Family Guy & 9/11

Everyone knows that September 11th, 2001 was a very serious and tragic event. The attacks on this day have affected the media and will continue to do so. Although this was a very unfortunate event, several television shows and cartoons have been making light from it. Cartoons such as Family Guy, South Park, and The Simpsons has uplifted America as a whole from its humorous characters and content in each episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YOh-rpvjYg&feature=related

In the introduction of Melnick’s 9/11 Culture, there is a Doonesbury comic strip where the pressperson, Scott answers to every journalist’s question with the words “9-11” (Melnick 3). In Family Guy, there is an episode where Louise is put into the same position. She is at a presidential press conference and Brian gives her the advice to answer every question with a short response. One man asks, “Mrs. Griffin, what are your plans for cleaning the environment?” She responds with “9-11” and the crowd starts cheering. Another person asks “Mrs. Griffin, what about our traffic problem?” Again, “9…11”. This was a remake of the Doonesbury cartoon that not only shows that 9/11 has been the answer to many questions, but also shows how the Bush Administration used 9/11 as a way to get votes for reelection. This also reveals how dim Americans were to understanding certain issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zeJkG6IBGg&feature=related

Melnick speaks on limits of discourse in his book. In chapter 3 “Snapshots”, he speaks on the limits of discourse and sanctified images. One of the characteristics that these accepted images carried was patriotism. Post-9/11, there was patriotism rose throughout the people in the United States. In this clip of Family Guy, the scene starts off with Brian confronting Peter about how he didn’t know about 9/11 until three years after. A flashback occurs to the day of the attacks and Louise is sitting on the couch, crying, while Peter enters the room and sees the plane hitting the World Trade Center on the television. He then makes a smart remark by saying that the person driving “must have been a woman pilot”. This was a very shocking but humorous scene. Me, being a woman, still found it hilarious although he was making fun of my gender. This comes to show how the media can turn a heartbreaking event into something entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ch33FfKaCY

In post-9/11culture, there has been several times that Osama has been made fun of. There was a game called “Cokehead 2” that Melnick spoke upon in his book. The object of the game was to “fill Osama with enough cocaine to withstand nuclear holocaust” (12). In this clip of Family Guy, Peter is telling a monkey about how much he missed, “like when America was attacked by mentally challenged suicide bombers. The scene then switches to Osama riding a bicycle, at top speed, right into the World Trade Center. This pro-American scene illustrates our feelings towards Osama. It compares the plane attacks on the World Trade Center to Osama riding a bike into the same building…stupid move.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpP7b2lUxVE

In this clip of Family Guy, the Griffins are on a road trip to the Grand Canyon and happen to stop by Ground Zero, which is where the World Trade Center used to be. Peter begins to name different people that he thought made the attack on the towers but Brian explains to him what Ground Zero is and who attacked the buildings. Peter basically thought that the 9/11 terrorist attacks had to do with Iraq. Just like America, Peter believed that we should invade Iran because he didn’t believe that what Brian was saying. The funny thing is, when Brian was explaining who did the attacks and why, he never mentioned “Iran”. Even though we did invade Iran, the terrorist attacks didn’t have anything to do with them. This was also an issue in America, how we were going to war but some weren’t aware of why we were actually going to war for, which Peter gives a good example of.

Post-9/11the security in airports has grown a tremendous amount. If there were anybody who looks of Middle Eastern decent, the security process will take much longer. In Melnick’s book, this can connect to the “us” versus “them”. There was a comic that was made by Aaron McGruder titled “We’re Number Three!” on page 111 in 9/11 Culture. There are two African American kids who finds out that African Americans are no longer number one on the list of America’s most hated ethnic group. Now it is people from East India and the Middle East/Arab. Since they are the top hated ethnic groups, there has been discrimination towards them, especially in airports. However, in Family Guy they show how they weren’t discriminated against and also how easy it was to get through security in a humorous matter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoLkTQBDmO4&feature=related

So basically, in this clip they are making fun of the National Guard. It shows how easy it was for the terrorists to carry out their plan. The lack of security before 9/11 caused the terrorists to hijack airplanes and kill thousands of lives.