In the five years since Terri Schiavo was slowly dehydrated to death, her loving family has been subjected to repeated callousness and intentional cruelties–canards about their motives, personal vituperation, etc.. That’s life in the public eye. But now a new line of despicability has been crossed that cannot be allowed to stand.
Fox’s Family Guy stooped even beneath its usual scatological obsessions to literally mock a dead woman, whose only “crime” was to have been profoundly cognitively disabled. The episode–which I embedded below only after much thought, opens with a fictional school play, Terri Schiavo: The Musical. In it, Terri is depicted as having been hooked up to every conceivable machine, a total lie since all she needed to remain alive was food and water delivered through a tube. But the facts this case have been continually misstated from the beginning, so that is nothing new.
But what is novel–and truly beneath contempt, not only because it mocks and degrades Terri, but also, everyone now living with serious cognitive impairments–are the lyrics. “Michael Schiavo” says, “She’s a vegetable,” and the chorus responds, “We hate vegetables!” to which the audience breaks up in laughter. Later she is depicted as having “mashed potato brains,” which are poured into a bowl, and being “the most expensive plant you’ll ever see.”
This doesn’t just mock a dead woman who can’t defend herself. It is hate speech against people similarly situated. Indeed, the V-word should be rendered just as societally unacceptable as the N-word has thankfully become. Both epithets serve the same purpose, that is, to demean, dehumanize, and exclude–so as to open the door to oppression, exploitation, and killing.
And imagine how those with loved ones with these conditions must feel seeing such cruel mockery. I asked Bobby Schindler, Terri’s brother, to react. He told me: “These people have no regard for disabled people and their families, or the pain such mockery causes. What kind of a human being would think this was funny?”
(Update: Apparently, somebody like Thaddeus Pope.)
And what kind of network would countenance such discriminatory hate speech on one of its prime time programs? Fox Entertainment. If you think the Family Guy should be jerked off the air–just as the show would if it mocked, say Michael Vick, over his race–you might want to make your voice known. Here is someone you might want to contact in protest:
Ms. Gail Berman, President, FOX Broadcasting Company, P.O. Box 900 Beverly Hills, CA 90213 (310) 369-1000E-Mail: askfox@foxinc.com
One final point: Don’t think the dehumanizing of the cognitively disabled in entertainment isn’t relevant to the current struggle over health care. I am not alleging a conspiracy, but Hollywood consistently pushes themes that are consistent with accepting the direction in which we are being taken politically. Shows like Family Guy soften the ground for the coming campaign, the effect of which will be to do away with the expensive for which to care, whether through rationing, futile care theory, perhaps even assisted suicide/euthanasia. Indeed, Hollywood has long pushed culture of death issues–such as the upcoming puff biopic of Jack Kevorkian, starring Al Pacino.
March 24th, 2010 | 2:02 pm
I agree. Satire is thought to be an art and used to express disapproval or criticism–but not to air outright bias and hatred. Satire can also be downright witty, funny and thought-provoking.
This video shows nothing but ignorance, lack of decency, and total disregard for propriety. Unfortunately, the images will be with me for a long time.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
March 24th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Shocked: And satire is best wielded against the powerful. When it is used to flay the weak, it is rank bullying.
March 24th, 2010 | 2:46 pm
[...] has sunk even lower–mocking the disability and death of Terri Schiavo. The episode–which I embedded over at Secondhand Smoke only after much thought, opens with a fictional school play, Terri Schiavo: The Musical. In it, Terri is depicted as [...]
March 24th, 2010 | 3:01 pm
Christian News Wire put up more contact information, and I actually just spoke with Vice President of Communications, Gaude Paez. Her number is:
(310) 369-3276
and here is the news article with more contact info:
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/1653713443.html
I tried the president, but didn’t get her. The VP will answer, however.
March 24th, 2010 | 3:30 pm
Gosh Family Guy is edgy. Boy they’re brave. Golly, they don’t care who they offend.
So uhm………when can we expect the side-splitting episode where they parody Barry Obama’s mother’s death from uterine cancer?
Oh and, a humorous fact about that: do you know she died….alone. Apparently Barry was too gosh darned busy to be with her in her final hours. That’s a real knee-slapper, ain’t it?
See. The comedy practically writes itself.
//Sarco-meter set on 11//
March 24th, 2010 | 3:33 pm
The person who should be contacted is Rupert Murdoch, who makes millions from Family Guy and its spin-offs. The cynicism ofthis Ausralian
smut-peddler is amazing, since he profits from
both the “traditional” Fox News and the perverted Fox Entertainment.
March 24th, 2010 | 4:03 pm
“Family Guy” is offensive crap and has been for some time, but telling Fox that they’re offensive is like telling Larry Flynt there are dirty pictures in his magazine. They’ll say “Thank you for watching” and glory in the publicity you’re giving them.
I remember trying to watch it one time, and inside 30 seconds they had essentially simulated bestiality and child pornography. Honest. Haven’t watched it since.
If you feel they’ve really gone beyond all limits, though, don’t contact them, contact the FCC. If they receive enough complaints they will fine Fox (remember Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction? Fine was something like $600,000), and THAT will get their attention.
In the meantime, do what I do and ignore them. Like Pete Townsend said, “Let’s forget them, better still.” They live on attention. Starve them.
March 24th, 2010 | 5:51 pm
The FCC was under Republican control for eight years, and for eight years very little was done to preserve decency.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
March 24th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Kevin J Jones. This isn’t about Reps versus Dems. Thanks.
March 24th, 2010 | 5:53 pm
@Wesley: “Don’t think the dehumanizing of the cognitively disabled in entertainment isn’t relevant to the current struggle over health care. I am not alleging a conspiracy”
Allege, bro. Allege. Don’t think this kind of thing is accidental. There is a huge push for people to feel an obligation to get out of Dodge if they aren’t living up to expectations. It’s what’s fashionable and, therefore, what news media and entertainment are happy to push.
March 24th, 2010 | 6:28 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Vince Humphreys. Vince Humphreys said: SHS: In Blatant Show of Bigotry, Fox’s Family Guy Mocks Terri Schiavo http://bit.ly/aWjW5D #tcot [...]
March 24th, 2010 | 8:11 pm
Seth McFarlane,the creator of ”Family Guy”, has made no secret of his left wing views, so this awful episode is of no suprise to me. What is somewhat suprising, however, is the lack of those on the right complaining to Rupert Murdoch, president of Fox. Murdoch, of course, is a leading conservative voice (incidently helping William Kristol create and fund my favorite magazine, The Weekly Standard), so whyis he allowing this trash to continue on his network?
March 24th, 2010 | 8:52 pm
Their is something inherently sick & warped about such episodes. I think it might be the Devil Mocking God for human frailties that mankind is faced with. Strangely enough, the more we humans learn about prolonging life, the more we are subject to ethics we had no control over 100 years ago. As respirators and other life lengthening applications hold life in such a mechanical purgatorial existence I wonder about something. Could it be that such callous disregard for the pain involved in having a loved one subject to the hope of maintaining their life has an underlining subliminal message promoted by such episodes of “family guy,” is playing the devils gleeful advocate here. Could it be that they are subjecting us to such callous behaviour of the wounded so that evil of diminishing human dignity will make it easier for folks to kill babies, kill missed abortions as they are born, kill the elderly, the wounded, the infirmed because caring for the exceptionalism of humanity has swung over to the code of the Spartans? For me I see this type of game by Family Guy as the diminished value of humanity.
March 24th, 2010 | 11:17 pm
Thank you for describing the episode so that I don’t actually have to watch it, Wesley.
March 25th, 2010 | 3:10 am
[...] Go here to read the rest: In Blatant Show of Bigotry, Fox's Family Guy Mocks Terri Schiavo … [...]
March 25th, 2010 | 1:19 pm
Oh, stop being so politically correct and easily offended!
March 25th, 2010 | 1:22 pm
Wesley,
I don’t think that the episode tried to “literally mock a dead woman.” It was mocking her biological family. And given their past and ongoing “voice” on these issues, they are fair game.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
March 25th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
The family wasn’t mentioned Dr. Pope. She was, in the most denigrating, demeaning, and mocking manner. You need to take a hard look in the mirror if you think calling her a V, a “plant” and “mashed potato brains” (with gravy poured on) is acceptable satire. It is hate.
March 25th, 2010 | 3:54 pm
So it was in poor taste. If people didn’t like it I assume they turned off their TVs. There’s damned little that’s worth viewing on network TV anyway. Is it worth having a stroke over? I don’t think so.
March 25th, 2010 | 4:15 pm
Correction. Terri Schiavo was in PSV.
March 25th, 2010 | 9:43 pm
[...] Family Guy to make fun of Terri Schiavo as it does in this show is beyond insensitive. Ethicist Wesley J. Smith writes: The episode … opens with a fictional school play, Terri Schiavo: The Musical. In it, Terri [...]
March 25th, 2010 | 11:45 pm
You seem to have omitted one other possibility: that the Family Guy’s writers enjoy generating controversy by provoking the easily provoked.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
March 26th, 2010 at 6:31 am
murph: I have no doubt that is true. But there are some areas they would never go. For example, they would never use Tiger Woods’ race in a denigrating way, say by raising that old bigoted bugaboo about black men wanting white women, etc. But they know they can pitch hate at the most medically vulnerable–and some people will not only laugh, but cheer.
March 26th, 2010 | 2:18 am
When the “doc” says, “She’s a vegetable,” and the kids respond, “I hate vegetables,” that’s a strong teaching moment. It’s meant to teach the audience to hate people that we label vegetables. This crap is truly hate literature.
And did you notice how the baby character in the program has always had an evil spirit in him right from day one. He hated his mother and wished her dead right from the first episode. He’s really a malevolent charachter. It’s taking a person in an innocent stage of life and attributing evil to him. Is this a subtle message that babies are bad (and maybe should be aborted)?
Now the program tells us (through the medium of a preschool musical) that we should hate “vegetables.”
Why can’t more people see that this is hate speech and hate propaganda?
March 26th, 2010 | 7:16 am
If I had the talent to create such a cartoonish family rife with subliminal messages of hate I would get down on my knees and pray to God that ,he find me another talent.
March 26th, 2010 | 8:44 am
” …they would never use Tiger Woods’ race in a denigrating way, say by raising that old bigoted bugaboo about black men wanting white women, etc.”
Never? NEVER say never.
March 28th, 2010 | 9:33 pm
I’m not a lawyer, but isn’t free speech constrained be libel and slander laws? Why wouldn’t those constraints be applicable in this case? As you stated, the episode represented Terri as being hooked up to every conceivable piece of machinery, when, in actuality, she simply required a feeding tube for nutrition and hydration – a direct misrepresentation of the truth. Calling Terri the offensive names, or even referring to parts of her body in offensive terms, seems to intend to slander and defame her in her person and the persons of all who have suffered various degrees of brain damage. I have made the point before that “vegetative” is an inconceivable description of a human person at any stage of development. Unless a human person has suddenly developed the capacity for photosynthesis – it cannot be applied to a human being. It seems to me that the term “vegetative” has only one intention, that the sooner we can put this person in the ground, the better. It is a sick, despicable, defaming and dehumanizing reference to the most vulnerable of human persons. I don’t care if “medicine” uses it, it needs to stop.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
March 28th, 2010 at 11:34 pm
Cathy: You can’t defame a dead person.
March 29th, 2010 | 9:54 am
Thank you, Wesley. Like I said, I’m not a lawyer. That being said, this is an attack on an entire class of persons whom medicine has termed to be in a “vegetative” state. Maybe we can hope that those in the medical profession will recognize the danger of this language and fight to change this term.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
March 29th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
First Amendment and all that. But it should be scorned and rejected–just like racial epithets. Thanks, Cathy.
April 23rd, 2010 | 9:59 am
[...] few weeks ago, I castigated the creators of the mega crude Family Guy for using the V-word to make fun of Terri Sch…. Using the word “vegetable” to describe anything but carrots or squash, in other [...]
April 25th, 2010 | 2:20 pm
Glad this episode is getting so much press, one of their funniest in a while.
And if people have a problem, maybe everyone suffering from being in a persistent vegetative state should get their act together and voice their protest!
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