family guy and postmodernism[1] cue cards
TRANSCRIPT
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Family Guy is an American animated TV series, created by Seth McFarland
for the channel FOX. It focuses on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family living in
the fictional city of Quahog. The pilot was first shown in 1998 before being
given the green light for production and it becoming hugely successful,
despite being cancelled twice. The family consists of parents, Peter and Lois,
children Chris and Meg, baby Stewie and the family dog Brian.
The narrative for each episode is stand-alone, usually about the family's
mishappenings with each other, their friends, or neighbours. At the end of the
episode, the problem is solved and the family live on happily to suffer the next
episode.
Family Guy is full of media and pop culture references, pastiche and
intertextuality are perhaps the most dominant postmodern traits within the
show. Every episode features a huge amount of references to virtually everysubject possible, with its use of the technique of a million gags a minute.
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It has been suggested that McFarlands characters are loosely
based upon other animation characters. For example, if we
take the character of family dog Brian he is distinctly similar to
the famous character of Snoopy. This is not only visually
evident through his white fur and black nose, but also in the
way in which he interacts with people, participating in humanactivities though he is a dog.
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The character of Stewie has also
been argued to be influenced by
a comic strip from 1991, as hebears a noticeable resemble to
the character of Jimmy Corrigan
: The Smartest Kid on Earth.
Again they do not only look
similar, particularly in their
football shaped heads, but they
also share extreme intelligence
and dislike towards their
mothers.
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In addition, it has been speculated that Family Guy is a copy
of famous cartoon The Simpsons, as they have a very similar
set up and various other factors. This includes the family,
consisting of a clumsy stupid father, a mother, a son, adaughter and a baby child. Furthermore, Homer Simpson and
Peter Griffin are very alike in their personalities, being clumsy
lazy and dim witted. This means the postmodern aspect of
bricolage is featured in the TV series of Family Guy in every
episode.
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Family Guy is also well known for their parodies of the Star
Wars franchise, with movies Blue Harvest, Something
Something Something Dark Side and Its a Trap. These still
use the basic original story of Star Wars however feature theseries characters, mock it, and much is replaced with their
media mocking humour. All these movies are a pastiche of the
original Star Wars films.
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Trying to get back to their own universe, Stewie and Brian travel through
many parallel dimensions. Each one is very different, and in each they
also meet other versions of themselves in this different universe. Each
universe also features a different style of animation and presentation.
There therefore is a vast amount of parody and pastiche used in thisepisode throughout the different universes. There is much manipulation
of time and space to create confusion, a very postmodern trait.
There are many references even in the opening credits, where the
family, especially Stewie and Brian are portrayed as a variety of different
characters or situations. This includes Tolkins Lord of the Ringsreferences, where Stewie takes on the character of Gollum and Brian
Frodo, the whole family shown on the iconic Pacman video game Brian
is playing where the other members are ghosts chasing pacman Stewie
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Brian and Stewie enter the Disney universe; where everythinghas been drawn by Disney. This clip adopts the identifiable style
that Disney creates in its animations, thus parodying the Disney
franchise. It continues to do this by showing all the characters as
happy and cheerful, even Stewie describes himself as feeling al
sweet and warm and fuzzy. All of the Family Guy Characters
make a reference back to different Disney movies or cartoonssuch as Snow White (with the many characters as woodland
animals helping around the house) Joe being the talking pot from
Beauty ad The Beast and The Little Mermaid, as Meg is shown as
the evil sea witch Ursula. Furthermore the characters all burst into
song, which is a typical aspect of classic Disney movies.
However, the clip then continues to mock it, for example by takingadvantage of the belief Walt Disney was a Nazi sympathiser, this
is also postmodern as it is an example of the frequent black
humour used in the show.
Brian and Stewie
enter the Disney
universe -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-
snfaG2JH8&featur
e=related
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Stewie and Brian later find themselves in a universe in whichdogs are the dominant species over humans, and keep them
as pets. This is a parody of the film The Planet of The Apes
(Franklin Schaffner, 1968). Intertextuality arises when Stewie
says Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty dog!
making reference to a famous quote from the film.
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They also enter a Flintstones universe, with Peter as Fred, which can be seenas somewhat ironic as it has previously been speculated that Peters character
has been developed over time from Freds. They parody it by using rock as
every second word, often to conceal taboo or inappropriate words , this playful
mocking of the show is very postmodern.
Real life universe
Robot chicken Universe Here they take on yet the animation style, this time of
the 2005 TV series Robot Chicken, a stop motion animation. One of the creators
is Seth green, who plays the voice of Chris in Family Guy
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The use of different universes creates confusion in not only Stewie and Brian but
also the audience in regards to where the characters are. They are further
confused as to the time, as some universes are furturistsic, some appear to be in
the past (for example the Flintstones universe) and some appear to have no time at
all.
Almost every episode also follows a non linear narrative, especially through the use
of comedic flash backs, there are usually at least 3 within the film. These often
feature cartoon representations of famous people, personifications of objects and
various other references to pop culture. It is also very cleverly ironic, especially in
how it references other texts allowing the audience to emphasise with the joke.
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This entire episode is presented in a very playful comedic manner, throughout the
series there is much playfulness with realism. Much of the show seems plausible
and create a sense of realism as it is a family going about their everyday lives.
However, there are other aspects that reject this sense of realism for such as the
fact Brian is a talking dog. Another is that despite being a baby Stewie is so
intelligent that he is able to create a device to travel to alternate universes. This
playfulness is very much part of the postmodern condition and There is no real
underlying message to the audience, thus rejecting the common feature of
modernity.
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Lyotards theory of the rejection of metanarratives as part of the postmodern
condition is evident throughout Family Guy. For example, in my chosen episode
Brian and Stewie enter a universe where Christianity never existed. They arrive to
find technology in this world to be hugely advanced implying that Christianity and
the Church help back scientific progress. This open criticism of the metanarrative of
religion is one of the key aspects of post modernity.
There are many other examples throughout the show , such as God hitting on girls
at bars and Jesus coming to dinner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p5jnqEyUs4