Rehashing the drama involving Sarah Palin and “Family Guy”, Dave Itzkoff writes on the front page of the New York Times that the show is “probably the last program that anyone expected to serve as a catalyst for a continuing fight about the depiction of disabled people on television, and whether they are fair game to participate in and be the subjects of satire.” An excerpt:

Gail Williamson, executive director of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles, which, among other services, assists films and television series in casting actors with the disability, and helped [Andrea] Friedman get hired by “Family Guy,” said it did not matter whether she thought the episode was funny.

“Within ‘Family Guy,’ the character was fully included, well-rounded, dynamic, not dealing with stereotypical Down syndrome issues,” Ms. Williamson said. She added: “Am I a fan of that kind of humor? Eh. It’s beside the point.”

“If we’re asking for full inclusion in the schools and full inclusion in the world,” she said, ” we should appreciate full inclusion with other genres. Even if those genres are not what we appreciate.”

From Entertainment Weekly: “Family Guy” producer Seth MacFarlane tells Bill Maher that Sarah Palin wanted to “inspire phony pity” for people with Down syndrome.

Video update: Interview with Andrea Fay Friedman ‘The Insider” is here. From the Washington Post account:

“Sarah, I know you’re watching this. … A lot of people have teased me because I have Down syndrome. … [It's] a challenge, not a disability.”

Citing Trig’s having Down syndrome, Friedman appeals to Palin: “Don’t take advantage of that. He has a normal life. I have a normal life.” She goes on to say she’s angry because she believes Palin is using Trig to gain votes.

Related posts.

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.

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.

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.

Says she’s advocating on behalf of ‘special needs community’

From the New York Daily News, CBS Political Hotsheet blog. Video at Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor.”

During an appearance on Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor” Tuesday, Sarah Palin renewed her demand that President Obama replace White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel for calling a group of liberals “F-ing retards.”

Calling herself a champion of the “special needs community,” Palin also attacked the “cruel, cold-hearted” writers of a Fox animated show that lampooned a character with Down syndrome, but defended conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh’s repeated use of the word “retard” as “satire.”

An excerpt:

“When I gave my vice presidential nomination speech at the GOP convention, I promised the special needs community that they would have a friend and an advocate in the White House,” she said. “And just because John McCain and I did not win, that did not take away my passion for helping those who want to reach out and ask me to do what I can to allow this country, this world to be more welcoming place for all innocent people, all special needs children. I am going to keep pursuing that in our country until we are a more tolerant, compassionate, welcoming place for the innocents.”

Full transcript here.