Donahue 1
William Donahue
Professor R. Imbur
English 1110
April 23rd 2014
Religions Portrayed Negatively Through Family Guy
Different stereotypes are portrayed in the media constantly being in a
positive or negatively way. It seems as though that the media is more focused on
depicting the negative stereotype over the positive stereotype. Stereotypes could be
defined along the lines as something that can either positively or negatively depict a
person because of their religion, race, culture, or history. When scrolling through
media sources such as the TV you might come across a show called, Family Guy. The
show Family Guy was created by Seth Macfarlane, which first aired on Fox
Broadcasting Systems in 1999. This show has been proven to be controversial to
most viewers and offensive because it has lead to Fox being persuaded to cancel the
show twice. Though being canceled twice, Family Guy has over 200 episodes and is
still producing more. Not only does Seth Macfarlane bring harmful stereotypes to the
attention of viewers, he does it to all different types of stereotypes. I will be focusing
on how Seth Macfarlane portrays the Jewish religion in his show, Family Guy. Two of
the most Jewish stereotypical episodes are “When You Wish Upon a Weinstein” and
“Family Goy”. Even in the two titles there is already a clue that it will be about the
Jewish religion. In the first episode, Weinstein, a very common, Jewish last name and
the word Goy means nation in the Hebrew language. This is why Family Guy is one of
the most negatively, stereotype depicting shows on Television.
Donahue 2
In the episode of “When You Wish Upon a Weinstein” The Griffin family finds
themselves in a situation when they are struggling financially and need some money.
After Peter sings a song that they ripped off from Disney called “I Need A Jew”,
instead of the lyrical note of “When You Wish Upon A Star” that was featured in the
Disney, movie Pinocchio. This leads to a lot of controversy all over one little
reference to the Jewish religion. “ In 2007 Bourne Company Music Publishers, which
holds the rights to the song “When You Wish Upon a Star,” sued Fox, which produces
and broadcasts Family Guy… “(Itzkoff 2). Clearly this signifies that Seth Macfarlane is
willing to cut things close with a lawsuit just to make fun on the Jewish religion.
The next day a man’s car broke down in front of The Griffins home. The man’s
car that broke down was named Max Weinstein. The first thing that Peter says is
