“Family Guy” actress Andrea Fay Friedman is interviewed on ABC Good Morning America about her dustup with Sarah Palin.

“Sarah Palin didn’t even get the joke,” Friedman told ABC News.”It would be nice if she did have a sense of humor … Come on Sarah, laugh a little.”

The actress’s mother, Marjorie Friedman, says the “Family Guy” episode was inspirational to other people with Down syndrome because it portrayed them as “everyday teens.”

“She was feisty, she was aggressive, she was mean. It was a real acting job.”

On CNN, talk show host Leslie Marshall says the “Family Guy” controversy has been a “win-win” for both Sarah Palin and Seth MacFarlane, the show’s producer, because it “ups her popularity and the show’s popularity.” Entertainment reporter Tanika Ray says MacFarlane’s goal is to stir up controversy. “He thinks: if Sarah Palin’s responding, he did his job.”

Blogging at the Baltimore Sun, critic David Zurawik says he supports the free speech rights of Bill Maher and Seth MacFarlane, but thinks they are “bullying” people with disabilities.

…there is a larger point to these two remarks this week: I think they are emblematic of how toxic and nasty our public discourse has become.

Reading some of the comments in reaction to my post from people who found the “Family Guy” joke funny, I was struck by just how far we have fallen as a society in our anger and need to feel superior to someone else.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper says Sarah Palin needs to acknowledge that the “Family Guy” episode was satire — unlike Rush Limbaugh’s “retard” reference.

And there’s coverage of Andrea Fay Friedman’s response to Palin at the New York Daily News, USA Today, CBS, Village Voice and elsewhere.

In a piece by Dave Itzkoff in the New York Times’ Artsbeat blog, actress Andrea Fay Friedman chides Sarah Palin for criticizing the recent episode of “Family Guy” on which she worked.

“I guess former governor Palin does not have a sense of humor,” said Friedman in an email to the newspaper. Friedman, 39, has Down syndrome, as did the animated character she voiced. “I thought the line ‘I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska’ was very funny. I think the word is “sarcasm,” she wrote.

Palin has said that the show “really isn’t funny,” and was the work of “cruel, cold-hearted people.”

Excerpts from Itzkoff’s interview with Friedman:

Q. When you get asked to play characters who have Down syndrome, does that make you at all uncomfortable?

A. No, I’m proud of it. I’m not embarrassed. But mostly, it doesn’t matter if you have Down syndrome. Really, it just matters to have a different challenge.

Q. Do you agree with what [Palin] and her daughter Bristol were saying, that the character and the jokes were insulting to people with Down syndrome?

A. It’s not really an insult. I was doing my role, I’m an actor. I’m entitled to say something. It was really funny. I was laughing at it. I had a nice time doing voiceover. It was my first time doing a voiceover, and I had fun.

Earlier posts here.

(Photo from New York Times; animated screen capture from “Family Guy”)

In an interview with the New York Post’s Page Six Magazine, comedian Sarah Silverman talks about her life, her program on Comedy Central, and her comic view of disability. An excerpt:

In one new episode, Sarah realizes she’s “retarded,” a plotline that, like most others on the show, will surely incense her critics. With regard to riling people up, Sarah shrugs. “I love retarded people,” she says. “A lot of the time, networks resist dealing with retardation at all in television, and I think it’s so much more insulting to not have them be a part of the world we’re reflecting than to risk offending not them, but advocates of them. They [people who are mentally challenged] are not offended.”

Earlier posts here.

Cailley Hammel, writing in the University of Wisconsin’s student newspaper, applauds Fox’s “Family Guy” for hiring an actress with Down syndrome to play a character with Down syndrome. The casting of Andrea Fay Friedman (left) in the role is evidence that the show “handled the Down syndrome plotline with surprising sensitivity,” Hammel writes. An excerpt:

… Knowing that [producer Seth] McFarland [sic] chose to be authentic in his casting decision as opposed to having a regular cast member read her lines is indicative of a layer of respect most people probably didn’t know he had. I sure didn’t.

While Sarah Palin may feel like she got a “kick in the gut” because of “Family Guy,” she’s just a maverick that needs to cool her jets a little. Taking the joke in the context of the episode as a whole, she should consider how a character with Down syndrome – someone from a marginalized group of people – was brought to primetime TV and treated on a level plane as her peers. And for someone like Palin, who considers herself a champion of the special needs community, she should really consider how important of a milestone that is.

(Photo from DSIAM.org)

Michael Arrington, writing in TechCrunch.com via the Washington Post, reports that comedian Sarah Silverman has agreed to donate her time to a Los Angeles-area fundraiser to benefit people with Down syndrome.

Proceeds from the March 6 benefit in Culver City, called TwentyWonder, will go to the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles.

Silverman stirred controversy last week when she appeared before an international audience at the exclusive TED conference and cracked jokes referencing the current debate about the use of the word “retard.” Here’s how CNN described her routine:

In front of an audience of Nobel laureates, mathematicians, artists, scientists and inventors, Silverman did not hold back on her edgy brand of comedy.

After talking about the merits of adoption and the problem of overpopulation, Silverman joked on stage that she wants to adopt a “retarded” child with a terminal disease.

[Note: A writer on Salon.com said the term Silverman used was "terminally ill retard."]

That would earn her sympathy points, she said. But, because the child would die soon, she said she wouldn’t have to be stuck with the burden for too long.

In a video on the CNN site, Silverman explains her approach to comedy and says there is one category of humor that strikes her as offensive and unfair.

“I don’t really care for like fat jokes about women, specifically,” she said.

“Because I feel that we live in a society where fat men deserve love, and fat women do not deserve love — at least in white America. And so I feel like that’s an ugly thing, and it doesn’t make me laugh.”

In response to questions about Silverman’s upcoming appearance at TwentyWonder, DSALA board president Gina Vivona sent out the attached response. An excerpt:

It is DSALA’s position that we will treat people like we wish to be treated; with acceptance, respect, and understanding. Within those guiding principles, our goal is to extend the reach of our community by building relationships, providing education and increased awareness whenever possible.

There are many ways to be heard. One is to show people who don’t understand just how amazing our community members with Down syndrome are.

(Image from CNN video)

Sarah Palin’s public outrage over an episode of Fox’s “Family Guy” has had an effect, but perhaps not the one the former Alaska governor had envisioned. For a while today, both the full episode and its musical number, “Down Syndrome Girl” ranked at the top of the popularity list at Hulu.com. Appearing on The O’Reilly Factor yesterday, Palin criticized the show’s writers as “cruel, cold-hearted people” for their portrayal of a character with Down syndrome.

Following are the lyrics for the show’s musical number, as transcribed from the full episode starting at about the 10:15 mark. The song is sung by Stewie Griffin as he prepares his brother Chris for a date with Ellen, a young woman with Down syndrome.

Down Syndrome Girl

(Family Guy, Season 8, Episode 12: “Extra-Large Medium”)

You’ve got to look your best tonight, you tubby little parasite
‘Cause there’s a lovely lady and she’s waiting for you.
And though her pretty face may seem
A special person’s wettest dream
Before you get to see it there are things you must do.

We’ll try a tie, and boutonniere of yellow.
A rose that shows that you’re a classy fellow.
With a posh panache of Jefferson at Monticello,
Busting out a mile with style.

I know you just can’t wait to stare
At all that luscious orange hair
But boy before you touch a single curl
You must impress that ultra boomin’,
All-consumin’, poorly groomin’
Down syndrome girl.

On any normal day you reek
As if you’re on a farting streak,
Your fingers up your nose and you are dripping with drool.
But if you want a lady’s love,
You’re better off by smelling of
A gentleman’s cologne instead of sneakers and stool.

A squirt, a spurt of something just for Ellen
And you’ll see that she will find you so compellin’.
And she does because the only smell that she’ll be smellin’
Won’t be comin’ from your bum.

You want to take that little whore
And spin her on the dancing floor
But boy, before you do a single twirl –
You must impress that effervescing,
Self-possessing, no-BS-ing
Down syndrome girl.

Her eyes are emerald portals to a secret land of love
And her smile is like the sweetest summer flower.
Her kiss is so inviting, and her hugs are so delighting.
And what makes them really nice is that they’ve got a little spice
Because they’re tighter than a vice and they go on for an hour.

My boy, between the two of us we’ll get you on that shorty bus.
And then you’re going to take it for a whirl.
Now go impress that super-thrilling,
Wish-fulfilling, Yoo-Hoo-spilling,
Ultra-swinging, boner-bringing,
Daily singing, ding-a-linging
Stupefying, fortifying,
As-of-Monday-shoelace-tying,
Stimulating, titillating,
Kitty-cat impersonating,
Mega-rocking, pillow talking,
Just a little crooked walking,
Poorly pouting, boobies sprouting,
For some reason always shouting,
Fascinating, captivating,
Happiness and joy creating

Down syndrome girl!

Earlier posts here.