National Geographic: Family Guy Edition

The clip above is just one of many Family Guy excerpts that pushes the "racial stereotype" envelope. Many people argue that stereotypical driven content is funny because it has truth to it. Though this is often times true, it is almost always extremely exaggerated, and it is that extremeness that makes it funny. When it comes to Family Guy, I think it's safe to say that everyone agrees that it's humor is usually over-the-top. When racial stereotypes are addressed in the show, it is often times poking fun at the stereotypes themselves, at just how extreme and often times ridiculous they are. Many of the stereotypes that exist in American society only exist because we continuously allow them to exist. The racial jokes in Family Guy are aimed at almost every single racial and ethnic group in existence, therefore not targeting just one. The jokes seem to all be in "good humor" and usually make light of racial topics which are sometimes uncomfortable to address in a more serious setting. Overall, I don't believe that the racial jokes are meant to be derogatory towards any one group of people. I think they purposefully exaggerate and poke fun at some of the ignorant racial stereotypes that our society fuels, and often times highlight just how ridiculous it is that our society "believes" in these stereotypes.