family guy

1. Family Guy
For my own television case study, I have chosen Family Guy. It’s very postmodern and includes
numerous different features of postmodernism.
Family Guy includes many references from popular culture. The main idea of the show is a reference
to the very popular television genre; family sitcom. In a typical family sitcom, the story revolves
around a nuclear family comprised of a husband, wife and a couple of children. The story for each
episode is stand-alone, and is most commonly about the family’s mis-happenings with each other,
their friends or neighbours. In the end, the problem is solved and the family live on happily to suffer
the next episode. The key structure of family guy includes the storyline with numerous flashbacks in
between and this happens in every episode. The show has become famous for this structure and this
is hat highlights the spontaneous side which is seen as humorous.
Family guy is very famous for its spontaneous flashbacks. These often start with ‘I remember
when…’ or ‘it’s like the time….’ And then lead on to reference another time in their life. These
flashbacks commonly include references to other texts, brands, celebrities and also other shows
which are similar. An example of this is at the end of one episode when the characters have been
time travelling, they end the episode by saying ‘at least everything is back to normal now’. Just as
they say this, a character from a similar show ‘American Dad’ walks in, referencing the show. This
shows how Family Guy are expecting their audience to know the character as it’s a similar show so
will have a similar target audience to Family Guy.
They also have numerous guest appearances from celebrities such as OJ Simpson and Marilyn
Manson. These celebrities are often mocked or jokes are used that refer to their real life
experiences, highlighting that the show are trying to engage with their audience by joking about real
life matters and stories.
Family Guy blurs boundaries of what is real and what’s not a lot. They include many references to
real life celebrities and stories which make us believe the family are meant to be living in a realistic
world like we do. However, the show also includes elements of hyper reality by using things such as
time machines to travel to different times and also dimensions. The idea of Stewie being able to talk
to Brian the dog is unrealistic in the normal world which makes us believe the show is far from
normal. Having a talking dog itself would not normally be possible so the show is definitely blurring
the boundaries between real and fake. Also the reference’s the show makes to different elements of
the real world suggests that it is more real than we think. Examples of these references are Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang, Kiss and CoolAid.
As each Family Guy differs from the next and has no link usually, they tend to do parody episodes
mocking other forms of media such as popular films and shows. Their most memorable example of
this was when they replicated the Star Wars trilogy. They kept the same storyline but used their own
characters and added the Family Guy structure to it with the constant flashbacks. They also
referenced the film a lot and mentioned facts that only hard core star war fans would know. This
highlights how they are targeting their audience.
Another example of parody in the show is when they created an episode based around the film
Charlie and the chocolate factory. They copied the general storyline, some shots and also the music
to make sure the audience made a clear link between the two, however made it their own by
including well known jokes from Family Guy and once again the flashbacks.
Family Guy is famous for mocking other shows and people in general. In the more recent series,
they’ve started to mock themselves and highlight on their common traits. They also reference their

2. channel, Fox a lot in a negative way that comes across as joking. They mention it a lot when they say
that Fox cancelled the show after the first series and this is mocking the station as now Family Guy is
a huge success with very high viewings.
They also reference themselves a lot more now in newer episodes. An example of this is when they
go back into the past and watch in on the house. They realize that the family often sits there and
pauses and this is because they then edit flashbacks in on top. This highlights the surreal humour
Family Guy has as they know what they commonly do and what they may be criticized for. By
mocking themselves, they’re showing the audience that they don’t take it too seriously and can also
laugh at themselves not just other shows.
Overall, I think all of these features make the show very postmodern. Each of them can be found in
every episode and occur regularly. It’s the spontaneous humour that people enjoy in the show and
that’s what makes it a successful postmodern show. Shows like this are what is making the audience
find postmodern programmes more enjoyable and are encouraging more to now be created.