How do Animated Sitcoms, such as The Simpsons and Family Guy represent the ‘family’ and why are these representations considered humorous?
Arguably, Animated Comedy has been one of the biggest entertaining mediums in history. Starting from Mickey Mouse’s power of reviving the population from an economically unstable Europe to Tom and Jerry’s slapstick motions steering the world away from the tragedies of the Second World War and guiding them to a more cheerful outlook on life in the late 40s, Animated Comedy has become a very important form of entertainment and escapism. Whilst a Pluralist would argue that Comedy tends to reflect society and its values and ideologies, a Marxist perspective argues that it is an “Ideological State Apparatus”[1] used to shape the younger generations into forming certain ideologies designed to ultimately be in favour of the institution that created it. Its values have evolved dramatically from a simple and comprehensible genre into the media’s most controversial subject. This has led Animated Comedy to split into many genres, focusing on contemporary social issues such as drugs, gender, sexuality and social backgrounds – all of which are foundations of the sitcom genre.
The social and historical aspects of family life vary between many cultures and religions, yet the ‘traditional’ family is widely believed to be patriarchal. The idea of male dominance within the family has existed for many centuries, being the core to the patriarchal society that, many believe, has been abolished. In fact, the stereotypical representation of family life has, for many years, been seen as out-dated and it has become very common in today’s society for relationships to terminate prematurely with “as many as 2 out of 3 marriages”[2] now ending in divorce. Many cultures tend to accept family as being the most important aspect of life, and therefore are determined to undermine the idea of separation. However, it is argued that the contemporary American family is, in many ways, “not stable”[3], and plays on the idea of divorce as being justifiable even in the silliest circumstances.
It is conventionally known for the father in a family to have a very positive relationship with his son and vice-versa, leaving the mother to bond more with her daughter. The Simpsons tends to enforce this tradition, displaying Marge and Lisa as having an extremely open and positive relationship as well as over-nurturing her youngest daughter Maggie. This is seen in Season 19, Episode 3; Midnight Towboy, where Marge hires a woman to help make Maggie less dependent on her mother and, once this independence was enforced, Marge was not able to accept the fact that she was no longer needed to nurture her child. In Contrast, Family Guy demonstrates a more contentious personality for the main protagonist, Peter Griffin, and focuses on “familial and patriarchal dysfunction”[4]. Peter Griffin’s relationship with his children is one that could only be classified as dysfunctional. Similar to that of Homer, from The Simpsons, he is shown in many episodes to be physically and verbally abusive to his daughter, Meg. Although it is often observed that all of the family have a strong dislike for their unattractive daughter, Peter seems to be the most repulsively disrespectful of them all. An episode that portrays this issue is Season 5, Episode 11; The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou, where Peter “farts repeatedly in Meg's face (following her backwards around the table until she finally trips and then letting out a powerful fart right in her face so that she vomits on the floor at which Peter gets mad with her)”[5]. This sort of behaviour is widely considered to be funny purely for the fact that it is something so out of the ordinary, and not observed on a day-to-day basis in such a Democratic country.
These drastic changes of family life have become increasingly evident when comparing historical texts of a similar genre. A classic animation series of the 1960s, The Flintstones, reinforced the idea of male dominance in the family. Yet, like most comedies, it played on the idea of occasional female power where wife Wilma and friend Betty would to burst out in anger. This is seen in Season 3, Episode 11; Ladies Day, where Betty suspects her husband of cheating on him and exclaims “imagine another woman, and here I am spending the best years of my life slaving and working for him”. It is followed by Wilma and Betty both angrily marching out of the house in hope of catching Barney in the act with his bogus mistress. Actions like these seemed to be a very common humorous aspect for many comedies of the 20th Century, especially those which aimed to appeal to the older target audience who have been raised with these ideologies.
Furthermore, there are countless similarities in the roles of women in the household and the “angel/whore dichotomy”[6] between The Flintstones and contemporary Animated Sitcoms, which have become more graphic over time. Lois’ care and concern for the family seems to stem from Wilma’s in The Flintstones, although the audience is never shown any intimate side to the relationship between Wilma and Fred, whereas Family Guy does the complete opposite – adding scenes of a sexual nature between husband and wife and playing on the issue of familial incest. Whilst some would find this extremely disturbing in an animated show, a genre traditionally associated with a child audience, others argue that it reflects contemporary social issues and brings to light the concern many families face in today’s society. This would be considered humorous to those who understand the binary opposition between the stereotypically innocent subjects included in cartoons, and those that are completely obscene featured in Family Guy.
It is clear that youth culture has dominated the media for decades, and therefore it is not a surprise that we are made aware that social issues have arisen through this change. Gender roles have become increasingly shifted, reinforcing the values and ideologies that, a Marxist would argue, are Ideological State Apparatuses by those who are socially superior in order to promote themselves as being ‘normal’ and marginalise those groups who are seen as different (and therefore ‘abnormal’ or ‘deviant’). This is visible in many episodes of Family Guy such as Season 4, Episode 19; “Brian Sings and Swings”[7], in which the daughter Meg, desperate to conform to the rebellion of teen culture, announces that she is a lesbian. Even though her efforts at seeking attention were successfully accepted in her school, her family realised that the key to solving the issue of conformity was to ignore the announcement. A Marxist view would suggest that it is a method of pressurising the youth audience into accepting these stereotypically negative Ideologies in order to conform to society’s changes. It would also argue that the public are injected certain ideologies that are beneficial to those who are considered authority-figures, through the use of Ideological State Apparatus. It could be argued that traditional Animated Sitcoms like The Flintstones “demonstrates to our youth our idealized gender roles”[8], suggesting that today’s youth aspire to conform to traditional gender roles, rather than those that have been “manipulated by the creators of media texts”[9]. Therefore, in order to bring out a counter-Marxist point, the disorganised and dysfunctional Family Guy would bring to people’s attention that “life and relations in the traditional family appear to many to be prosperous and orderly”.
It could be argued that the Ideologies portrayed by both The Simpsons and Family Guy about the modern family are negative representations of what is stereotypically expected of a healthy relationship with siblings. Family Guy creates comedy using subjects considered too sensitive to be openly publicised, such as controversies about the stereotypically homosexual actions and gestures portrayed by Stewie Griffin, who is theoretically considered to play the character of a talking infant. It is very often that the audience observe Stewie being criticised by their family dog, Brian – also an ‘unusual’ member of their family – because of his feminine actions. These negative representations are also visible in The Simpsons, where Bart finds extreme difficulty conforming to the norms of his classmates. Similarly, physical issues such as obesity are used in many episodes of Family Guy. Some argue that the issue of obesity is a key tool for humour, as it relates to the majority of the population in the USA, supported by statistics indicating that “3 million”[10] of Americans are considered morbidly obese. This kind of stereotypical representation is most commonly found amongst teenagers, as many are aware of the issues surrounding obesity and the importance in keeping fit from an early age. One of many episodes of Family Guy that reinforce this stereotype is Season 7, Episode 4; Baby Not On Board, where Glen Quagmire says he is stuck behind “some fat-ass driving too slow”. Even though the audience know that the main protagonist, Peter Griffin, is created to be obese and has been so since his childhood, he is often seen to be criticised for his weight and his looks on the show.
Therefore, it is extremely common in shows that are of a comedy genre to criticise this unhealthy lifestyle in a humourous way, which many would find offensive if it were not for the situation in this scene. The Cleveland Show, a spin-off from the original character Cleveland Brown in Family Guy, also makes references to obesity. Yet this character was never criticised for his weight in Family Guy. Even Comedy Sitcoms such as King of Queens also includes an obese main protagonist (Doug Heffernan), who is constantly shown being criticised and teased for his weight. This, in turn, brings to people’s attention that there is a higher percentage of men who are overweight than women. Both texts share these values, presenting Homer Simpson, a lazy overweight doughnut lover, and Peter Griffin, an almost morbidly obese man who hates the idea of doing anything more than is necessary. The idea of obesity being considered humorous stems from the fact that those who are ‘fat’ are stereotypically associated with lack of intelligence. It allows the male audience, on some level, to identify with both Peter and Homer and accept the representation of this contemporary ‘husband’-figure as being a role-model which they should aspire to (according to traditional family values).
Some argue that it is “human nature to like to see slapstick things happen to people with power or authority, especially if they're pompous or misusing that authority”[11], therefore we must assume that the entire aim of both texts is to entertain the audience. Whether or not the representation of ‘family’ is positive, the ultimate intention for the institutions of both texts would be to allow the audience to believe that it is entertaining and, therefore, seek escapism from their own lives. However, it is fair to suggest that the representation of ‘family’ by Family Guy and The Simpsons are primarily negative – reinforcing stereotypical ideologies from the patriarchal society that Feminism hoped to diminish. Dysfunctional families are subjects that have become so common in today’s society that audiences now conform to the Values and Ideologies presented by Animated Sitcoms, and believe that, through humour, they would be able to solve difficult situations. Therefore, it is a sense of escapism that one would not find if it were not for the Comedy aspect in this genre.
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[1]Ferretter, L. (2006)
[2]BBC.(n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2011, from BBC Learning English Web site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/britain/070601_family.shtml
[3]Nelmes, J. (1996)
[4]Davis & Needham (2009)
[5] Buckimion. (n.d.). Family Guy Wikia. Retrieved March 24, 2011, from Wikia Web Site:
http://familyguy.wikia.com/wiki/The_Tan_Aquatic_with_Steve_Zissou
[6]Purdue University: College of Liberal Arts. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2011, from Purdue University Web site: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/psychoanalysis/notes/angelwhore.html
[7]Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. (2010, December 14). Retrieved February 1, 2011, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Sings_and_Swings
[8] Nelson, S. M. (2007)
[9]Wilson, K. (n.d.). MediaKnowAll. Retrieved February 1, 2011, from MediaKnowAll Web site: http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience
[10]Collins, A. (2007). Anne Collins. Retrieved December 23, 2010, from Obesity Statistics Web site: http://www.annecollins.com/obesity/statistics-obesity.htm
[11] Marx, C. (2010)
