Sense of Humor

The interview the New York Times Magazine published with Seth MacFarlane is kind of terrible, if only because it seems that MacFarlane is giving precisely nothing back to Deborah Solomon. On the other hand, I have a hard time blaming him when one of the questions she asked him is "Are you straight?" I mean, really? This is interviewing at its finest? But I was glad to see MacFarlane at least be asked about the direction in which he's taken the show:

Personally, I find the show’s rape jokes especially unfunny. In one episode, Peter learns that three co-eds were raped and murdered. He says to himself, “Everyone’s getting laid but me.” Why is that funny?
Because he’s so oblivious. You’re not laughing at rape; you’re laughing at him being an idiot.

In another episode, Peter asks, “Would you rather be black or crippled?” Why is that funny?
Once again, it all comes back to Peter’s obliviousness. If Peter meant that maliciously, then it wouldn’t be as funny. We try to keep it so that there’s an innocence to the way that he conducts himself.

He does have some of the gentle klutziness of earlier characters like Fred Flintstone.
I was a big Fred Flintstone fan.

I stopped watching Family Guy quite some time ago if only because I stopped finding that use of Peter's idiocy particularly entertaining or enlightening. I've written before in this space that I have a very hard time watching live people humiliate themselves, and while I don't feel any exceptional sympathy for a fat, louche cartoon character, I don't get a lot out of his stupidity either. That said, I don't have a lot of trouble with entertainment that looks at the nasty truths about human behavior. I just prefer that nastiness to come in the form of a sour sense of knowing.

It's one of the things that I think Glee has going for it (I promise I'm trying my hardest not to turn this into a Glee fan blog. I swear.) Whether it's Rachel trying and failing to become bulimic because "“I guess I just don’t have a gag reflex,” and her guidance counselor reassuring her “One day, when you’re older, that’ll turn out to be a gift,” then grabbing her a pamphlet from a rack that includes leaflets with titles like "My Mom's Bipolar and She Won't Stop Yelling" or "Divorce: Why Your Parents Stopped Loving You"; Ken declaring to Emma as he asks her out on a date "They can't fire me because im a minority so I'll always be able to provide for you."; or Kurt's resentful, patient accepting of the bullying he's a target of, Glee's characters know precisely what's rotten about the world. And they know how best to manage that rottenness to their own best advantage.