No joking matter on Fox TV

By: American Decency Staff

By Chris Johnson Writing about Seth MacFarlane's shows on Fox TV at this point is about as formulaic as Seth MacFarlane's jokes. Unfortunately, however, until he stops repackaging the same inappropriate, offensive jokes, he needs to be called out on it. MacFarlane's predictable brand of "humor" consists of finding a subject that is pretty widely recognized as serious or sacred and creating a cartoon character to joke about it, thereby making the offended party the punch line. His trinity of shows (three in timeslot, one in essence) are the television equivalent of a whoopee cushion at a funeral. The prankster may laugh at everyone else's expense, but he's still the idiot in the room. Take Action! Click here to send a message to the corporations that empowered this latest offensive trash on Fox TV. Family Guy alone has targeted Terri Schiavo, 9/11 victims, Sarah Palin's Down's Syndrome child, Christians (of course), and, in an unaired episode which was included on the season's DVDs, abortion and China's  one child policy which results in the killing of thousands of unborn baby girls. So, unfortunately, it comes as no surprise when this week's Cleveland Show set its sights on Christian teens and the church with a swipe at handicapped people at the same time. The episode centers on the main character's son, Cleveland Jr., who has a crush on a girl who sings at church. To impress her, the young man decides to go on a mission trip to build houses for the poor, but soon finds out he has competition in another kid. They expose each other as an unbeliever and a Jew, respectively, who were only pretending to love Jesus to get close to her. That's when the "Christian" girl turns into some kind of sex freak, apparently excited by the fact that they were being so sinful just to get closer to her. She tells both of them, "When I am done with you, you will both see God." Now intimidated by their former object of interest, the boys tell each that they don't want to have sex, but the girl tells them, "you guys are both sinners and I'm going to suck the devil out of you." Just as she's about to rape Cleveland Jr. in the house they just started to build, his Jewish friend sets the house on fire. In the mean time, Cleveland Sr., thinks his wife is cheating on him after she tries to get him out of the house for a weekend. He finds out that one of her old boyfriends who is a former marine is coming to visit. He decides to stand up to the guy until he realizes that the ex-marine is in a wheelchair. Instead, Cleveland tells his wife's old boyfriend that he is her brother. When the wheelchair bound ex-boyfriend asks Cleveland's wife to marry him, they are forced to tell him that they are, in fact, husband and wife. The handicapped ex-marine then tries to leave, but can't get through the doors in his chair, so he falls out of the chair and drags himself out the door. The episode ends with Cleveland and his wife throwing the ex-marine a parade to make him feel better, but he is still mad until Cleveland punches him in the face. He says it's the first time anyone has treated him like a man since he was wheelchair bound. What does it say about a culture when it considers child rape and wheelchair bound veterans to be punch lines? If MacFarlane didn't hide behind cartoon characters, Fox wouldn't dream of poking fun at these subjects. Let the people who pay to air this show know that you find it disgusting and disturbing that they support such offensive programming. Take Action! Click here to send a message to the corporations that align with the mocking of Christianity. ========================================================== To support our efforts please click here or mail your gift to American Decency Association (ADA), PO Box 202, Fremont, MI 49412. American Decency Association is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

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