PTC checks in with it’s yearly ‘Seth MacFarlane-series’ complaint

 

The Parent Television Council has ONE idea that I can get behind. These guys are actually in favor of the idea of un-bundling cable packages and letting cable customers pick which networks they would like to pay for which is an idea I really love and wish could actually happen. Think about it? I would get rid of Oprah, Lifetime, and MTV right off the bat AND I’d save money!! Where’s the wrong in that?

However, for the most part, the PTC is a bunch of whining silly nannies that get their tampons in a bunch whenever something crazy happens on TV that they think is unsuitable for America’s children. Last year the organization went after Seth MacFarlane’s American Dad and now a little more than a year later the group decided to check in on the latest episode of Family Guy.

For those that missed it, check out our recap and review here, but evidently the PTC feels that a bunch of the episode was too much for children with charges against the FOX series stemming from references to rape, sex, and molestation.

Here’s our analysis of the press release in which it names the scenes in which it is challenging:

Upset at being threatened by a bully and challenged to a fight, teenage Meg runs into the girl’s restroom. She finds pedophile Quagmire inside. 
Meg: “What are you doing in here?”
Quagmire: “This is my base of operations.”
Quagmire’s phone beeps. Voice on phone: “Mr. Quagmire, the girl’s gym class will be in the showers in twenty minutes.”

I don’t know if Quagmire is a pedophile, yea he keeps trying to hit on Meg, but technically he’s been unsuccessful up to this point. Adam West on the other hand?? In any case, Quagmire’s been chasing Meg for 10+years so I don’t know why the PTC is just NOW complaining about it.

Quagmire recounts being bullied by a girl when he was in high school.
Quagmire: “That was the beginning of a long, abusive relationship. It’s one thing if you put your penis inside-out in the safety of your own bedroom. But to have it done in the cafeteria?To this day, I can’t have sex with a woman against her will without thinking about rape.”

Alright, it’s a bit of a rape joke, but the show comes on at 9pm EST and is rated TV-MA for a reason by FCC’s TV Parental Guidelines. As a result, if you have a problem with jokes like this then DON’T WATCH IT. TV’s have V-chips and various methods in blocking content nowadays so there’s no excuse for parents in not monitoring what their children watch or hear.

Quagmire offers to help Meg train to fight the bully.
Quagmire: “Over the years, I’ve studied the limits of the human body. How much it can stuff in, swallow, or choke on. How a scrotum can be stretched into a makeshift sail if stranded at sea.”

This is a sex joke. The FCC has actually never submitted anything to anyone about what the organization sees as ”indecent content” so as long as there’s a gray area people are going to move on it.

Trying to avoid the fight, Meg plans to get expelled. Meg posts a sex tape of herself on the Internet. She is shown lying naked with a pile of sausages next to her.

Meg’s baby brother Stewie watches his sister’s sex tape and exclaims, “Good for her!”

Family Guy has been running Meg with hot dog jokes for YEARS. Anyone remember when she grabs a package of hot dogs and exclaims “I’m going to pretend you’re the New York Knicks!” So, why is the PTC just NOW getting on Family Guy’s case?

Quagmire gives Meg a glass which he says contains raw eggs, but which implicitly contains his semen.
Meg: “I don’t see any yolks.”
Quagmire: “Just drink it.” 


Great scene, but the scene never shows Meg drinking anything.

Before the fight, Quagmire tells Meg, “Remember what I taught you.”
Meg: “Relax my throat and make eye contact?”
Quagmire: “No, no. The fighting stuff.”

It’s a sex joke…again. See above.

After being beaten bloody, Meg “wins” the fight by pulling up her shirt and showing the bully her breasts. The bully recoils in horror.

After the fight, Quagmire congratulates Meg.
Quagmire: “I’ve got a feeling you’re going to be around for a real long time.
Meg (voice-over): “But I wasn’t around for a long time. A year later, my body reacted to a frozen hot dog, and I died of septic shock. I became the face of internal hot dog defrosting.”

A billboard with Meg’s face, a package of frozen hot dogs surrounded by a “no” symbol, and the phrase “Remember how gross it was when Meg died?” is shown.

Great scene, but’s never explicitly said that she had sex with a hot dog. It’s implied, but never verified. Again, Meg’s done a hundred hot dog jokes so it’s kind of a moot point either way.

Alright so, there’s that. Honestly, the PTC is just overreacting yet again and is filing baseless charges. At the end of the day, the tools are available for parents to make the right decisions regarding the content their kids watch and if they don’t enforce those it’s not up to the PTC to punish the writers of Family Guy. More over, less we forget PTC-founder and all around scumbag Leo Bozell of whom went on FOX News back in 2011 and referred to Barack Obama as a “skinny ghetto crackhead“. As a matter of fact, if you read the petition that the PTC put out for concerned parents to sign, they actually go the route of making sure everyone knows the difference between FOX and FOX News saying:

It is a violation of Federal Law for broadcasters to air indecent material on the publicly-owned airwaves when children are likely to be in the viewing audience.

Yet that is EXACTLY what the Fox Broadcast Network (not to be confused with Fox News) did this past Sunday, November 10th, with its most recent episode of Family Guy.

Again, the FCC NEVER tells anyone what indecent material is so I think that should tell everyone everything they need to know about these people. The PTC is just a bunch of right-wing assholes looking to stir shit up. Hell, even the organization’s own website warns parents of what Family Guy is about in their rather humorous synopsis of the series:

Family Guy centers on the vulgar antics of Peter Griffin and his family. Peter is a selfish, dim-witted lout. Peter’s wife, Lois, tries unsuccessfully to keep order in the house. Peter and Lois have three children: Meg is an anxiety prone sixteen-year-old outcast; Chris is a lazy thirteen-year-old dolt; and Stewie is a precocious toddler bent on world domination. Rounding out this dysfunctional family is Brian, the Griffins’ acerbic, hard-drinking dog.

Now in its 10^th season, this series delivers some of the most vile, offensive content on broadcast television. Last season, for example, Brian ate the feces out of Stewie’s diaper and licked his rear clean.  Sex is constant, with virtually every episode awash in lewd sexual references or taboo topics such as incest, bestiality and pedophilia. Language is a major issue, with words such as “ass,” “douche,” and “son of a bitch” used frequently. Violence is just as frequent, with the season premiere centering on a murder mystery with many people shot or stabbed to death.

Family Guy is not recommended for viewers under age 18.

There ya have it! PTC is already telling parents that they don’t recommend Family Guy for viewers under age 18. If you are a concerned parent, configure the settings on your TV and move on. If you are like me and were raised on healthy doses of games like Mortal Kombat, TV like South Park and music like Nine Inch Nails, only to turn out just fine, then you already know that the PTC is rather useless and really should just shut the fuck up and mind their business.

Family Guy returns this Sunday Night on FOX @ 9:30 pm EST, check your local listings.