Hollywood writers shouldn’t get away with rape jokes
FXX had all-time high audience numbers, when they aired every episode of “The Simpsons” back-to-back for over a week.
Now, the writers of “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” came together and created a mash up episode, to the joy of fans everywhere. A preview of the mash up, shown on Fox, received major backlash though and for good reason. During the preview Stewie, a character on “Family Guy,” makes a blunt and crude rape joke.
Anyone interested can see the preview online, along with a string of comments under the video arguing about the humor in rape. Despite all the criticism and requests sent to the producers to edit the show, Fox chose to keep the offending scene and the episode aired as “Family Guy’s” season premiere on Sunday night.
Here’s the thing, there is no humor in rape.
Rape is a common and violent crime in our country. It happens on a daily basis. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, someone in America is raped every two minutes. This is a huge issue our society has yet to tackle head on.
Not only does the rape joke Stewie makes perpetuate rape culture, which is disturbingly dominant in adult comedies, but there’s a high chance rape victims will watch the show and feel offended or upset by its lack of empathy.
“Family Guy” is known for its shock comedy and for pushing the limit when it comes to humor. It sits up there with “South Park,” “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” and “Robot Chicken.”
Shock comedy is nothing more than a lack of creativity on the writers’ parts. It has shown through TV ratings and audience numbers that the more these shows cross the line into shock comedy, the smaller their audience gets.
This is most likely because many comedies take some form of intelligence to understand. Creating shock in hopes of laughs is the equivalent of a third grader mooning his teacher to amuse his classmates. Adult audiences should be above that.
Review writers for the Washington Post wrote that despite the rape joke scene, the episode did a great job poking fun at each other, revving up the TV shows’ friendly rivalry and creating commentary on other Fox shows like “Bob’s Burgers” and “The Cleveland Show.”
Other news organizations hosted articles that created lists of events where “Family Guy” was criticized for unsavory comedy, making it seem like it’s normal for this TV series to offend viewers. In reality, TV producers have a responsibility to the public to set the right example.
I think it’s time we stop making light of these issues. Seth MacFarlane is talented and known for his skills in adult humor, but he still hasn’t realized what type of impact his show has on our society.
By making such a harsh rape joke, “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons” have chosen to make light of a serious topic. They should know their audience is largely made up of teenage boys and young college guys who take many things these series say to heart.
It’s a shameful mark on what should have been a hilarious episode for both sitcoms. Rape jokes are not funny no matter who writes them.
Danielle Wiley can be reached at [email protected]