben Brewster (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971).
[52] Although Douglas Rushkoff used “Click Culture” in 1996 to describe the potentially empowering interactivity of clicking with a computer mouse, our use of the concept instead addresses the many convergences among broader technological, industrial, and cultural discourses guiding contemporary media consumption.
[53] Kristin Thompson, Storytelling in Film and Television (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003).