Monday, March 23, 2009

intertextuality

Family Guy is a television show full of intertextuality. There is reference to many pieces of texts throughout the show. It also references to many recent events that are taking place at the time.
I chose to do the episode that is referred to as “Soccer Mom.” First, Peter shouts to his son “I love you,” and then mentions to the bystander next to him that is a platonic love. This is referring to the recent rise is the gay community, and also can be reassurance that is there is no inappropriate behavior going on between family members. Chris is playing a soccer game in which he catches the ball. The ref calls a foul and the bystander gets angry at the lack of athletic skills Chris possesses.
The bystander yells for the ref to get “Moby Dick off the field.” This is referring to the popular novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville. This Moby Dick is a whale, so this bystander is calling Chris a whale because of his large size on the field. I am sure compared to the other kids that are playing, Chris would be rather large, and the “Moby Dick” reference would be valid. He mentions something before this statement, which could be important, but I cannot understand him, and the reference is unknown to me. Maybe someone else more knowledgeable to what he is talking about would think the statement is funny.
Peter then proceeds to punch this bystander, who looks like a man, but is in fact a woman. She gets seriously injured, and actually goes into labor while on the ground on the soccer field. This, to me, is just nonsense and is not really referring to anything except for how easily amused America is. It can be slightly referring to the man who had a baby, or how genders occasionally dress or act like the opposite sex, but that for the most part is all that comes out of that segment of the TV show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBLDBDFRp6E

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