There’s a time in every American animated comedy series, it seems, when everything turns Jewish. Whether that’s Krusty the Clown (aka Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski) finding his Jewish roots in “The Simpsons,” Kyle heading off to Mel Gibson to demand his money back in “South Park,” or the recent “Family Guy” (in the gently titled episode, “Family Goy”) in which matriarch Lois found out that her mother was a Holocaust survivor and Jewish.
It would be an ill-advised tempting of fate to say that the brief descent into Lois’s yiddishkeit marks the terminal decline of Seth McFarlane’s creativity. After all, neither “The Simpsons” nor “South Park” jumped the shark with their Jewish plotlines. And McFarlane’s review of Wile E. Coyote’s existential angst upon finally catching the Roadrunner provided some of the best minutes of this year’s television animation.
Although “Family Guy” will continue to pull in viewing figures, the litany of tired Jewish stereotypes trotted out for laughs was hardly an inspiration. Perhaps the idea was that, because the audience is so young, the writers would get first-time sniggers from obnoxious Jewish stereotypes, and should just try to check off as many as possible. So we saw: silly names (Hebrewberg Moneygrabber or dad Peter’s Hebrew name “Ch-ch-ch”), short hairy-chested men, libidinous boys, plain haredi dresses, sports underachievements, Holocaust obsession, greedy landlords, obsession with money and the revelation that Jesus was a Jew.
It was dumb, as usual, not as funny as usual, but had good lines — as always. One of the best lines was a throwaway when Jesus says that people shouldn’t worry about religion, they should just treat others how they’d like to be treated. “Oh,” says Peter “an eye for an eye” before moving rapidly onto something else. A great line, but perhaps a little close to the truth that the show’s audience, if not the writers, can’t tell the difference between scripture and Hollywood, stereotypes and fact, or lex talionis and loving your neighbor.
The Forward welcomes reader comments in order to promote thoughtful discussion on issues of importance to the Jewish community. In the interest of maintaining a civil forum, the Forward requires that all commenters be appropriately respectful toward our writers, other commenters and the subjects of the articles. Vigorous debate and reasoned critique are welcome; name-calling and personal invective are not. While we generally do not seek to edit or actively moderate comments, the Forward reserves the right to remove comments for any reason.
To post a comment, click to login:
Copyright © 2012, Forward Association, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Remember, Family Guy has made fun of many faiths in the past. In one episode, all Peter's friends make a ton of money by having Jewish financial advisors. Peter sings the song "I need a Jew" before a Jewish accountant knocks on his door and asks to use the phone to call a tow truck. In another episode, the family uses a time machine and accidently sends their Jewish friend, Mort, back to Poland on the day the Nazis invade. There are a number of episodes on Peter's catholicism, including one where he forms "The Church of the Fonz" and uses the wisdom of Happy Days to preach. This episode was not really anything new for them.