I have no issues judging a man on his work. However, pre-judging the work is a bit of a stretch for me. I mean, don’t get me wrong - I don’t watch anything with Mel Gibson in it these days because things the man has said are so odious that I wouldn’t get any enjoyment out of watching what might otherwise be a fine film. I get that. I’m just saying that Orville is fine TV (thus far) and is frankly presenting a pretty liberal-minded perspective (again, thus far).
Seth MacFarlane is the Writer, Creator, and Executive Producer for both shows. I’m not in the show business, so maybe someone like @tomchick with some real knowledge on how this works can tell us how this actually works, but I’m assuming if he didn’t want racist crap going out on Family Guy, it wouldn’t happen, regardless of what the other writers supporting the show wanted to do.
I’ll admit sometimes I’ve watched Family Guy, sometimes it’s funny. But the guy is pretty clearly a racist. He just repeats racist jokes he’s heard and broadcasts them on national television for cheap laughs without any concern for the damage to society that racism causes.
I don’t really care what people watch on their own. But when people help promote his shows without any concern for who he is and what he’s done, that does bother me. Just be aware that if you’re publicly telling people to go watch Orville, you’re publicly telling people to support a racist.
That kind of racist crap that occasionally shows up on Family Guy is teaching yet another generation of kids that racist jokes are okay. It’s telling minority kids that they aren’t as good as white kids and that they aren’t as welcome in our society as whites. It’s the kind of stuff that divides our society.
That’s the part I have issue with. I’m supporting a product, not a man. The product (so far) seems to support decent ideals and it’s been a fun ride. If it does well, the powers-that-be in media companies will be more likely to support that kind of product in the future.
I wonder how many of the Asian stereotypes in that video were done by
Not defending them, they shouldn’t be on the air. But it’s a lot to call someone a racist when pretty much every Chinese/Taiwanese(?)/Korean male I’ve ever hung out with (not a huge amount, but probably around a dozen) busts these sorts of jokes out every chance they get. I wouldn’t consider them racist. Now, if a white guy said the same things to me… sure.
Still, I agree it has no place on TV because we should move past it.
So your Asian male friends joke about having small penises? Your Asian female friends joke about how terrible they are at driving? Or how about this one 2:37 in where white woman shows up to cheat on her husband with Quagmire and when he finds out she’s married to an Asian male says “Oh, now I understand why you’re here”. Then there’s this one about Chinese with buck teeth.
If you’re Asian friends are okay with these jokes, you hang out with different Asian people than I do.
God I love people who don’t watch shows and then judge then on a cherry picked highlight reel made to self-reinforce their point. We live in a golden age of drive by manufactured outrage.
It really is pretty charming, I’m enjoying it.
I haven’t seen Discovery yet. I am excited to dive in, but I already pay for Netflix, Amazon, and HBO so I don’t really feel the need to pay for another service with only 1 show I am interested in. Maybe when the first season is up and done I’ll binge it.
Right, because there is any context in which those excerpts are not racist.
As I’ve said, to my shame I have in fact watched whole Family Guy episodes. I will admit they are often funny. To be frank, your comment doesn’t make that much sense in relationship to Family Guy. A lot of Family Guy jokes riff off of almost nothing change context to give us a 30 second joke that has almost nothing to do with the original storyline and then shift back.
Look at that Asian Woman Driver clip for example. It’s from an episode about sex education. I’m not going to watch the whole episode because right now I’m thinking fuck Family Guy and fuck those who defend its racists jokes. But certainly the start of the clip suggests that the Asian women driver joke has absolutely nothing to do with what came before it, and I’d lay better than even odds, that what comes after it has nothing to do with it either. It’s just a 15-second break from the main story to lay into Asian women and repeat a stereotype about them for no particular reason.
Peter is talking about being abstinent and that somehow has something to do with Asian women drivers? I’m somehow supposed to believe that because Peter is abstinent that in that context making broad comments about how people of a particular gender and ethnicity drives is now okay. You are so right @Guap. Now that I see that Peter’s being abstinent in this episode I understand why it’s okay for Seth MacFarlane to make fun of Asian women.
That’s BS. There is no context for the joke provided by the episode it’s just Seth and company deciding it would be fun to make fun of asian women and then trying to see if he can come up with an excuse to add some funny racist bullshit into his show.
Or is your argument that it’s not about the context. It’s about the fact that I need to see the entire body of work of Family Guy to realize every single episode does not include racism against Blacks, Latinos, Asians, or Indians. Gee, only some of Family Guy is racist. I must apologize. I was only complaining because I thought it was all racist. If I had realized Seth MacFarlane was only sometimes racist, I wouldn’t have said anything. My apologies.
With South Park you can at least make the defense that South Park really does seem to attack everyone and that its jokes are tied to and often in support of making broader comments on society. Family Guy racist jokes are usually like this Asian women driver example. There’s no context, they are not contributing to the story, they are not making some wider comment on society, they are just Seth and company making a joke at some other race or gender’s expense.
I love it when people who aren’t impacted by racism think that it’s all just humor. That’s the way Seth MacFarlane strikes me. Not that he’s KKK evil, instead he’s the insidious person that just happily repeats racist stuff because it’s funny, and thus perpetuates it. What does he care, he’s a white guy, he’s not being affected by this.
The problem in this case is it’s not Seth just repeating jokes to his bros. He’s broadcasting it across America where kids drawn to the admittedly funny jokes often in Family Guy also pick up these stereotypes, and minority kids also pick up that this is how society views them. This is exacltly how stereotypes are passed on and reinforced.
I voted under the assumption that we could vote against CBS for being blood sucking weasels.
Voted ‘neither’ for now, though eventually I will cave in and get the CBS thingy.
[edit]
Never mind. I will definitely get the CBS thingy in a few months. (Bastards!)
Basically, it depends on which I can watch, and since I refuse to pay CBS extra, it’s really down to the Orville. So far it’s been pretty good. Certainly no worse then the first season of TNG or Stargate (although not stargate Altantis, that show came out rocking) or Voyager.
Just as an FYI, you can get a free one week trial on the all-access thingy (you need to enter your payment info, as they’ll charge you after that one week is up unless you cancel by phone).
If I am interject on the racism aspect, its not like he pulls any punches on any other ethnicity or group that I can think of. The humor isn’t always my think, but when the type of humor you trade in is shock and stereotypes, he seems fair in spreading it out.
Yeah, I am bit falling for that crap. It stays off.
FWIW there are some claims on Star Trek Reddit that if you cancel they may offer you a free month. Seems to be inconsistent. Multiple people have received the offer others have not. Some people on commercial free on cancelling were offered two months at half off.
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/73kc9y/if_you_cancel_your_cbs_all_access_plan_before/
You can be personally offended at one off jokes if you like, sir. You keep mentioning this Asian driver thing. Let’s break that down a bit. Its an old, old stereotype. And yes, I personally know many people in Southern CA that are of Asian heritage. Did you know there are different kinds of Asians? Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Korean, and even more! And guess what, they all have stereotypes for each other and about themselves. And the old “Asian woman driver” joke is HIGH in that list.
Here is the thing. When you are not an isolated raw nerve like you seem to be and actually go out in the world, you learn how very rich and diverse it is, both full of wonderful people and jerks. Every culture has its own jokes.
I’m not saying Family Guy is high brow humor. I personally think its getting lazy with ultra violent jokes. But that show skewers everyone. Peter himself is a constant stereotype of the dumb fat American, Quagmire is the oversexed wierdo, Brian makes fun of oveteducsted Liberals, etc. They have had multiple episodes making fun of the British, the French, Arabs, South Americans, the entirely of Africa, and almost every facet of American culture: spoiled trust fund kids, corrupt corporations, rednecks, overly patriotic buffoons, brain dead football fans, you name it.
If its not your cup of tea, fine. But don’t point a self righteous finger at people who watch it you don’t care to understand. It’s lazy.
Yes, those jokes in particular all the time (and stuff about how they all love rice), but only the younger males. My Asian female friends and acquaintances do not joke around much at all, and the rare joke they make is not racial in nature.
Except the bucktooth thing, I don’t think anyone thinks that’s funny, except when you’re making fun of how stupid (and stupidly racist) grandpa comedies are.
But I’m not defending the jokes being on TV, they don’t belong there. I wouldn’t tell these jokes to my kids, but I’m not about to tell my friends to stop telling them, just like I’m not expecting them to tell me to stop talking about how I’m fat, or some self deprecating joke about being white or whatever.
My initial point, though poorly brought up, was that there are a number of writers on family Guy and I don’t know that you can blame Seth McFarlane for saying that stuff. You can blame him for letting it get on the air and slapping his name on the show etc but I don’t think it’s as simple as just saying he’s racist. But it’s not a stretch so believe whatever you want. :)
Like I said, I kind of monitor the Orville discussion thread. I’m looking for a reason to change my mind. What I imagine I’ll do is wait until the season is done and see what the overall opinions are. If it’s something like, started weak but got more interesting or something like that, I’ll reconsider. But I’ve got to work really hard to get past MacFarlane, since he’s pretty much front and center.
@divedivedive right in! I also can’t really stand McFarlane, but he’s not that hard to ignore so I can get some real TNG - which Discovery sure as hell won’t give me, even under all that lens flare.
Orville has been pretty damn good, beyond the weakish pilot episode.