The Cleveland Show: 'Family Guy in blackface'?
How race is handled in Seth MacFarlane's new show
'The Cleveland Show': Offensive?
(Fox)
Seth MacFarlane's new animated series The Cleveland Show is "basically Family Guy in blackface," said John McWhorter in The New Republic. MacFarlane didn't bother to make Cleveland (formerly of Family Guy) and his family interesting, or different from the characters on Family Guy—"as if the blackness alone was enough" to make them entertaining. The Cleveland Show is "retrograde," offensive, and "reductive," and Seth MacFarlane and company should have known better.
It's also "unfortunate that a real-life African-American actor couldn't land" the speaking role of Cleveland—he's voiced by white actor Mike Henry, said Vibe.com. And although "the covert blackface doesn't impede the show's racial humor," it does seem to "make the jokes more cliché than Tyler Perry gags: a smack-talking son, a white neighbor attempting slang ("Sup dog?"), an obligatory black president remark."
But race "isn't the central issue" of The Cleveland Show, said Hanh Nguyen in Zap2It. It's simply a show about a family that happens to be black. And "as much flack as MacFarlane receives for his controversial content," racial issues in his cartoons "have always been treated—with directness or tongue-in-cheek irony—as something to be mocked, not celebrated."
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4 Comments
Posted by sakara, Thursday, October 15, 2009, 12:39 pm cleaveland's cartoon black wife has a big booty...just like oprah!
Posted by swikabi, Saturday, October 17, 2009, 1:15 pm LOL sakara ... wondering if it the wife's booty will be expanding and shrinking, just like oprah's?
Posted by tim from N.Y., Monday, October 19, 2009, 4:08 pm I really dont care what critics have to say about any cartoon program IE cleveland show , family guy,simpsons,ETC. I think that the highest of people that watch these shows watch them to get a laugh or two they are not worrying about the race of the people that are doing the voices or some political correctness that too many people try and beat people and viewers over the head these days!..These shows are not meant to be taken seriously they are supposed to be fun...For the prudes that are bothered by their contentjust change channels!
Posted by HistoryRepeating, Sunday, November 15, 2009, 11:36 pm A TV show about black people, that is made by white people, hits the airwaves, yet some are surprised that the show is racially offensive, and lacks substance?Just like the blackface minstrel shows of many years past, The Cleveland Show's target audience is white people..not black people. We all know how many whites in the media took offence to Rev. Wright's White People Clap Like This skit. Lets not take any issue with those blacks who take offence with Seth's White Writers, Actors Producers, Think Black People Act Like This... show
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