Family Guy and Postmodernism[1] Cue Cards

8/3/2019 Family Guy and Postmodernism[1] Cue Cards

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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

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Family Guy and Postmodernism[1] Cue Cards

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