A cartoon pops up on the television. The characters in the show are sprinting through backgrounds as the picture flicks back and forth between them. One has a gun and appears to be chasing the other, shooting wildly through the air. The target character finally spins and confronts his attacker. Using his fingers, the target plugs the gun, which blows up in the face of the attacker, leaving him disfigured. The target turns to the “camera” and makes a quip about being like a pop culture icon before running away.
Flash forward to another cartoon. In this scene, two characters are in a home and one appears to also be hunting the other, though more covertly. As his victim nears, the attacker leaps from his hiding place and fires a futuristic looking weapon, but at the last minute the victim ducks to pick something up. The blast misses and hits a passerby on the street who had just said something ironic about his long life. The passerby comically falls to the ground.
Based on those vague scene descriptions, could the casual television-watcher choose which of the two cartoons is a beloved family show and which has drawn the ire of critics since its inception? When presented in this fashion, both shows display comedy based on violence, as well as a disregard for reality. Despite their apparent similarities, the shows could not be more different. The first is a clip from a Bugs Bunny cartoon with Elmer Fudd chasing down that “rascally rabbit”, while the second is an excerpt from Family Guy in which Stewie Griffin attempts to dispatch his mother Lois. While Family Guy does push the limits farther than some other cartoons, the fact that it is a cartoon gives the creators the ability to create acceptable humor out of otherwise irreverent situations.
By deciding to put forth his humor in cartoon form, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane tapped into a medium with vast possibilities. The history of cartoons stands testament to the immense opportunities laid out at MacFarlane's feet. It is important to become familiar with that somewhat controversial history to better understand an argument in favor of Family Guy. The creators of the aforementioned cartoon character, Bugs Bunny, and all of his cohorts were the first to truly push the societal envelope. The violence shown between Bugs, Elmer, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Yosemite Sam, Tom and Jerry, and others was unparalleled for its day. Should we choose to take a step back and look at the cartoons objectively, we might discover that even by today's standards some of the shows could probably earn a TV-14 rating. However, the fact that the characters were all animations gave the artists a chance to try things considered unthinkable in a normal show. This opportunity is made possible by something called “Cartoon Physics.”
Cartoon physics is the humorous attempt at describing the actual lack of physics in the cartoon world. For example, in a cartoon, animations can run into brick walls at full speed, jump out of airplanes with anvils, or even blow themselves up with TNT all while suffering no lasting physical damage whatsoever. They can also run in mid air before falling, move holes in the ground to new locations with their hands, and paint working tunnels on a solid surface with a brush. The fact that these characters can change reality based on what they perceive as reality is funny to those of us trapped in our seats by Physics and her laws.
Bugs and his fellow Looney Tunes creations didn't just create controversy and humor with their violence. They also frequently commented on the state of the world, shared the screen with parodies of celebrities, and commented on certain aspects of society - though usually somewhat inadvertently - that we today deem to be unacceptable. Especially during World War II, the stars of Looney Tunes found themselves portraying and poking fun at world leaders and sometimes even entire cultures. In fact, several episodes from that era have since been banned because of their portrayals of the Japanese, German, and African-American people. In addition, popular character Speedy Gonzales was taken off the air for a while because he was believed to portray Mexicans negatively. Speedy returned to syndication when the Hispanic community spoke up fondly on his behalf. Even the iconic character Porky Pig could be considered a cruel stereotype of someone with a stuttering disability.
Despite these apparent controversial aspects of Loony Tunes, the show is beloved by the American public at large and is considered by most to be a national treasure. At the same time, a show like Family Guy constantly finds itself embroiled in controversy and lawsuits, and while the show is not directly comparable to Loony Tunes, aspects of it certainly are. Most controversies surrounding Family Guy involve the show's violent, stereotypical, politically charged, or sex/drug content, and Loony Tunes episodes contain the first three of those four aspects on a regular basis. Like Loony Tunes, Family Guy frequently shows violence in a comical light because of its ability to do so as a cartoon. As mentioned before, Stewie almost constantly tries to kill his mother and other characters commonly fall victim to outlandish violent acts such as hitting themselves with baseball bats.
