So what changed for me? Partially, it was "South Park." I'll confess that I watched Stone and Parker's parent-hated cartoon from the beginning as well. I went around quoting, "You will respect my authori-tie!" and "Screw you guys. I'm going home." along with the other males in my age bracket. And originally, the show was just funny. But over the years, instead of jumping the proverbial shark, "South Park" got better. What started out as just four kids getting laughs by saying filthy things turned into four kids getting laughs by saying filthy things and making salient points about life while doing so. Matt and Trey started using the show as a mouth-piece to comment on everything from politics to religion to celebrity culture. And surprisingly, they actually had smart things to say. Even when I disagreed with the points they were making, I couldn't help but appreciate the intelligent way they were making them and the fact that they always brought a fresh perspective. For example, the day after this past year's election, "South Park" ran an episode where all of the show's liberal characters were cheering and partying and claiming that the world was going to instantly be perfect thanks to Obama's victory while all of the show's conservative characters moped and cried and built a fall-out shelter to save themselves from the apocalypse to come. As usual, the episode was timely (I'm still not sure how they pulled that off), hilarious, and made a point that no one else was making. Which brings us back to "Family Guy."
In 2006, Comedy Central aired a two-part "South Park" episode titled, "Cartoon Wars." The show was about censorship and rather than use their own struggles against it, the writers used "Family Guy" as a stand-in, taking shots at their rival throughout the episode. As usual, the "South Park" guys made good points. They lampooned "Family Guy" for having jokes that come out of nowhere and don't relate to the episode in the slightest. Those jokes were exactly what I loved about "Family Guy" in the beginning, but by season six, they were becoming a bit predictable and boring. That same year, the "Family Guy" episode, "Prick Your Ears" premiered. In it, Seth Macfarlane and the other writers took shots at the abstinence movement. The school that the show's children attend was visited by Christians who shared the idea of abstinence. This led to the teens of Quahog abstaining from vaginal sex but enjoying lots and lots of ear sex to keep their virginity. The episode reflected the real-life problem of teens involved in the abstinence movement using oral sex as a substitute. Fine. What irked me was the end of the episode. Lois, the show's matriarch, addressed the school and, looking directly at the camera said something to the effect of, "Sex is a good thing and you should have it when you're old enough to be responsible and you're in love." You may disagree, but to me, this was completely irresponsible. What thirteen-year-old in a relationship doesn't think that that they're mature enough and in love? It's one thing to target adults, but the children who watch the show (and there are many I'm sure) don't need to hear that message.
And that leads me to Sunday night's episode. Once again, Macfarlane chose to attack the Christian community. Meg, the daughter on the show, is confined to bed with the mumps and while spending five days watching nothing but "the Christian channel," gets converted to Christianity by Kirk Cameron. Rather than spend the rest of the episode showing the effect that this might have on Meg's life, the show fast-forwards to her attacking Brian, the family's liberal talking-dog, for being an atheist. In fact, everyone in town attacks him. Point taken. Brian, unable get the alcohol he so loves since atheists apparently aren't allowed into bars or the ABC store, finally gives up and pretends to be converted. Meg, thrilled to hear of his conversion, takes Brian with her to her nightly Christian ritual, a book-burning. That's right, the favorite activity of Christians all over the world, burning books. Macfarlane makes sure we can all see that among the books are, Darwin's The Origin of Species, Hawkings' A Brief History of Time, and a third-grade logic textbook. Clever. And to close out the episode and return things to their usual state, Brian quickly convinces Meg that there could be no God since Meg's own life is so awful. Much like "South Park"'s attack on Mel Gibson, which was one of the show's few missteps, the point "Family Guy" attempted to make was blunt, unnecessary, and completely unfunny.
As a Christian, I'm used to being attacked from time-to-time. It happens and I can deal with it. But I much prefer it when those attacks are targeted, true-to-life, and intelligent. I'll probably keep watching "Family Guy." There's still enough laughs in most episodes to make it worth my time. But I'll never have the affection for the show that I once did and I'll always turn to "South Park" when I want my cartoons to voice an intelligent opinion.
