Name Twenty

 

 

When one thinks of satire in general, what often first comes to mind are cartoons such South Park, The Simpsons and in this case, Family Guy. This particular clip is no exception and is chock-full of satire. First, before the actual plot even kicks in, one of the infamous Family Guy "cutscene" comes in. They make fun of Beethoven being almost completely deaf by the use of parody. Imitation of the composer in a humorous and extremely exaggerated way is only the warm up for what is about to come.

When Stewie tells Brian the name of his song is "Suzie," Brian sarcastically responds: "Wow, a song named after a girl... there aren't a million of those already." Not only is this sarcasm, but it is also an example of an understatement. Stewie, offended, tells Brian to name a bunch, to which he rattles off a total of 31 without hesitation.

Even though there is no really profound deep meaning about racial issues, Family Guy is making a couple social commentaries: 1) Beethoven was too deaf to be a good composer and it shows in his music (according to them) and 2) there are a ton of songs named after girls. But, even if the commentary is extremely shallow, it gave me a good laugh and I think that's all the writers wanted.

Comments

[Leah S.]

I agree with all your examples and I'd like to add that about the Beethoven part, there's some great situational irony because people don't normally think of Beethoven as being bad. As you said, the parody of his personality adds to the amusement. Great clip.

[Julian]

I agree with what you said there are some great examples of satire in the clip and you got the intentions of the creators in making the clip in third paragraph exactly. The way that Brian is able to name 31 songs named after various girls without pause I think is hyperbolic in showing that he could list an large amount in rapid succesion which proves his point that there are a lot of songs named after a girl.

[Megan W]

I agree with you. And i also think it's situational irony that Beethoven is singing the melody to himself, when at the end of his career, he couldn't hear.