Constructive advice:PALIN & dtr should channel Joan & Melissa, jump from Faux"News" to FOX-Hollywood

[UTUSN]

The most recent item is at the bottom here. It is preceded here by the prescient item of days ago.


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http://tv.gawker.com/5471692/family-guy-takes-shot-at-sarah-palins-mentally-disabled-son-world-awaits-her-facebook-retaliation-rant

Family Guy Takes Shot at Sarah Palin's Mentally Disabled Son, World Awaits Her Facebook Retaliation Rant

Family Guy is known for "going there" with controversial issues, but tonight's episode—in which a character with Down's syndrome said her mother is "the former governor of Alaska"—WENT THERE, and Sarah Palin will not be happy.

Via Mediaite, here's video of the scene in question, in which character Chris Griffin's date—a woman with the same mental disability as Palin's son, Trig—says, "My dad's an accountant, and my mom's the former governor of Alaska."

Methinks Palin is about to go all Kanye West on her MacBook Air desktop PC and cry for the destruction of Fox. But wouldn't that mean a dig at the company that employs her? Yes, it would. But, remember, we're talking about the same woman who wrote notes—really, really dumb notes—on her hand last weekend.

One thing's for sure, though: this story is just beginning.



Send an email to Matt Cherette, the author of this post, at [e-mail].





http://gawker.com/5472629/palin-and-bristol-rant-against-family-guys-trig-jokeand-theyre-mostly-right

Palin and Bristol Rant Against Family Guy's Trig Joke—and They're Mostly Right

Sarah Palin took to Facebook today to criticize the "Hollywood" wing of employer Fox for the Family Guy episode where Chris goes on a date with a girl with Down Syndrome whose mother is "the former governor of Alaska."

Commenter no_context points us to Palin's latest Facebook rant. She carefully directs criticism at "Fox Hollywood," a distinction that presumably leaves her direct employer, Fox News, in the clear.

Though her choice of words is a bit, um, off, ("Kick in the gut" for the baby you brag about not aborting? Sarah, Sarah, Sarah...) I mostly agree with Sarah and Bristol. Which, in turn, outrages me because I don't like agreeing with them. But comedic mimicry of retarded people is obnoxious. Even when it's self-aware, it's painful to watch able-minded adults ape at buffoonish caricatures of the mentally disabled—it feels too much like playground taunts from the fourth grade. I don't think Palin's kids are categorically off limits. The problem is that this joke (watch here) thuds. If you're going to make an off-color joke about people already ridiculed to a painful degree—well, first, don't do that. And second, have it make sense with with minimal context, because that's the way it's going to live on the internet, not with your mitigating happy ending, but as a rude little gag.

See what you've done, Family Guy? This could have been a joyful post making fun of Sarah Palin. Instead we're stuck puzzling over an uncomfortable joke.

Earlier: Family Guy Takes Shot at Sarah Palin's Mentally Disabled Son, World Awaits Her Facebook Retaliation Rant



Send an email to Maureen O'Connor, the author of this post, at [e-mail].

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