Insight: “The Simpsons” , “Big Mouth”, “Family Guy” And Sexual Discovery

We live in strange times as it pertains to content. In a world where we condemn China for censoring South Park (of which Matt Stone and Trey Parker had a hilarious response), America is slowly but surely winning a war against extreme “woke” culture that is constantly offended about everything and constantly begs for socialism and censorship, the two things China is best known for. Proof? Recent box office champ Joker nearly had a run-in with controversy when the movie director questioned woke culture’s role in trying to censor comedy. And while your Twitter social justice warriors couldn’t wait to pounce all over Todd Phillips’ opinion, the movie has earned nearly $250 million. Worse yet, these same warriors would chastise the movie’s portrayal of those suffering from mental illness and whether or not a story about a white man in America resorting to crime after an unsuccessful comedy career is relevant in an era with an increase in forced inclusivity and diversity that often does nothing but lead to even more racism usually at the behest of Caucasians. Fortunately, none of it worked.

Adult Animation is fighting its own battles this year with series like The Simpsons, Big Mouth, and Family Guy all doing their best to recognize people doing their best at recognizing their sexual selves only to get slammed in the process mainly due to the same social justice warriors that constantly miss the point. For example, Tom Devanney had written an episode of Family Guy called “Bri-da” that had aired this past weekend and right away extreme woke critics are annoyed and claiming that the episode was anti-trans when, in fact, if you watch the episode it’s anything but. In fact, Tom has written some of the show’s best Quagmire-centered episodes with my personal favorite being “Quagmire’s Dad”. And while “Bri-da” definitely does a poor job at trying to rehash and, in some ways, ret-con some of the aforementioned classic sequences, the show did a swell job at pointing out that sometimes it takes people longer than others to come to grips with a family member that is attempting to find their true selves. Presumably in his eighties, given that Quagmire has been confirmed to be in his early sixties, clearly, Ida had finally had enough of her one-time military background and had decided a change was necessary. And while most respected the decision, clearly Quagmire was having a difficult time with the change and is still dealing with these repercussions which I think is a fair reflection of a society that may not be all on the same page given the topic.

Enter Big Mouth. Recently, Netflix had posted a very funny clip from the episode “Rankings” where ex-Tuca and Bertie cast member Ali Wong had debuted in the episode as the pansexual “Ali”. Well, of course, your social justice warriors got a hold of it and noted that the scene was “transphobic” and commented as such below which forced show co-creator Andrew Goldberg to issue a response. However, of interest, is the number of fake bot accounts in the comments that are coming in from both sides of the argument, most likely NPC’s trying to start an argument that isn’t really there. Vulture notes that those in the queer community that are leaving comments are pissed because trans could potentially have been referred to as a third gender as opposed to male or female as per Ali’s initial speech in her introduction when in actuality she is more correct than one might think. Intersexuality, the scientific explanation of people being born with reproductive organs of both male and female sexes, is, in fact, a third gender, and it is very common for parents to raise their children having adopted either sex until they are eighteen in which case these now adults make decisions for themselves as to how they would like to continue living their lives and do just that in a country that certainly protects these civil rights (as they should). As such, it is very likely that “Ali” is very much pansexual and did a good enough job, for me, in explaining the differences between pan and bisexuality and what this specific character’s sexual interests are. Where I think Vulture is incorrect, is that the author is being more privy to those who could be suffering from gender dysphoria with no natural inclinations of being male or female and who typically resort to unnatural and sometimes very unhealthy means in which to do so. The author would do better at looking at the wider picture encompassing other types of physical sexuality that are more prevalent. While not any less entitled to those same aforementioned civil rights, to assume that anecdotal critiques of a very small percentage should be given full creative license is ultimately misguided.

All of this will probably get even more expanded in due time with even executive producer for The Simpsons, Al Jean, teasing earlier this year that Lisa Simpson may very well be pansexual AND bisexual noting to Metro,: ‘I see Lisa as President and possibly polyamorous, [and] Bart enjoying life as he did at the end of the Barthood episode.’ In fairness, he’s referring to a Lisa Simpson somewhat set in the future not to be confused with the silly eight-year-old we have now, and with a TV-PG rating typical of airing that happen on Sunday Nights for a broadcast network, how the producers of the longest-running animated series in primetime eventually broach this subject will be interesting to see. But, the important thing is that we keep challenging conventions and norms put in front of us because if we don’t we become a socialist country under constant supervision instead of embracing the freedom of expression and speech.