According to Hollywood Reporter, this direct mailer went out to Emmy voters. While it is in character for the 21st Century animated version of Archie Bunker, reactions were mixed.
"Wow," responds one Brentwood TV producer, "if Family Guy was that funny on a regular basis, it might get nominated."
Another producer, who lives nearby in Pacific Palisades, has her own review. "It's so heavy-handed," she says, "it's light on funny."
Yet another adds: "While I think Family Guy is a genuinely funny show, we all -- including this 'Brentwood Jew' -- need to think twice about this kind of humor. Stereotyping any particular ethnic group is just not cool and can lead others (with the wrong intentions) to feel a certain license to take shots. Surely Seth [MacFarlane] has better stuff than this."
It's one of those tricky issues, isn't it? Family Guy is supposedly "making fun of that kind of thing" with its outrageously offensive gags. And yet the concern that it gives licence to less... umm... artistic(?) racism is also valid.
And would it make a difference if MacFarlane were Jewish, rather than possessing the ultra-WASPy pedigree of "Scottish, Irish, English and Welsh ancestry, partly by way of Canada, and his ancestors include William Brewster, who travelled to America on the Mayflower"?
I was *just* reading an article in Racialicious about hipster racism. That's... yeah, that's what this is. If he were Jewish? I guess that would maybe make a difference -- but he's not. Even if McFarlane isn't anti-semitic, that doesn't mean this joke ain't. I mean, if he'd said "assholes" instead of "Jews" then it would have been kind of funny. As it is, no, I vote that it's racist.
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting, Andrew. Well put.
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