Family Guy is an adult animated sitcom created by American producer, Seth Macfarlane. The show focuses on the Griffins, an elementary family consisting of main protagonists – Peter Griffin, his wife Lois and their three children Chris, Meg, Stewie and their talking dog, Brian.
Family Guy is unlike any television sitcom. It was created to break all the social norms and ignores all the laws of most television shows. In the show, we see all the common issues and stereotypes in popular media that most American’s deal with today. The show strives to expose all the preconceived notions and beliefs society has put in place and mocks ALL stereotypes. The show portrays both low and high culture in general and makes fun of them, but at the same time does not encourage it. Most people who watch Family Guy can relate strongly. That’s because the show acts like a mirror and we the audience are forced to take a look at ourselves, but at the same time providing amusement and humor for the reflection.
Throughout the show we see common pop culture concepts cited. One example would be Social-Conflict Theory. Propounded by Karl Marx, the theory claims that individuals or groups
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Structural-functionalism or functionalism, are groups of individuals who advocate, or work according to the principles of functionalism. The show however, portrays behavior that is clearly not functional and could be considered dysfunctional for society. But, there are examples of groups of people or individuals who work together for the well-being of the town. For instance, Quahogs news crew which consist of anchors and reporters work together the provide news for the town. The Quahog Police Department. Joe Swanson, a police officer, plays his part in serving his community by keeping the town safe from criminals. The teachers at James Woods High School, doctors in a hospital, and an airport all play their roll to keep society
They both believe that intelligent aspects can be pulled from or seen in subjects that are not traditionally thought to involve intelligence. According to Graff, “Making students’ nonacademic interests an object of academic study is useful…” (386). Here one sees that he believes having personal interests as a choice of study can have benefits if they are examined properly. He also believes that any subject has the potential to be intellectual, and Antonia Peacocke writes to this same effect when arguing that Family Guy, in a way, enhances ones intelligence. The average viewer may see the show on the surface as controversial with its brand of comedy, but according to Peacocke, “[T]hose who pay more attention and think about the creator’s intentions can see that Family Guy intellectually satirizes some aspects of American culture” (303).
One point where she uses humor is at the bottom of page 305 where Peacocke writes about how taking Family Guy at face value is like taking Jonathan Swift 's "Modest Proposal" seriously. Another point where Peacocke uses humor is at the top of page 300 where she talks about how she is fascinated with the show and how her perfect high school match would be Stewie Griffin. Humor helps Peacocke’s argument in that it helps get across her point that the show makes jokes that the viewer has to know current events, as well as be more on the intelligent side, to understand completely and truly appreciate
Television programs often retain an aspect of reality in order to relate to the audience and commentate on social issues. Although both The Goldbergs and The Twilight Zone address controversial issues such as gender roles, insanity, and ethnic stereotypes, genre differentiates their approach and their audiences’ receptiveness to change. Whereas The Goldbergs, an ethnic sitcom, addresses the external world using comedic relief, The Twilight Zone, a science fiction program, delves into the human mind using imagination. Despite their common efforts to direct social change, the programs are inverse images of one another, and The Twilight Zone’s genre structure allows it to resonate more with the audience. From 1949 to 1956, The Goldbergs dominated television as the first televised sitcom.
However, Peacocke fails to recognize that Family Guy airs tamed comedy for entertainment by demonstrating how many elements that are portrayed on the show exists in our society today without intentionally hurting its viewers.
The idea of groups, cliques and leaderships can we portrayed in various ways. Just like in the two films The Breakfast Club and Mean Girls. In The Breakfast Club all the students in the detention room were not from the same clique however they were forced to interact with one another when they were put in the same detention room. What are sub groups?
The article “South Park and the Carnivalesque” written by Alison Halsall delves into both parody and satire within the context of the program. South Park’s Carnivalesque humor, or carnival laughter “is a method by which popular culture in general, and South Park in particular, provides liberation from constraint” (Halsall 24). South Park makes it a point to use humor that provokes the inherent “dirtiness” that we contain, in an attempt to expose cultural aspects that generally go undiscussed (Halsall 34). Through profanity, South Park brings carnival humor down to the basic grotesque humor that serves to “critique linguistic sanitation” (Halsall 34).
SpongeBob Square Pants is a cartoon that is aired by Nickelodeon. It possesses many Romantic characteristics through out the show. The first quality that the show has is the interest in the common man and childhood. SpongeBob is an ordinary guy who works at the Crusty Carb as a Fry-cook. He does not have a managerial position so we can infer that he has a very low income.
The greatest influence of this being the animated series and longest running family sitcom; The Simpsons. The show originally started off as an animated short on the Tracy Ullman show in 1987. Later, in 1989 being picked up as its own series on Fox. The show focuses on the Simpsons family. Revolving around a satirical view on the middle class family.
Looking at society as a whole with individual units that work together to make society function efficiently is the structural functionalism concept. Each unit has a part and is describe as institutions such as family, religion, education, politics, economy and inequality. Because structural functionalism looks at social structure and patterns of behavior it is able to create values for society. As well as, distinguish between visible and suppressed problems within the social structures that may need to be addressed. For instance, homelessness is indication of dysfunction in structural functionalism system.
The Boondocks an adult cartoon by Aaron McGruder is a magnificent example of contemporary satire. McGruder’s use of satire personifies different minds after different moments of black history such as Jim Crow laws, the civil rights movement, slavery, etc. Even the early days of The Boondocks franchise when it was only a comic strip in a college newspaper, there was controversy linked. Boondocks is about the lives of a cantankerous old man named Robert “Granddad” Freeman and his grandsons named Riley and Huey in Woodcrest suburbs(the boondocks). McGruder used The Boondocks to tackle prevalent topics in the black community.
I am also better able to see that deep down, the show produces positive messages about family, relationships, risk-taking, and self-discovery. In essence, the environment of Family Guy is existential, where characters have the ability to make extreme choices; this allows episodes
By way of example, all three of the theoretical perspectives notably have idiosyncrasies about one another. As an illustration, structural functionalism is defined as Due to the fact that society consists of vital parts and systems they work in unison with each other to run smoothly. The people in the society contribute in myriad areas of interest in the process of structural functionalism. David Claerbaut states that these areas of interest, incorporate into society with: religion, economics, education, politics and family. On the other hand of living among each other actively working to create a seamless community we have the conflict theory.
Challenging Stereotypes: How “Modern” Is Modern Family? The show won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in each of its first five years and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series four times. If you have never heard about “Modern Family," you have never seen comedy. Modern Family is an American television show that portrays the ‘Modernism’ in families nowadays in America.
Structural Functional Theory Structural functional theory is a macro sociological theory that is based on the characteristics of structures, social patterns, social systems and institutions such as education, religion, leisure, media, economy and politics. If all these social institutions are organized and co-operate with one another around a set of core values functionalist theorists assume that the entire social system will function properly and efficiently. Society in structural functional theory has a view that it is an organized system of interrelated parts that are held together by shared values and established social arrangements that help maintain the system to be in a state of balance and equilibrium. Structural functional theory is a broad perspective in sociology and anthropology which sets out to interpret society as a structure with interrelated parts. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions and institutions (Vibha Desai, 2013).
Structural Functionalism is a sociological theory that tries to clarify why society functions the way it does by concentrating on the connection between the different social institutions that make up society (e.g., government, law, education, religion, etc.). In Animal Farm the first example of structural functionalism is when the boar thinks the ordinances of their society are ruled by the oppressor humans. The second example is when the traditional structure is arranged to keep the animals in captivity. Lastly, the third example is when the arrangement allows humans to always be on the receiving end.