Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

‘Family Guy’ episode generates lawsuit

Imagine seeing a young girl in a prom dress dumping a baby into a dumpster and then happily returning to prom while the baby proceeds to sing a ballad of being left to die.

Then imagine a man impersonating actor James Woods and saying he will appear in a new movie called “September 11th, 2000 Fun.”

Lastly, picture a family sitting around a campfire while a man sings a song about sodomy.

These are all scenes from the popular cartoon “Family Guy,” which is aired daily on television. However, I could only find one case that was filed against the cartoon on obscene material.

In 1957, the rules that categorized something as being obscene were established in the Miller vs. California case. These rules are called the contemporary obscenity law, and this means that obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment.

According to Don Pembert and Clay Calvert’s text “Mass Media Law,” the court ruled that the material is obscene if the following values are met:

1. Any normal person sees the work as being directly in prurient interests.

2. According to the law, the work is deliberately sexually explicit.

3. Or the work does not have any other values such as artistic or literary.

In the case of “Family Guy,” not much of the material applies to all of these standards, and I believe that is one of the reasons why not many cases are filed against the cartoon.

I think the way people are exposed to things in society can make these topics be perceived as being completely normal; people view a simple cartoon that makes jokes about serious topics to be nothing out of the ordinary.

Therefore, “Family Guy” has gotten away with showing its episodes daily on television without repercussions.

One of the only instances of a case being filed was from the “Family Guy” episode, “When You Wish Upon a Weinstein,” which aired Nov. 10, 2003. Show executives faced charges of copyright infringement after they changed the original words to be anti-Semitic lyrics.

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