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Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture #3
Family Guy and Philosophy
Family Guy and Philosophy brings together low-brow, potty-mouthed, cartoon humor and high-brow philosophical reflection to deliver an outrageously hilarious and clever exploration of one of TV's most unrelenting families. Ok, it's not that high-brow.
A sharp, witty and absurd exploration of one of television's most unrelenting families, the stars of one of the biggest-selling TV series ever on DVD, now in its fourth season
Tackles the perennial positions of Family Guy at the same time as contemplating poignant philosophical issues
Takes an introspective look at what this show can teach us about ethics, ego, religion, death, and of course, time-travel
Considers whether Family Guy is really a vehicle for conservative politics, and whether we should be offended by the show, as well as diving into the philosophy of the cast
A sharp, witty and absurd exploration of one of television's most unrelenting families, the stars of one of the biggest-selling TV series ever on DVD, now in its fourth season
Tackles the perennial positions of Family Guy at the same time as contemplating poignant philosophical issues
Takes an introspective look at what this show can teach us about ethics, ego, religion, death, and of course, time-travel
Considers whether Family Guy is really a vehicle for conservative politics, and whether we should be offended by the show, as well as diving into the philosophy of the cast
222 pages, Paperback
Published August 27, 2007
20 people are currently reading
373 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 8, 2018
4 stars
I was recommend this book by one of my goodreads friends and I thought I would give it a try and it was better than I expected. I wasn't really sure what to except while reading this but it was a good short book to read. I would maybe read this again. I would recommend this book to anyone.
I was recommend this book by one of my goodreads friends and I thought I would give it a try and it was better than I expected. I wasn't really sure what to except while reading this but it was a good short book to read. I would maybe read this again. I would recommend this book to anyone.
June 18, 2019
What should we do? Should we take offense
Sigmund Freud took me back to my childhood. I understand why twice in my school career I’d always had a crush on a brunette but never told her about it. I suffered a trauma at 4 1/2 ...ADHD😔
December 20, 2009
This is a nice compilation of relatively short philosophical essays on everyone's favorite animated dysfunctional family. No, NOT the Simpsons. What are you, petarded?
Even if you have no experience in philosophy and couldn't tell Plato's cave from your rectum, if you appreciate Family Guy and are a bit curious about philosophy, this may be worth it for you. The essays touch on such topics as humor (what makes something funny?), death, feminism, logic, personhood, religion, and even flatulence. For the most part, each essay is well-written and, for the most part, the authors are quite funny and entertaining. I found that a couple essays were poorly written and I was surprised to find that they were written by professors rather than undergrads. But don't let my minor nitpicking dissuade you from nabbing this book. The book is primarily for fans of the show, not academics, and as a former philosophy graduate student myself, I enjoyed these essays not only for their style and for keeping my interest, but also for their intellectual merit.
In the interests of disclosure, I was once a classmate of the editor and one of the essayists (whose essay rocked, by the way). ¡Viva la UCR!
Even if you have no experience in philosophy and couldn't tell Plato's cave from your rectum, if you appreciate Family Guy and are a bit curious about philosophy, this may be worth it for you. The essays touch on such topics as humor (what makes something funny?), death, feminism, logic, personhood, religion, and even flatulence. For the most part, each essay is well-written and, for the most part, the authors are quite funny and entertaining. I found that a couple essays were poorly written and I was surprised to find that they were written by professors rather than undergrads. But don't let my minor nitpicking dissuade you from nabbing this book. The book is primarily for fans of the show, not academics, and as a former philosophy graduate student myself, I enjoyed these essays not only for their style and for keeping my interest, but also for their intellectual merit.
In the interests of disclosure, I was once a classmate of the editor and one of the essayists (whose essay rocked, by the way). ¡Viva la UCR!
November 9, 2020
A high class book for high class individuals. Being an intellectual of sorts myself, I particularly enjoyed this wonderful read. The deep analysis of the classic "The bird is the word" bit by the Petter Griffin funny man himself is one of my favorite parts of this piece of literature. The philosophical look into the life of Joe Swanson was especially interesting when the author references how Joe beats minorities as seen in Season 4 episode 17. The analysis on Cleveland however, had something to be desired. Yes the author talked about fried chicken and watermelon, but they never went too deep into Cleveland's Jordan's collection. The analysis on Quagmire was also not too interesting but better than Cleveland's. The author clearly has had some similar life experiences to Quagmire such as RESPECTING WOMEN. Finally we have Better griffin from the family man funny show himself. Since over half the book consists of the deconstructions of his hilarious over the top funny jokes, it had to be good. The author also does a good job of sucking off the genius creator Seth MacFarlane. Overall, this book was an interesting dive into the history of pop punk and the Neo-con gamer uprising of 2006. Frickin epic.
January 22, 2008
Jokes are funnier after they have been explained.
May 27, 2025
all my life i have wanted and now finally i can need.
many colleagues of mine have described very vividly the horrors of what this book can unveil about the conditions of perception, value, and what causes petardedness. they seek wisdom they get real. there are no answers in this book. only new problems that will change what you see as fit for yourself and others.
prevention starts with knowledge.
best to go into this one blind.
many colleagues of mine have described very vividly the horrors of what this book can unveil about the conditions of perception, value, and what causes petardedness. they seek wisdom they get real. there are no answers in this book. only new problems that will change what you see as fit for yourself and others.
prevention starts with knowledge.
best to go into this one blind.
February 4, 2019
Like the other "and Philosophy" books put out by Blackwell, this is a collection of short essays, each one looking at a different aspect of philosophy and pop culture. And like with each of the other "and Philosophy" books, I did learn something new. In this case, one of the things that I learned was the underlying mechanics of humor. My favorite essay explored the postmodern society in which we live as it was manifest through Family Guy. Overall, Wisnewski did a fairly good job creating a compilation that worked well together. My only complaint is that, as you read, the essays do not get better. They start out strong, slowly declining, ending with the least well written essays. It's a poor way to end a book. That being said, the essays at the beginning of the book are great, and they provide an easy to understand explanation that makes you sit back and go "oh, that makes sense, how did I not think of this before?" It's well worth the read.
January 1, 2022
Was on the fence about giving this 3 or 4 stars, but decided to round up because this exceeded my expectations.
I had initially thought that I'd treat this as a quick read, more or less hardly giving any thought to what's being said, but after a while I realized that I actually enjoyed (most) of the writing, and found myself agreeing with the various arguments being made in the different essays, taking the time to understand what's being said. At some points it does feel like the writers were told to watch the same episodes and use those for content, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and just assume that some episodes are so standout that many people would naturally go to them to cite their examples. Even with that in mind, the authors within find a good way to explain to readers of various levels of understanding subjects included in philosophy.
I had initially thought that I'd treat this as a quick read, more or less hardly giving any thought to what's being said, but after a while I realized that I actually enjoyed (most) of the writing, and found myself agreeing with the various arguments being made in the different essays, taking the time to understand what's being said. At some points it does feel like the writers were told to watch the same episodes and use those for content, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and just assume that some episodes are so standout that many people would naturally go to them to cite their examples. Even with that in mind, the authors within find a good way to explain to readers of various levels of understanding subjects included in philosophy.
September 17, 2017
This book contains many essays by different authors which cover various philosophical topics. It's the second book I've read in the series, the first being the Metallica themed book. I imagined this to be similar; mainly being philosophy essays with references shoehorned in. However, I felt this book had a greater emphasis on the theme while discussing it in a philosophical context; so it was far better than the Metallica book. This book was also written in a humorous way, which ties into the tone of Family Guy. I hadn't seen Family Guy for a while and will have missed more recent seasons completely, but I understood a lot of the references and enjoyed reminiscing about my time watching the show.
December 20, 2008
Family Guy is one of my favorite television shows and philosophy fascinates me, so this was a must-read for me. It's the first book in the publisher's Philosophy and Pop Culture series that I've read, but it probably won't be the last. Covering everything from metaphysics to Freudianism, the essays in this book use the television series as a launching point for discussions on all kinds of topics. Another one to read again.
Read
June 28, 2014Never knew you could make a philosophy book out of "Family Guy" but, I was proved wrong...
October 29, 2016
It's really good. You can understand most of it even if you haven't seen the show.
September 15, 2017
Summary:
who- family guy
what-he gut faurd
when- 2014
where- work
why-
Opinion: I dunat like des book.
Recommendation:
who- family guy
what-he gut faurd
when- 2014
where- work
why-
Opinion: I dunat like des book.
Recommendation:
November 19, 2017
The articles on Stewie and Brian are very interesting, as is the one that discusses why Chris and Meg aren't.
April 4, 2018
Most of this felt like a reach to me. There were a few interesting articles but mostly trying to cash in on Family Guy inside jokes for fans - and this is early Family Guy Seasons 1 & 2.
January 4, 2023
Months ago I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen when I discovered 1) the existence of this book and 2) the tagline ‘A Cure for the Petarded’. Eilidh bought me this for Christmas and despite it’s many flaws I seriously love this book and will never recover from opening its content page and seeing a list of 17 pseudo-academic essays on the different facets of Family Guy (a show I maintain is Catholic but Eilidh thinks is Protestant)
What I liked:
-At it’s best, it is genuinely enlightening. At least half of the essays hit a sweet balance between lighthearted reflection on the show’s mechanics and a thoughtful application of key philosophical ideas. I can say I’ve come away from this with a greater understanding of personhood, the acceptability of faux-offensive humour, and the previously elusive psyche of Peter Griffin
-Some truly standout chapters, namely the ones about Meg & Chris and their defiance of caricature; Brian the dog being granted personhood; and ‘Wills, Wantons, and Wives’
-It was rarely overly-academic but also not too superficial
-At it’s best, it’s clear that the different essayists find a particular part of Family Guy amusing and are using their expertise to apply philosophical theory to what is otherwise an entirely nonsensical show
-The essayists mostly make an effort to keep the tone light and silly
-It does an overall good job of defending Family Guy’s place in society in a nuanced way. It helped put into words the way that we don’t laugh in agreement with the show, but at the absurdity of the bigotry parodied; but also grapples with the risk of actual bigots being validated from it
What I didn’t like:
-Unfortunately there’s a lot of repetition across essays. The editor did a really poor job of structuring the book because it would put me off a chapter when it began with another explanation of a concept that had already been discussed prior. There are 2 essays on Brian’s Personhood which are both actually really good but aren’t distinct enough for them to have been different essays; not sure why they didn’t just co-write one single one as others did elsewhere
-There are a few chapters that you’d expect to have some good discussion (Lois & Feminism; Quagmire & Perversity; the subversion of The Simpsons) but that never actually get to the meat of the issue, which is disappointing considering there will probably never be another analysis of this sort
-It was published in 2007, so the content they draw examples from is fairly limited compared to what it would be 15 years later. Just frustrating because since then the characters have developed much deeper complexities that if explored would have easily made for a 5 star book.
-Even in 2007, you get the impression that the writers only watched the same 15 episodes or so which probably explains why the discussion of some key aspects seem so hollow cos they filled in the blanks with their best guesses rather than with other episodes. I’m not even a Family Guy superfan but even I could tell some of the essayists were less familiar with the content than your average viewer
-Most of the essays are littered with gimmicky endnotes that are filled with stupid jokes that aren’t even funny. Where is the academic integrity 🤬🤬
-A couple of the chapters are just fucking stupid in what they choose to explore. Stewie, probably the most iconic & philosophically rich character, has a typology of the Seven Deadly Sins inflicted upon him which isn’t even well-argued. They’re just seeing if he could be analysed in that framework (he can’t)
-Quite a few of the chapters are Philosophy with a bit of Family Guy sprinkled in which is not what anyones reading this for. Like there’s one that teaches you how to make logical deductions from arguments and premises, what the fuck does that have to do with Family Guy? Or one about the possibility of time travel, it was way too deep and irrelevant
What I liked:
-At it’s best, it is genuinely enlightening. At least half of the essays hit a sweet balance between lighthearted reflection on the show’s mechanics and a thoughtful application of key philosophical ideas. I can say I’ve come away from this with a greater understanding of personhood, the acceptability of faux-offensive humour, and the previously elusive psyche of Peter Griffin
-Some truly standout chapters, namely the ones about Meg & Chris and their defiance of caricature; Brian the dog being granted personhood; and ‘Wills, Wantons, and Wives’
-It was rarely overly-academic but also not too superficial
-At it’s best, it’s clear that the different essayists find a particular part of Family Guy amusing and are using their expertise to apply philosophical theory to what is otherwise an entirely nonsensical show
-The essayists mostly make an effort to keep the tone light and silly
-It does an overall good job of defending Family Guy’s place in society in a nuanced way. It helped put into words the way that we don’t laugh in agreement with the show, but at the absurdity of the bigotry parodied; but also grapples with the risk of actual bigots being validated from it
What I didn’t like:
-Unfortunately there’s a lot of repetition across essays. The editor did a really poor job of structuring the book because it would put me off a chapter when it began with another explanation of a concept that had already been discussed prior. There are 2 essays on Brian’s Personhood which are both actually really good but aren’t distinct enough for them to have been different essays; not sure why they didn’t just co-write one single one as others did elsewhere
-There are a few chapters that you’d expect to have some good discussion (Lois & Feminism; Quagmire & Perversity; the subversion of The Simpsons) but that never actually get to the meat of the issue, which is disappointing considering there will probably never be another analysis of this sort
-It was published in 2007, so the content they draw examples from is fairly limited compared to what it would be 15 years later. Just frustrating because since then the characters have developed much deeper complexities that if explored would have easily made for a 5 star book.
-Even in 2007, you get the impression that the writers only watched the same 15 episodes or so which probably explains why the discussion of some key aspects seem so hollow cos they filled in the blanks with their best guesses rather than with other episodes. I’m not even a Family Guy superfan but even I could tell some of the essayists were less familiar with the content than your average viewer
-Most of the essays are littered with gimmicky endnotes that are filled with stupid jokes that aren’t even funny. Where is the academic integrity 🤬🤬
-A couple of the chapters are just fucking stupid in what they choose to explore. Stewie, probably the most iconic & philosophically rich character, has a typology of the Seven Deadly Sins inflicted upon him which isn’t even well-argued. They’re just seeing if he could be analysed in that framework (he can’t)
-Quite a few of the chapters are Philosophy with a bit of Family Guy sprinkled in which is not what anyones reading this for. Like there’s one that teaches you how to make logical deductions from arguments and premises, what the fuck does that have to do with Family Guy? Or one about the possibility of time travel, it was way too deep and irrelevant
March 21, 2023
This was among the better “and philosophy entries” I’ve read so far. A lot of compelling content, all the directions I was hoping it would go were explored.
Additionally, just a point about form - I get the sense that a lot of the pop culture books (philosophy, theology, psychology) will often use the show/movie/game/etc. as a jumping off point. For example, I might say, “you know, Peter’s Catholic, here’s a bunch of info about Catholics that I’ll occasionally tie down to Peter.”
But this book had a great deal of success in actually acting as thought Family Guy was representative of or had something legitimate to add to some philosophical model or concept.
Good stuff! 👍🏽
Additionally, just a point about form - I get the sense that a lot of the pop culture books (philosophy, theology, psychology) will often use the show/movie/game/etc. as a jumping off point. For example, I might say, “you know, Peter’s Catholic, here’s a bunch of info about Catholics that I’ll occasionally tie down to Peter.”
But this book had a great deal of success in actually acting as thought Family Guy was representative of or had something legitimate to add to some philosophical model or concept.
Good stuff! 👍🏽
May 21, 2021
This book sucks so ****ing bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 10, 2021
The title about sums it up...exploring the characters and show itself with a philosophy tinted glass.
February 6, 2023
oh peta
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2023
I've never bazinga'd so hard
July 22, 2025
Like most philosophy books, there are kernels of value contained within, but you have to winnow through a lot of chaff to uncover them.
May 22, 2025
Petarded book of essays.
August 15, 2012
This book is freakin' sweet!
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews