The whole story is bizarre. I don’t tend to find Family Guy funny at all, but this wasn’t even a joke. The Palin reference, if it was that, was just the line about the former governor of Alaska. But the character said her father was an accountant (former First Dude Todd Palin is an oilfield worker and snow machine racer, of course), not to mention other things not matching up. I just saw it as a strange, grasping, unfunny attempt to try to be up-to-date and of-the-minute on the part of Family Guy’s producers.

and wow, sunnyblack. Great argument style there — personal attacks, comments on appearance, claims of “mental retardation.” Must be that much-vaunted “satire” I keep hearing so much about. Or you could just be a jerk. I know which Occam’s Razor is telling me…

Palingate is a Trig Truther site. They are as nutty as Andrew Sullivan.

Besides, I am not going to berate Sarah Palin for taking issue with a show that is obviously making fun of a toddler. WTF is that?! What ‘Family Guy’ did was not satire, but a personal attack. Really to attack a 22 month old is beyond low.

Sunnyblack,

hahahahahahahlolololol Too funny!

I think Palin would win here if she contended that the joke was in fact not funny.

Cause it really wasn’t funny.

I absolutely love Family Guy, although I have to agree with vidiot, this was just to include her name in the show for a cheap laugh. Like vidiot pointed out, Todd Palin is not an accountant, and Trig Palin is a boy, not a girl as portrayed on Family Guy.

Let me get this straight, Rush Limbaugh says, “…the political correct society is acting like some giant insult is taking place by calling a bunch of people who ARE retards, retards” and that’s by-shucks fall on your fanny hilarious, therefore satire, and this bit, which wasn’t necessarily funny to me, but it’s NOT satire?

Family Guy deals in satire. I don’t see the satire in what Rush said that I quoted above. So, Conservatives, if you want to call this insulting and not satire, then you might as well say that what Rush said was not satire.

I think we need to wait to hear from Palin on this before we can either be outraged or laugh about it.

How sad that Andrea is allowing herself to be used by the left to continue bashing Trig Palin. The treatment of the Palin family by the left in this country is so-hate filled it has gone beyond a disgrace.

Vidiot says:
February 19, 2010 at 1:25 pm

I agree with your statement. Of course, I’ve made that comment about people from BOTH SIDES of the aisle, not just when it hurts “my side’s feelings,” so I suppose there’s a difference between you and I.

That said, come on sunnyblack… Glynnis is simply untalented, obsessive, hateful, single minded, and unprofessional. No need to name call beyond the facts, her looks are immaterial.

As for the story… “Family Guy” is doing what it can to get some press. Things aren’t going so great for them anymore. “Family Guy” has become predictable, and took a big hit after “South Park” destroyed them in an episode a few seasons back. The “Cleveland Show” and “American Dad” are unwatchable. And let’s not forget the variety show special that MacFarlane hosted… well, I guess we can forget it, because nobody watched it, and nobody remembers it. They’ve gotta do something… but this should be seen as a sign that they’re star is fading fast.

ImNotBlue says:
February 19, 2010 at 2:01 pm

“Their,” not “they’re”

sunnyblack….. you are one sick pathetic excuse for a human being. Now don’t get upset… that was just satire (NOT) and it’s genius. Your “wave of the future” is a sickening example of just how low some people, RE: Andria Fay Friedman, will stoop to mock and insult someone. And it was NOT “satire” nor funny, but most definitely crass “sarcasm”. The whole Family Guy show is full of sickness and not worthy of viewing. God help us all when we call that kind of stuff “funny”!

Of course, I’ve made that comment about people from BOTH SIDES of the aisle, not just when it hurts “my side’s feelings,” so I suppose there’s a difference between you and I.

Whatever. As I’ve said before, I don’t attack based on appearance, and I try to confine them to what people have said and written. But you’re going after me for something I haven’t written? This is getting pretty risible.

And if you want to be petty, then it’s “you and me”, not “you and I.”

You’d have to be blind to not see how Palin uses her children – all of them – as political tools and excuses to get her name in the news as often as possible. It’s shameless and awful, especially considering the one she exploits the most is a special needs child.

That being said, the joke was not funny. I’ve never been a fan of Family Guy, mostly because they rely too much on being shocking for the sake of being shocking. That kind of thing doesn’t take any creativity or cleverness whatsoever.

And was making personal digs at Ms. MacNicol really necessary, Sunnyblack? It’s shocking to me sometimes how the Internet allows adults to act like middle schoolers.

And also, if you people hate this blog so much why not just read another one that’s more to your liking? The Internet is a very big place.

“(Note: I never called her retarded either). I never attacked her personally either.”

“…clearly, she herself has some form of mental retardation, yet she’s able to aggregate information from other website as if she was an actual journalist or something.”

ah, so you’re a liar AND a jerk. Glad you cleared it up.

Are you qualified to issue this kind of diagnosis? (Probably not, if you’re in middle school.) And if you are, what do your professional organizations say about the ethics of diagnosing someone based solely on pictures you find of them on the ‘net?

At any rate, I can diagnose you from here as a troll.

If I can use the internet vernacular: Palin was pwned by MacFarlane.

He threw an unfunny pop-culture reference into an episode, waited for her to mischaracterize it and then sprang the clincher onto the world, via the NYTimes.

She clearly fell into a trap set by a cartoonist and though I’ve said on several occasions in this forum and in others, I don’t think she’ll run in ’12, the fact that she can be so easily tricked isn’t helping her cause.

It appears that a moderator has removed the last couple of sunnyblack’s comments. My two most recent comments above, timestamped 2:14pm and 2:18pm, were in direct response to those and probably make less sense now. Just noting it for the record.

Seems to me she’s saying: This is my first voiceover job and it was lots of fun. The joke was not funny it was the job that was fun!!

I guess we’ll have to wait for Trig’s opinion on the job – since he’s the french bread loaf butt of the joke.

Well my comment was removed, so I guess its not okay to make fun of the mentally retarded! Oh wait, I was wrong…you can attack the mentally retarded as long as they are associated with the right! I should have known better.

I removed them, and him. As we’ve mentioned before, name-calling is a dealbreaker around here, and as @ImNotBlue so ably points out, there’s plenty of stuff to criticize without stepping over the line. Thanks.

Andrea Fay Friedman (supposedly said):

“My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”

If Palin kept Trig out of the public eye, I’d bet dollars to donuts that the haters out there would claim she was ashamed of him and trying to hide him.

There was no name calling…nothing more than what Family Guy did. Well it’s nice to see that more and more censorship continues to invade the internet!

It’s Mediaite’s site, not yours. They’re within their rights to remove any comment they wish. Don’t like it? Start your own site, and control (or don’t control) the comments section to your heart’s content.

taxed – You are being just a bit obtuse. There was an undertone to “sunny’s” comments that went beyond harmless name calling. It’s good that he is gone.

AnAndrea is being USED? Andrea is an actress and leads a normal life. Andrea CAN think for herself. She took a job judging it FUNNY.

Trig is being USED as a prop ( LIKE A LOAF OF FRENCH BREAD), Bristol is being USED being made to comment on Mommy’s sacred Facebook page.

I saw the episode and it was funny…the slow, sweet son of the Family Guy concludes that people with DOWN SYNDROME are NOT different from anyone in the end. Lighten up.

Palin whined about Rahm and I WAS WITH HER, everyone agreed with Palin, even the Liberals agreed with her…then she let Rush slither away, so $arah has proved herself to be a double standard, two stepping vaudeville act ONCE AGAIN. She has NO STANDARDS and should stop GRAND STANDING and stop being the political opportunist that she has shown herself to BE over and over and over again.

Enough IS enough…I am sick of $arah acting all indignant and double talking in that horrific donkey bray voice of hers.
GO AWAY, we SEE you, $arah.

Ted, I didn’t see what “sunny” wrote. I am commented on my comment being removed.

Vidiot, This is Mediaite’s site? Really? I was unaware of that, but thank you for clarifying.

What I don’t understand is how this is a shot at Trig. First off, the character is a girl and not a boy. Second, the dad doesn’t match as has been pointed out above. Third, Trig was NEVER mentioned. To me it was just an easy cheap shot at Sarah for using Trig to her advantage AND MORE IMPORTANTLY for being so two faced on the use of “retard” by various people. Something tells me that the actress would not have agreed to do the voice if she felt it was a shot at Trig.

Besides, it’s not like this is the first time that Family Guy has unkindly portrayed someone with a handicap (greased up deaf guy anyone?). That’s what the show does, it pokes fun at anyone and everyone and often uses obscure references to things via flashbacks. Every so often a joke fails and that’s all that happened here. As George Carlin said, you can joke about anything (eskimo rape and trying to get wet leather pants of a kicking person?….WATCH CARLIN!). Family Guy just messed up by not doing the joke justice and instead making it a cheap one liner lame shot.

He joked that Glynnis has a condition that makes her forehead big. It was funny. He included a pic of her that does show that she has a big forehead. It was funny, too. He then said that nobody should tell her what she can/can’t do and that she should reach for the stars. It was funny.

She should have just responded like Locke in Lost: Nobody tells me what I can’t do!!

She chose to be lame and delete the post. It was funny.

I must say the reaction to this very unfunny sketch is revealing. The Palinistas, as their numbers and influence wane, are getting very shrill indeed. Of course, if you were to raise or respond to bona fide issues instead of this ridiculous claptrap, you might seem a bit more sensible. Find and fight your battles well. Don’t just come out flailing at anything and everything.

Humor is subjective. What’s funny to one isn’t funny to another. The left has such a bitter, mindless hatred built up for Palin, it wouldn’t matter what anyone said about her or her family. The left would think it was great. Here’s what’s really funny. They say she’s an idiot who has less than zero chance of ever holding office again, her ‘numbers’ are dropping, and she’s toast. Yet she draws an inordinate number of attacks and attention from the sensitive, kind hearted left. In fact, she makes their blood pressure soar to dangerous levels. The mere fact that someone so ‘insignificant’ can keep them in such a foaming at the mouth frenzy all the time…now that’s funny.

How does one act or play a part on a cartoon?

I have such low expectations from the media that I have almost lost my ability to be shocked by any of the garbage and drivel. But the fact that a major network would try to get a laugh by mocking a specific, real-life child with Down syndrome was beyond anything I would have anticipated. Who vets these scripts? Even a second grader knows that this something the decent people don’t do.

Shame on Family Guy, and shame on the actress for defending this sick stuff.

felixw, what makes you think that Family Guy was “mocking a specific, real-life child with Down syndrome”?

Again, I’m not defending Family Guy, as I think the show is lame and not remotely funny. but judging from the portions of the episode in question that I watched, there are more data points arguing that the character isn’t meant to be mocking Trig Palin than there are data points that argue that the character is.

Supporting that the character is meant to be mocking Trig Palin:
–the character says that her mother is a former governor of Alaska. (There’s only been one female governor, so this would imply that she is Sarah Palin’s daughter.)

Supporting that the character isn’t specific to Trig Palin:
–the character is adult, or at least not an infant;
–the character is female;
–the character is named “Ellen”;
–the character says her father is an accountant.

Again, I think it was a bizarre unfunny grab at the brass ring of popular culture on the part of Family Guy, but I don’t get how this was a specific slam against Trig Palin or Sarah Palin.

@Vidiot: Not to mention that it was one throwaway line in a 22-minute script.

But hey, MacFarlane played it so that he’d get a week’s worth of publicity out of two seconds of tape. So, kudos to him; Job, well done.

“name-calling is a deal breaker around here”

Since when?

Vidiot says:
February 19, 2010 at 2:05 pm

As I’ve said before, I don’t attack based on appearance, and I try to confine them to what people have said and written.

Right… and when someone says something you deem offensive on the right, you’re sure to call them out for it. Of course, the same cannot be said for when someone says that on the left. It undercuts your correct message, and suggests it’s the politics of the situation, not the actual comment itself, that has irked you.

Glynnis MacNicol says:
February 19, 2010 at 2:28 pm

…and as @ImNotBlue so ably points out, there’s plenty of stuff to criticize without stepping over the line.

Glynnis shows a positive sense of humor! Hooray! I commend you on that bit of wit.

But please see below…

The Real Royal King says:
February 19, 2010 at 3:45 pm

Where does this stand, in your opinion, versus the Tim Tebow ad? There was all the talk before it aired… and then after it aired, and was shown to be very tame and not at all preachy, it was attacked for “encouraging violence against women.” Do you think that the hardcore feminist’s response suggests that as “their numbers and influence wane, are getting very shrill indeed”?

same2u says:
February 19, 2010 at 4:55 pm

Since when?

That’s actually a very good question.

Perhaps I should provide you with my email address and phone number, ImNotBlue, so you can get in touch with me to call for my instant condemnation of the excesses of the left? I call ‘em as I see ‘em. That’s all I can promise. (Besides, my criticism of those on the left with whom I disagree would likely get lost in the shriller yawpings of those on the other side…I don’t particularly care for Keith Olbermann’s show or his antics, for instance, but I’m not gonna start making up dumb names for him and go to the same extent as all the Olbermann haters out there. And that’s just to choose one example.) Nevertheless, I’ll try to criticize more people who irk me from the left side, just to placate you.

Incidentally, there’s lots that offends me on the right, too, that I don’t bother “calling out.” Not everything that irritates me gets a post here, and I don’t look at Mediaite every day. (busy work schedule, y’know? Plus other life activities; this place is fairly far down the list of priorities, though I do enjoy the site and visit when I can.) And you know what? The comments section of this site is frequently — but not always — insane and full of people who don’t seem to know how to argue like rational adults, and I just don’t want to deal with it all the time, either.

“felixw says:
February 19, 2010 at 4:17 pm

I have such low expectations from the media that I have almost lost my ability to be shocked by any of the garbage and drivel. But the fact that a major network would try to get a laugh by mocking a specific, real-life child with Down syndrome was beyond anything I would have anticipated. Who vets these scripts? Even a second grader knows that this something the decent people don’t do.

Shame on Family Guy, and shame on the actress for defending this sick stuff.”

I think you nailed it, Felix. The reference was deliberately designed to draw attention to a specific CHILD BABY almost for God’s sake just to make a pointless vicious jab at Sarah Palin. I can see no excuse for it.

As for the actress’s statement who did the voice over can anyone explain to me exactly WHAT the sarcasm was and who or what it was directed at. I see what I consider a nasty attempt to get publicity at any cost but “sarcasm”?

NewsBusters — Behar on Anti-Palin Family Guy Scene: ‘I Agree With Sarah on This One’
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2010/02/19/behar-anti-palin-family-guy-scene-i-agree-sarah-one

Vidiot says:
February 19, 2010 at 5:33 pm

I call ‘em as I see ‘em. That’s all I can promise.

I agree and understand… but that’s part of the problem. You “see” them less frequently, less correctly, and with more understanding or acceptance. That’s bias, my friend… and I don’t need your email or phone to tell you that.

I am mentally challenged and developmentally disabled. I am a high functioning autistic adult. I think what was done on Family Guy was wrong. Being mentally challenged is NOT something to make fun of. Palin has more sense. Those of you who support this heartless nonsense are as bad as the current administration is. Only commies make fun of the mentally challenged and there for that makes you ALL commies. The show Family Guy is pathetic in that it makes fun of whites only. Where is there a show making fun of say blacks or Hispanics out there? NO we can’t do that because it is politically incorrect. Well so is making fun of the mentally challenged which I have had happen to me for almost FOURTY YEARS.

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