Family Guy Research Articles

Overcoming Cultural Constraints in Translating English Series: A Case Study of Subtitling Family Guy into Arabic

Subtitling and dubbing foreign animation in Arabic have been growing since TV screens reached Arab homes. This imposes stricter control and ethical supervision of the used language. This study examines the cultural constraints in subtitling the American animated sitcom Family Guy into Arabic. Family Guy addresses sensitive matters, such as sex, alcohol, religion, and politics, and so it is viewed with concern and caution in the Arab world. The researchers classified the cultural constraints in translation into three main categories: religious remarks, jokes & humour that revolve around proper nouns, and taboos. The analysis shows that the strategies used in translating religious remarks were scene deletion, words omission, and words omission with justifications. For jokes and humour, the translator opted for three strategies, namely, retain unchanged, retain unchanged with added guidance and retain unchanged with detailed explanation. Euphemistic expressions and word omission were the two strategies followed in translating taboos. The study concludes that the target audience has a vital role in determining the appropriate constraints on translation that go in line with their ideology and culture. Keywords: Audio-visual Translation; English-Arabic; Ideology; Subtitling; Family Guy

Дискурс батько-дитина в анімаційному серіалі «Family Guy»: корпусний аналіз

The article aims at analysis of gender and family stereotypes in father-child communication in an animated series Family Guy, featuring a typical American family. The study focuses on Peter Griffin's discourse, the father of the family, containing his communication with two of his teenage children, a son and a daughter, unveiling gender peculiarities in father-son and father-daughter discourses. The attempt is made to disclose how gender and family roles are verbalized in communication between family members. The conversation, discourse and corpus-based analyses have been used to analyze the main character's discourse in order to single out the father's specific vocabulary — through word lists, keyword lists, clusters and collocations — he uses while communicating with his son and daughter. The findings show that Peter Griffin chooses different language means while talking to his son and daughter. Thus, his discourse addressing his adolescent son Chris is rich in direct addresses, mainly commands when the father tries to discipline his son. Offering his son emotional support or encouragement the father stays forthright with him creating an image of “real men” stereotypical conversations. On the contrary, while communicating with his daughter Peter modifies her name Meg addressing her as honey, sweetheart, one-of-a-kind in father-daughter discourse. However, using diminutives he humiliates his daughter and makes her feel an abandoned child. In this way, he makes her feel special but in a negative way. Family communication created in the animated series reflects gender stereotypes in father's attitude to his children belonging to two different sexes. Nevertheless, this verbal tendency does not affect relationships within the family. For the future, it is worthwhile to compile a larger corpus including mother-child, child-father, and child-mother discourses to get more representative results

Class Norms: The Expectation of Social Roles in Family Guy

Abstract

“You’ll never have to listen to her talk like this? With an upward inflection? At the end of every sentence?

Cet article se propose d’etudier comment les variations de la frequence fondamentale de la voix peuvent etre utilisees afin de stigmatiser des personnages feminins dans une œuvre de fiction televisee. Le corpus est compose d’un arc narratif tire de l’episode 5 de la saison 5 de la serie televisee Family Guy (connue en France sous le nom Les Griffin) diffusee par la chaine americaine Fox. L’analyse quantitative de l’etude compare la frequence fondamentale de personnages feminins ouvertement stigmatises a celle de trois groupes de controle: deux personnages feminins non stigmatises, deux personnages masculins stigmatises et deux personnages masculins non stigmatises. Le test statistique de Mann-Whitney est utilise pour comparer les differents groupes. Les resultats indiquent que les personnages feminins stigmatises presentent une frequence fondamentale ainsi qu’un ecart-type plus eleve que chaque groupe de controle. Il est suggere que la frequence fondamentale contribue a la stigmatisation de ces personnages feminins, et que ces derniers sont stigmatises en raison de leur genre. Afin d’appuyer cette hypothese, la section qualitative de l’article explique, par l’analyse d’exemples tires du corpus, comment la prosodie, le vocabulaire, le semantisme et la construction des dialogues sont utilises, a l’instar de la frequence fondamentale, pour stigmatiser ces personnages feminins. L’utilisation de marqueurs linguistiques pouvant etre percus comme feminins contribue a la stigmatisation de ces femmes dans un processus auquel il est fait reference dans cet article par l’expression misogynie linguistique.

Semitic Stereotypes

This article examines how Jewish characters speak, look and act on the American comedy cartoons South Park and Family Guy. Through analyses of relevant episodes, a correlation is established between being a Jewish stereotype, speaking a distinct ‘Jewish English’ dialect and being a negative character on both shows. The analyses are based on 6 key characters from the two shows who are all Jewish, and while the 3 negative and stereotypical characters use certain features associated with the ‘Jewish dialect’ defined by Sarah Bunin Benor, as well as look and act according to classic Hollywood stereotypes of Jews, the 3 non-stereotypical positive/neutral characters do not. The consequences of associating certain dialects with negative characters in popular media are then discussed and it is argued that it can have serious consequences for real people.

Kids at heart?: Exploring the material cultures of adult fans of all-ages animated shows

Currently, the animated television series is a largely child-oriented medium, with occasional exceptions such as South Park (1997–present), Family Guy (1999–present) or the shows broadcast on Cartoon Network’s adultsonly programming block [adult swim]. Because of this, television animation merchandise is primarily aimed at children, with a plethora of toys, clothing and other items available for a variety of shows. For series such as the first iteration of The Powerpuff Girls (1998–2005) or, more recently, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010–19), producers and creators have been aware that adult audiences exist but floundered in creating adult-oriented merchandise. However, this attitude seems to be shifting: shows such as Adventure Time (2010–18) and Steven Universe (2013–present) have massive, multigenerational appeal and Cartoon Network has happily embraced the series’ adult fans, aiming a number of merchandising programmes specifically at them. This article will explore the material cultures of television through the adult fans’ relationship to the merchandise of their favourite animated shows, first by discussing what merchandise, if any, television networks create for adults, and going on to theorize that such merchandise is a significant outlet in adults’ persisting need for play.

Purpose and Innovation in Family Guy’s Musical Numbers

<em>Seth MacFarlane is well known for his groundbreaking animated series Family Guy (Fox, 1999-), a trademark of which is the inclusion musical numbers that reflect MacFarlane’s knowledge of the film musical. While many criticize the controversial approach and seeming arbitrary nature of not just the show’s jokes, but also its musical numbers, the way MacFarlane integrates them into his animated series allows todays cynical audience to enjoy a taste of the rather dormant genre. MacFarlane does so by employing elements of the Warner Brothers/Berkeley musical, the integrated and aggregate musical forms, the myth of integration, The Great American Songbook, the folk musical, the backstage musical, the MGM musical, and studio-era-style choreography. Through the analysis of some of Family Guy’s most impressive musical numbers, I propose to show that Family Guy boasts the most musically informed and detailed numbers in an animated television series today. MacFarlane employs these numbers for either one, two, or all three of the following purposes: to create a sense of community among the characters of the narrative and in the show’s audience, to simultaneously pay homage to and satirize the traditional film musical genre, and to facilitate controversial sociopolitical commentary.</em>

Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in “The Simpsons,” “South Park,” and “Family Guy.”

Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in “The Simpsons,” “South Park,” and “Family Guy.”

Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy

Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy

The Death and Resurrection of Brian Griffin

This essay explores the animated American sitcom Family Guy (Fox, 1999–) as a case study for thinking about the use of animals in narratives. It focuses on episodes in which the program’s dog, Brian, is killed and subsequently resurrected. Brian is a useful subject for this examination in view of his hybrid dog/human status. My discussion of Brian’s death and subsequent resurrection demonstrates how narratives exploit animals for anthropocentric purposes, enabling human cultures to engage with topics such as death. In doing so, my essay evidences how animals are little more than narrative resources, used by programs for decidedly human ends.

Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in the Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy. By David Feltmate. New York: New York University Press, 2017. Pp. 282. $89.00 (cloth); $28.00 (paper).

<i>Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in the Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy</i>. By David Feltmate. New York: New York University Press, 2017. Pp. 282. $89.00 (cloth); $28.00 (paper).

Humor and Satire on Contemporary Television: Animation and the American Joke

Humor and Satire on Contemporary Television: Animation and the American Joke

David Feltmate: Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in the Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy

David Feltmate: Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in the Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy

Retroactive Edits: 9/11, Television’s Popular Archive, and Shifting Popular Memory

Occasionally, significant events occur after a television show’s production and/or first airing that necessitate changes to the text in reruns, DVDs, and other distribution platforms like Netflix. This phenomenon was on display after 9/11, when shows including 24, Family Guy, Friends, The Simpsons, and others had full episodes and/or specific scenes cut from distribution. This phenomenon demonstrates how television’s popular archive is mutable, popular memory acts as a site of social and political struggle, and production, ancillary markets, official and unofficial distribution, the cultural standing of television and its genres, and other factors interact to determine which aspects of television’s past are available to the public at different moments.

Review: Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in The Simpsons, South Park, and The Family Guy, by David Feltmate

Review: Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in The Simpsons, South Park, and The Family Guy, by David Feltmate

Class and Habitus in the Formation of Gay Identities, Masculinities, and Respectability in Turkey

This article examines how gay men engage with masculine respectability in urban Turkey. Our analysis of twenty-four in-depth interviews in Ankara shows that gay men’s selfpresentation generally conforms to the expectations of masculine appearance and behavior in their class-based social circles. Thus we argue that social class and habitus are important for the norms of masculine respectability with a marked difference between lower-class/traditional middle-class and professional middle-class milieus. While family-dependent gay men in the lower class and traditional middle class often conform to hegemonic masculinity through their “family guy” performances and limit their sexual desires, professional middleclass gay men mobilize their social, economic, and cultural capital to carve out a gay life where they can perform a “sophisticated” gay identity and participate in a gay community, albeit in certain permitted domains.

12. Deconstructing Dad: Satire and Hegemonic Masculinity in Mainstream Television

What’s sarcastic, droll, brightly coloured, watched by millions and enforces a hegemonic masculine identity? No, not a sports centre update. Family Guy and American Dad!, along with other mainstream popular television shows, feeds into extreme notions of masculinity by depicting humorous macho images that emulate physical strength, aggressiveness, willingness to use violence, and the subordination of women to achieve it. Television as a medium plays an influential role when depicting the stereotypes that are present within social systems. In this paper I discuss the relationships between humour and the construction of a normative hegemonic masculine identity, and explore two examples from Family Guy and American Dad!. I argue that through a steady stream of humorous images, a standard is created that constructs a normative hegemonic masculinity that in turn has created a measuring stick of dominant and subordinate masculine identities. The television shows Family Guy and American Dad! use the power of satire to influence the responses of viewers

Bird is the word – on the importance of ethical and effective scientific communication

Back in 1963, the proto-punk band The Trashmen released the single Surfin’ bird (written by Frazier, White, Harris &amp; Wilson Jr. and released in November 1963 by Garrett label; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZThquH5t0ow). Fifty years later and despite the obscure lyrics, the song remains iconic in western pop culture; e.g. through the recurrent appearance in the TV show Family Guy (e.g. I dream of Jesus episode, released on 5 October 2008; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WNrx2jq184). It is thought that the line ‘everybody knows that the bird is the word’ was inspired by a highly successful and catchy radio jingle released/commissioned in post prohibitionist USA by the Gallo brothers to boost the sales of their inexpensive fortified Thunderbird wine: ‘What's the word? Thunderbird’ (http://www.absurdintellectual.com/2009/06/05/everybodys-heard-that-the-bird-is-the-word-but-its-not-what-they-think/). This illustrates how a simple and catchy message can have a profound and long-lasting influence on society.

As naturalistic as it gets: subtitles in the English classroom in Norway.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of subtitles in the context of authentic material on second language comprehension and potentially, second language acquisition for Norwegian learners of English. Participants in the study were 49 17-year-old students and 65 16-year-old students, who were all native speakers of Norwegian learning English as an L2 in high school. Both age groups were divided into three Conditions, where one group watched an episode of the American animated cartoon Family Guy with Norwegian subtitles, one group with English subtitles, and one group watched the episode with no subtitles. On a comprehension questionnaire conducted immediately after watching the episode positive short-term effects of both native language (L1) and target language (L2) subtitles were found for both age groups. However, no differences in terms of the language of the subtitles were found in the older and more advanced group. Four weeks later the participants responded to a word definition task and a word recall task to investigate potential long-term effects of the subtitles. The only long-term effect was found in the word definition task and was modulated by age. We found, however, that native language subtitles impact negatively on performance on the comprehension task. The results from this study suggest that the mere presence of subtitles as an additional source of information enhances learners' comprehension of the plot and content in animated audio-visual material in their L2. The absence of differences in terms of the language of the subtitles in the more advanced group suggests that both intralanguage and interlanguage subtitles can aid target language comprehension in very advanced learners, most probably due to better consolidated vocabulary knowledge in that group. The two groups differed also on predictors of performance on the two lexical tasks. While in the less proficient younger group, vocabulary status best predicted performance on both tasks (vocabulary predicts vocabulary), for the very advanced older group, grammar was a stronger predictor, highlighting the importance of generic language competence and skills in L2 tasks for highly proficient L2 users. We also found an effect of written L2 skills on performance on both lexical tasks indicative of the role of orthography in vocabulary consolidation.

A Mother's Value Lies in Her Sexuality:The Simpsons,Family Guy, andSouth Parkand the Preservation of Traditional Sex Roles

This article examines the relationship between being a sexual woman and a good mother inThe Simpsons,Family Guy, andSouth Park. Considering the sexual criticisms of women in the “Mommy Wars” which continue to be fought across the United States, we find that these three programs reproduce conservative assumptions about women's sexuality and motherhood. Through critical constructionist theories of humor and motherhood, mothers from each program are analyzed and the relationship between their sexuality and motherliness is examined in detail. We conclude with a discussion of the social constrictions of reality that humorous popular culture both exposes and reproduces.