Salon.com’s Mary Elizabeth Williams watches the “Family Guy” episode that drew criticism from Sarah Palin and daughter Bristol, and finds that she agrees with them. An excerpt:

I’ve got to hand it to them — when the Palin women are right, they’re right. The “Family Guy” episode wasn’t just a bomb because of the low blow at Palin (seriously, doesn’t the woman give us enough to legitimately criticize her for?), but for the overall insensitivity — and, just as egregiously, the witlessness — of the whole plotline. There’s no topic in the world off-limits — even in comedy. Nay, especially in comedy. But contrast the way “Glee” skillfully handled a Down syndrome story last fall with baby Stewie’s observation of Ellen’s eyes: “The spacing seems a tad off, but yeah, individually they’re not awful.” (There’s also a musical number featuring Stewie referring to the “special Down syndrome girl” as “that little whore.”) In the end, of course, Ellen turns out to be as big a creep as any of the regular kids. Ooh, progressive!

We get that it’s “Family Guy’s” job to be all shocking and taboo breaking. But maybe they can stick to picking on targets their own size instead of mocking the disabled. Because I don’t want to have to find myself agreeing with Sarah Palin again for a long time.

Maureen O’Connor at Gawker.com reluctantly seconds that emotion. An excerpt:

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.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 5:18 pm and is filed under commentary, Down syndrome, entertainment, humor, television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.