Sunday, June 05, 2005

A joke too far?

Let's have some context first: Normally, I'm a big fan of Family Guy. I've enjoyed the new episodes, more or less, and I've generally thought Seth MacFarlane is a stitch. That being said . . .

On tonight's episode of Family Guy, Meg, a teenage daughter, has sex with Jimmy Fallon on SNL. Unless MacFarlane has changed the characters without telling us, Meg is 16. That would make her sex with Fallon statutory rape.

Like I said, I've been a fan of MacFarlane's work, and I don't so much mind off-color humor. But the episode made no reference to how wrong statutory rape is, nor did they indicate any consequences for Fallon's fictional behavior. Not to be a crank, but I really feel like Family Guy stepped over the line this time.

I'm considering a letter to Fox over this. I like Family Guy, and I'd hate to see it go off the air again, but MacFarlane needs to stop making jokes like this. Raping children isn't funny.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you on this, but what can you do? Family guy is just some of the lower brow shows that are on the television. Most people who seriously enjoy these type of shows don't think about the social consequences of these actions or poking fun at them.