February 17, 2012
Family Guy
I recently watched an episode of Family Guy in which I saw a lot of film techniques and a major theme. The episode was Season 9, episode 11, which was titled "German Guy." I have seen this episode multiple times and have laughed every time not even knowing what I was laughing at. The creator, Seth McFarlane, geniously uses film techniques to make each little thing funnier. At one point in this episode, the Griffin's neighbor, Herbert, begins fighting with their new neighbor, Franz Gutentag, who used to be a cruel Nazi leader known by his real name, Lieutenant Franz Schlechtnacht. When the fight between them starts, a fast speed, intense music starts. Herbert kicks in Franz's door as the music starts and it gives the viewer a sense that an intense battle between the two will start. But, the two men, who are very old, start moving towards each other very slow. During this, McFarlane uses long shot duration which gives the viewer a feeling of rest. These two things, both opposites and happening at the same time, give the scene a much more comedic feel than beforehand. Eventually there fight moves to the front porch. Then, Franz slips off the porch, falling only from a one-step height, at which time the music becomes very soft and and everything is put into a slow motion. As Franz is falling off the porch you feel a very somber tone to the sequence and the "lighting" is changed to show only his silhouette. This is another thing that gives it a comedic feel. The fall is not too high but, it is put in as if he were falling off of a cliff. These techniques all put together create comedy and make the episodes much more interesting. Over all, this episode has a theme that not everything is what it seems.
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It’s the juxtaposition that makes Family Guy funny. We are all too accustomed to the norms of society and Family Guy exploits that by making situations that normally occur just a bit crazier. For instance, grumpy old men get into fights all the time and McFarlane uses this to create a situation that we would consider ludicrous. How often do you hear about an old man kicking down a door to fight an old Nazi commander? The correct answer is never. McFarlane lets his imagination run wild which results in very ironic situations occurring. The same thing goes for when Hilbert kicks Franz off of the porch. Old people fall down all the time but this is made into a joke because we don’t expect an older person to kick another old person down the stairs because he was a Nazi. This also makes people laugh because it’s hard to imagine getting kicked down the stairs, at an elderly age, by one of your peers. Editing also plays a big role in something being funny. For instance, when Herbert kicks Franz off of the porch, the event occurs in slow motion. This gives the event some comedic value because a fall is a very serious thing for someone that’s older and weaker. This editing allows the viewer to see what a short fall is like for an elderly person and makes the person laugh because they just can’t picture this event occurring. McFarlane is a great director because he uses ironic imagery and a lot of contrast to help the Family Guys become the comedy that it is.
ReplyDeleteFamily Guy is one of my favorite shows of all time. I agree with both Ryan and Nick that Seth McFarlane is very good at juxtaposition and irony to help enhance the show. Seth McFarlane also likes to use a lot of foreshadowing in the series. This can be seen during the episode “I Dream of Jesus” , my favorite Family Guy episode. When Peter hears the Trashmen song “Surfin’ Bird”, he can’t stop listening to it. The next morning leads to a scene with Peter and Brian sitting at the kitchen table. A turntable is clearly present on the kitchen table, foreshadowing that Peter was going to play the song again. Brian would then lead Peter to start playing and singing the song. The song itself helps to symbolize Peter’s childhood, as he goes on to talk about how he would listen to the song as a child and all the memories it reminded him of. Seth McFarlane also uses montages in the series. This can be seen during the infamous chicken fight scenes with Peter. Seth has the fights occur randomly throughout the series. In the first chicken fight, Seth also uses music to help intensify the fights. The music builds up more when something big happens (like when Peter jumps off a bridge and lands on a truck) and finally calms down once he finally defeats the chicken.
ReplyDeleteLast night I watched the episode where Stewie first killed Lois. Peter and Lois got a crusie gift from their dog. When they were leaving a long shot of the boat was shown and then back to little Stewie which showed his sad and angry face, first through a medium shot then toa close up. It went back to house where he was getting weapons to kill his mom because he was angry. He took a boat and went after his mom. To foreshadow the terrible events it was raining and lightning out. Lois was alone and was confronted by stewie. It showed her reaction through a close up then panned over to Stewie and showed him pulling the trigger. He actually went through with it and shot her with the a machine gun. This was the mis en scene because it showed up more times throughout the show. After a year went by with flashbacks and a short montage where Stewie was shown trying to get rid of the gun he used which was found by the police. Peter was getting convicted. Then the door opened with a back light siloutting a person. When they appeared it was Lois who was alive after her near death experience. This episode had many techniques used in way to capture emotion and appeal of the viewer.
ReplyDeleteSeth Mcfarlane was at it again. This week, I watched the newest episode of Family Guy titled "Killer Queen." In this episode he played off to a few typical things you see in life. First off, he continually played with the fact that babies and small children are afraid of stupid things such as the cover of Queen's album, "News of the World." For the sake of comedy he continuously had Brian taunt Stewie with said album cover. Another thing he played off to is the fact that Peter and Chris are both heavy set men and they go to fat camp for it. This comes after Chris beats the reigning hot dog eating champion in a contest and gets sick. At this point he uses foreshadowing. After the contest you see Chris and Peter celebrating but, off to the side you see the former champ walk away, sulking. While at fat camp, Peter and Chris stumble upon a dead camper. At this point he uses mis en scene and there is a hat on the dead camper. This is symbolic of Chris's hat and means the killer was after him but, the character's don't know it yet. They soon find out that Lois's brother, Patrick, also known as the Fat Guy Strangler, has "escaped" from the mental institute he was put in and is immediately suspected. With him coming into the picture, Mcfarlane actually uses him as a Deus Ex Machina. They find a new kid was killed at camp and that Patrick, who was with the family the whole time could not have done it. This kid, who was blonde, was strangled like the old camper. Now the Deus Ex Machina comes into play. Patrick points out that the first kid was wearing a hat and the second had blonde hair like Chris. They then cut to a scene of Chris in his room, sleeping. Mcfarlane uses chiaroscuro for foreshadowing here. The eary shadow of a tree branch is over Chris's face showing that something bad will happen soon. Then, the killer jumped out in the start of a fight sequence which uses intense music and quick shot duration to make the fight much more intense. This episode brings in a lot of comedy and drama playing off real life situations which makes Seth Mcfarlane a great comedian and story teller.
ReplyDeleteIn the episode of Family Guy: Lottery Fever, Peter buys lottery 200,000 lottery tickets and needs help looking through all of them to see if he won the $150 million prize. To show him and his family looking through them there’s a montage playing. During this montage it shows the big pile of tickets getting smaller and smaller. It also shows the sun going up and down to show more than one day has passed and Stewie is yawning at one point to show he’s getting tired because it’s been multiple days. Finally, they find the winning ticket and throughout the rest of the episode it shows how money can lead to greed and make people lose their friendships. Peter starts making his friends do everything he wants and acting like a jerk towards them. Finally, at one point they tell him he’s a jerk and leave him. Soon enough all of their money is gone and they go broke and this is when they realize that nothing is as important as friendship and you can’t buy friendship with money. At one part in this episode lighting is important because as Stewie is laying outside he had a toy where it spins around with different objects on it put into the sky so he could fall asleep anywhere. He tells Brian he can’t wait until the bear comes around and we see the shadow of the bear on the grass and Stewie so the audience sees that without seeing it directly.
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