This is getting old. Somebody on television makes fun of Sarah Palin. Instantly Fox News makes it a news item surely to be mentioned on the O’Reilly Factor and one of the other evening commentary programs and Sarah Palin will blast the insulter with an angry sense of indignation either on Fox News or to an audience at a speaking engagement.
The offender this time is Seth McFarlane through his primetime animated comedy, Family Guy, an episode in which the dullard middle child, Chris gets a rare date with a girl with Downs syndrome. While dining, Chris asks his date about her parents, and in her response she indicates, “…my mom’s the former governor of Alaska.”
Put two and two together, it was a slimy way to mock Palin and her son, Trig, who was born with the genetic condition in response to which Palin has attempted to be a voice for children with special needs.
There can be no denying that the program content was a tasteless low blow, but that’s what The Family Guy is all about. The program deals with shock humor, cheap shots at anyone MacFarlane finds an easy target, and attempts to push the envelop on tastelessness as far as the network censors will allow which is pretty far when it’s Fox TV.
Seth MacFarlane is a dedicated leftist and the show was developed with support of David Zuckerman. He has used the cartoon program as a convenient prop to joust public figures he disagrees with to the right including portraying Nazis as Bush/Cheney supporters. It’s not surprising to find a marriage between tasteless content, sick abusive humor, and pitches from a leftist point-of-view. It works for David Letterman doesn’t it. However, on a certain level for a huge audience not just staunch lefties, Family Guy is gut-busting funny. On many levels what he does is not that far off from what might be seen on The Simpsons or South Park.
Long story made short: MacFarlane is an idiot. His show is tasteless. Lots of people find it funny. He takes cheap shots at anyone he thinks can generate a cheap laugh. The past episode was Sarah Palin. That he would ridicule people with Down’s syndrome shows what kind of character the fellow has.
Sarah Palin is too stupid to realize that her making a big deal about MacFarlane’s jab only gives him more publicity enhancing his credibility. Most would have seen the show and reacted “what do you expect?” from Family Guy. That Palin is so thin-skinned to make a big deal about something this inconsequential not only distracts from more legitimate charges of insensitivity to “special needs” people such as Rom Emanuel calling adversaries “fucking retards.” Emanuel is a person of considerable authority expected to act professionally and appropriately. If there is any standard of decency which applies to Family Guy be assured Seth MacFarlane will push it to its limits.
These continued distractions that Sarah Palin cannot resist makes most of us who she reaches dismiss her as little more than a common whiner.
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