Family Guy’s Andrea Fay Friedman: ‘Sarah Palin Has No Sense Of Humor’
One can only imagine the sort of response this is going to elicit from Sarah Palin’s all-powerful Facebook page! Andrea Fay Friedman, the actress (Life Goes On, Law And Order, Saving Grace) who played the character with Down syndrome on this week’s much-talked about Family Guy, and who actually has Down syndrome in real life, has responded to Sarah Palin’s wrathful criticism of the show in an email to the New York Times. Sarah Palin has no sense of humor!
I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line “I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska” was very funny. I think the word is “sarcasm.”
In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life.
Sarcasm, satire…all forms of funny Sarah Palin may or may not understand and/or appreciate. Also, SNAP. However, it does not stop there. As pointed out by Gawker, who picked it up from the blog Palingates, the NYT may have left out the best part. According to Palingates this is how the full email read:
My name is Andrea Fay Friedman. I was born with Down syndrome. I played the role of Ellen on the “Extra Large Medium” episode of Family Guy that was broadcast on Valentine’s day. Although they gave me red hair on the show, I am really a blonde. I also wore a red wig for my role in ” Smudge” but I was a blonde in “Life Goes On”. I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line “I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska” was very funny. I think the word is “sarcasm”.
In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life.
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.
Emphasis mine. Also, yowzer. Palingates has also posted a copy of the email to back up their claim of what the NYT allegedly cut. I say allegedly, because I would not exactly classify Palingates as the most reliable source of information for all things Sarah Palin. Also, the tone of that last line is not all that consistent with the rest of the letter, nor is it all that consistent with the entire Q&A with Friedman the Times features in their Arts Blog. Though, lord knows it’s the sort of thing that’s red meat for Andrew Sullivan, who has long felt (he’s not the only one) Palin was carting out son Trig for her own benefit. I’ve emailed the NYT to confirm that they did, in fact, remove that line and will update when I hear back. In the meantime, some more from the Q&A:
Q: Do you agree with what she and her daughter Bristol were saying, that the character and the jokes were insulting to people with Down syndrome?
A: It’s not really an insult. I was doing my role, I’m an actor. I’m entitled to say something. It was really funny. I was laughing at it. I had a nice time doing voiceover. It was my first time doing a voiceover, and I had fun.
