…the animated US series that is shown (usually) very late on an evening on BBC 3 is like Marmite. You either love it or hate it.
Me?
I.love.it.
Huh? How come? Some readers maybe wondering considering my usual aghast at the world and it’s portrayal of people with restricted growth and disabilities.
Don’t worry, I have spent many an episode worry about this too. How can I laugh at the jokes and humour that seems to humour people’s of weakness and people’s weaknesses is general???
Well, and I know us humans can justify about any action, but I find that it humours every social group and stereotype and that in it self to me makes it more palatable. Even in the moments when I’m sat there watching a sketch and thinking “this is so wrong”.
It’s only when watching an episode recently where Brian the Dog think he’s been booked to give a talk about his book. He turns up and finds it’s to a group of people with learning difficulties and was appalled that this group were used to draw the comparison and reinforce the stereotype of that people with learning difficulties cannot appreciate good literature. I thought that was quite low even by Family Guy standards.
So what did I do? Go into a rage and exclaim I’ll never watch the show again? Nope. I mainly felt disappointment at what is usually a witty, sharp take on life and decided to ponder over it in this blog article.