I’ll admit it, but despite what some of its detractors say, Family Guy is still what I would call a “decent show”. It’s fairly hit-or-miss now, but when the show focuses on one specific plot like (see: any episode focusing on Brian and Stewie) or plays to a specific genre (the fantastically underrated “And Then There Were Fewer”) it becomes an absolutely solid show. Unfortunately, it mostly eschews these in favor of shock horror without emotional pay-off, and nothing highlighted this more than a recent “For Your Consideration” ad that aimed shock and missed what makes the show actually good. Via Hollywood Reporter:
The producers of Family Guy, known for irreverent Emmy-consideration mailers to Academy of Television Arts & Sciences voters, have taken an even sharper-edged turn. Their latest depicts the show’s father character Peter Griffin sneering: “Come on, you bloated, over privileged Brentwood Jews. Let us into your little club.” When recipients flip open the mailer’s card, which holds a DVD featuring four episodes of the series, Family Guy’s droll talking baby, Stewie, wryly notes: “It’s a secret ballot. You can still tell people you voted for Modern Family.”
I grew up in a family that was heavily into insult humor (our dinner conversations were essentially shot-for-shot remakes of the reading scene from Paris Is Burning) but this is what I would call “a miss fire”. The best insults come from some sort of passion: either ribbing a loved-one or going in on someone you absolutely cannot stand. If you’re going to riff on someone, you need to have some kind of rapport with them. If they had gone with the Stewie joke inside the card, it probably would have come off far better, because that’s just an objectively better crafted joke. Calling Emmy voters “bloated, over privileged Brentwood Jews”? Well, let’s just see what happens when the Emmy nominations are announced.
