Family Guy

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A smartly written bitter comedy. But is it also blasphemous? Last episode God doesn’t want Adam and Eve to approach the Tree of knowledge and the camera pans out to what looks like porn mags behind the tree.

I will be told to get a sense of humor; I think I should respond, “Get a sense of reverence”
 
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MichaelTDoyle:
A smartly written bitter comedy. But is it also blasphemous? Last episode God doesn’t want Adam and Eve to approach the Tree of knowledge and the camera pans out to what looks like porn mags behind the tree.

I will be told to get a sense of humor; I think I should respond, “Get a sense of reverence”
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To the person who told you to get a sense of humor, tell him/her to get a sense of taste. I saw one episode and found it to be totally tasteless and with our merrit. Any show which has to resort to slap-stick sex humor is not worth watching…and that’s my :twocents:
 
Yep…tasteless cartoon… and I love it. And I wouldnt tell people to get a sense of humor if they dont like it…too each his own… as long as they dont tell me I shouldnt be watching it.
 
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ShroudMan:
Yep…tasteless cartoon… and I love it. And I wouldnt tell people to get a sense of humor if they dont like it…too each his own… as long as they dont tell me I shouldnt be watching it.
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Ditto.
 
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ShroudMan:
Yep…tasteless cartoon… and I love it. And I wouldnt tell people to get a sense of humor if they dont like it…too each his own… as long as they dont tell me I shouldnt be watching it.
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That ducks the issue though. Is blasphemy ok? As a Catholic, is it okay to approve of works that depict God as sinful? Does the umbrella of comedy really cover that?

Someone once died just from touching the Ark of the Covenant; now we have jokes at Mary’s expense.

I find the show humorous but I am deeply uncomfortable with profaning what is sacred and my discomfort is not based on my subjective tastye but on the objective norm of how we depict God and His servants.
 
The season was being hyped so so much, and, to be honest, I was looking forward to it…something told me not to be too hopeful when the first episode was insulting the Catholic Church via “The Passion of the Christ”. I felt that this season, every episode, was pushing the envelope more and more, just kept pushing & pushing…trying to get away with more, just for the sake of shock. Before there used to be a point and or satire to what they said, it now seems that there is no coherent reason behind any of the “jokes”. The final straw was this episode about which you speak. After I saw that, I turned off the tele & decided, VOWED, never to watch another new episode after that (the ones on Adult Swim are still alright). I don’t need to support that and I hope others will join me in boycotting it for the reason that our intelligence & morals are being insulted and mocked. WHY did they say that about God? What are they saying? God is a pervert? Porno is good? What was the point of “Christians don’t believe in gravity”? in the Passion episode? See? Just a lot of stupid things that don’t have any relevance to anything. I think that the people are snorting cocaine now and just thinking this is all funny. I really do.

I MEAN, THINK about it!!! God was hiding porno mags behind this tree?!! Let’s just for the sake of argument say that God HAD porno mags (because, you know, he’s all pervy towards women despite the fact that he had just created one, despite what those mag covers showed), WHY would he leave them here on Earth in Paradise? WHAT are they trying to say? God masturbates? Religion is silly and hypocritic? There’s a reason why this was done…I’m not going to contribute to this delinquincy and lies and hope that they cease and disist soon.
 
I haven’t seen any of the new Family Guy episodes and I’m not really interested in doing so. The show had moments of pure brilliance (“Ah! Who opened the Ark of the Covenant?” when Peter saw James Carville for the first time… and then called him circus-ugly later in the episode… hilarious), but you had to wade through a whole episode filled with garbage to get to the one or two really good gags.

It’s like South Park. Each episode has at least one truly fantastic and intelligent joke, but the rest of the episode is poop and fart jokes and pointless swearing that ceased to be funny after about the first 5 five minutes of the first episode.

I can get a huge laugh out of the good stuff in Family Guy, but I just don’t want to sit through all the trash to find it. And it has gotten more outrageous over time. It’s not about trying to be clever like it used to be. In the end (the last time it ended), the show seemed to be focused entirely on shocking the audience with its audacity. Like a twelve year old kid who says “damn” once, gets away with it and wonders if he can get away with saying something worse next time.

It’s just adolescent now.

PS. The Simpsons are the same. They’re not anywhere near as offensive, but that show has gone downhill ever since they lost Conan O’Brien as a writer. It’s not about being clever anymore like it used to be. It’s not smart anymore. It’s just constantly trying to push new boundaries for the sake of pushing boundaries. I don’t even think they’re trying to entertain us anymore, they’re just testing us to see how far we’ll let them go. It’s too bad Futurama was cancelled instead of the Simpsons. It had much better writing by that time.
 
Although it is blasphemous… To defend the first episode,the sequel to “The passion of the Christ” had Jesus running around shooting up bad guys like a cheesy rip-off of Rush Hour. Wouldn’t you guys object against a sequel to The Passion that was like that.

I love the show but it really does go to far at some times, but what show now a days doesn’t push the envelope? and to tell the truth there isn’t much catholic friendly media left in this world.

I wouldn’t suggest this show to catholics, but it really is smarter then most of the garbage out there now, and it if it didn’t rip on religion so much it would be even better.
 
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MEP:
Like a twelve year old kid who says “damn” once, gets away with it and wonders if he can get away with saying something worse next time.

It’s just adolescent now.

PS. The Simpsons are the same. They’re not anywhere near as offensive, but that show has gone downhill ever since they lost Conan O’Brien as a writer.
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MEP! You know your sitcom writing… Good call on the Simpsons/Futurama thing.

And good call on the twelve-year-old/Family Guy comparison. Family Guy really did have some of the smartest writing on TV for awhile, but blasphemy for blasphemy’s sake is pretty boring.

It’s sorta when I hear sex stuff on tv now, I don’t think “Oh my, I am so scandalized”, I think “Boooorriinngg…” and I flip the channel…

Actually, I hardly ever watch TV anymore, most shows are pretty lame.
 
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bengeorge:
MEP! You know your sitcom writing… Good call on the Simpsons/Futurama thing.
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Heh. People often wonder why Futurama was cancelled and The Simpsons wasn’t. Most erroneously think that Fox kept the Simpsons because it already had an established fan base and that Futurama was cancelled because it had bad ratings.

Actually, Futurama’s ratings were pretty good despite Fox’s best efforts to sabotage it (6 pm on a Sunday? come on). The real reason why Fox never actually wanted Futurama in the first place was because each episode cost about four times as much to produce as the average Simpsons episode, due mostly to the heavy use of 3D animation (which looked really really good). I guess even the incredibly high salaries of the Simpsons voice actors doesn’t compare to what a rendering farm cost at the time. I’m pretty sure this is what killed Invader Zim on Nickelodeon too (another brilliant animated program that was cancelled before its time, though admittedly it was waaay out of place on Nick).

It really is a shame.

As for whether or not comedy at the expense of God is blasphemous, I think it is. I’m pretty sure God has a sense of humor, but I’m pretty sure he has a sense of dececny as well. There is a line that shouldn’t be crossed but often times is. Any joke that demeans God isn’t funny.
 
Yes I really like Family Guy, I think it has a lot of funny stuff in the shows. I was a junkie of it when it was first on and then when it re ran in Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, and I was really happy when I saw they were putting it back on. BUT the first few episodes were REALLY stupid and not funny. Not at all like the previous eps. HOWEVER I think they’re turning a corner now. A few of the most recent ones (the one called ‘Petarded’ was hilarious!!!) are getting a lot better. Whereas American Dad is still terrible and doesn’t get any better.

I TOTALLY agree with the Futurama and Simpsons comment. I used to love the Simpsons in the middle years, but now, I NEVER laugh at it. It truly is pathetic. It is not a comedy cartoon show anymore, it’s a political, cultural left wing agenda. And I still love Futurama, I watch it all the time in re runs. (that’s all I ever do watch is re runs pretty much).

As for feeling bad or guilty for watching Family Guy. It does have a lot of jokes about Catholics, since the Family is supposed to be Catholic or ‘catholic’ heh. But to be honest, I’ve never been much offended by it. It had one episode with Peter’s Catholic Dad and it’s my favorite one. Another one of my favorite jokes on there was about the Pope, about how he had to be told to pick up his clothes because the floor is not a hamper lol. I don’t think most of it is vicscious…more like good natured jabs. Some of em do go a tad over the line…but it isn’t too often. I could understand though if some would feel sensitive to it. I do get that whole thing about the porn mags behind the tree…but I honestly don’t think it was meant to be saying anything about God really, but just a joke. They have this running gag on the show where God is supposed to be like a bachelor who is out in places like Bowling Alleys and Bars. It’s so much of a caricature or whatever, it’s like it has nothing to do with the real God.
 
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Oren:
As for feeling bad or guilty for watching Family Guy. It does have a lot of jokes about Catholics, since the Family is supposed to be Catholic or ‘catholic’ heh. But to be honest, I’ve never been much offended by it. It had one episode with Peter’s Catholic Dad and it’s my favorite one. Another one of my favorite jokes on there was about the Pope, about how he had to be told to pick up his clothes because the floor is not a hamper lol. I don’t think most of it is vicscious…more like good natured jabs. Some of em do go a tad over the line…but it isn’t too often. I could understand though if some would feel sensitive to it. I do get that whole thing about the porn mags behind the tree…but I honestly don’t think it was meant to be saying anything about God really, but just a joke. They have this running gag on the show where God is supposed to be like a bachelor who is out in places like Bowling Alleys and Bars. It’s so much of a caricature or whatever, it’s like it has nothing to do with the real God.
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Yes, I think that those episodes with the Dad & the Pope are funny. Those were good & clever.

However, what do you think they are saying about God as a batchelor trying to pick up women? What about that episode in the bowling alley where he kills the woman He’s trying to pick up and he says, “JESUS CHRIST!!!” and Our Lord and Saviour appears and is like, “What?!” And God is all, “Let’s get out of here!!”? Why are they trying to sleeze up God, make Him lustful, and what was up with just leaving that woman dead at the bowling alley? WHY do they keep portraying God like this? WHAT do they want to convey to us?
 
Someone gave us the first season of Family Guy on DVD for Christmas. We had never watched it before & knew nothing about it. When my husband mentioned it to a friend he said, “Take it back… you guys would NEVER sit through it or find it funny in the least. You are WAY too Chrisitan.” After reading these posts, I’m thinking he was right - we would not have liked it at all.
 
I think I’ll stick with Inuyasha and just skip over Family Guy. Insulting the holy name of Christ is wrong. I stop people and confront them when they use His name as a swear word. What kind of hypocrite does that make me if I watch a show that gets laughs out of using His holy name as a swear word.

I like the show, and I’ll miss watching it, but He was mocked once already. Once was too much.
 
There’s an unfortunate attitude held by far too many Christians today. We have become much too permissive. I won’t speculate on why this has taken place, but it has.

We are meant to be representatives of Christ to the world. We are meant to be set apart, held to a higher standard. We are meant to offer something better to those wrapped up in the world. Unfortunately, what the world offers entices us just as it does the next man.

We should be fervent defenders God. When His image is smeared, His name profaned, we should not laugh it off. We should not rationalize the joke and justify our enjoyment. We should own up to the fact that that which is coarse has taken a place as high as, if not higher than, that which is sacred.

We cannot have it both ways. As Lewis points out in The Great Divorce, neither can there be any Heaven in Hell, nor can there be any Hell in Heaven.

God bless.

-Joel
 
Ads, well I know what you’re saying. But about the only thing I can say is that I guess I’m just used to tv shows making fun of God in such a ludicrous manner. The reason I don’t get ‘offended’ by it, is because it is ludicrous. That’s why I said it isn’t even the real God in any way shape or form but a cariacature. As for what they’re trying to say…I would venture a guess to say that people such as the people who write the show, think that Christians are very silly for believing in a personal God. That’s why they turn it into an extreme version of personal, making God as if He is just like one of us. In this instance, a horny bachelor type of guy. I hear people all the time telling me I believe in a ‘sky daddy’ God. What they like to think is that they’re smarter than us dumb old Christians, because they believe in an abstract energy God. lol. Not that they put a whole lot of thought into it, at least not in my experience of these types of people. Anyways, that’s what I would guess is what they’re trying to get across.
 
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ShroudMan:
as long as they dont tell me I shouldnt be watching it.
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I will tell people they shouldn’t be watching it, if they’re seeking a sense of reverence. Cartoons written for a largely adult audience, especially on Fox, are a poor choice if one is seeking reverence.

Some would say it’s blasphemous to depict God as a human at all (other than as God the Son) - tell that to Michelangelo. This is not to say that Family Guy is on the same level as the Sistine Chapel. However, the principle is the same - assuming that if we are made in God’s image, then it’s ok to depict God in our image. As humans, we are flawed. Portraying God as human portrays him as flawed. Once you cross this hard line, the rest is a slippery slope of taste, of which everyone’s got their own.
 
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