The show: Family Guy
The episode: "Road to Germany," first aired October 19, 2008, on FOX.
What happened: Transported to 1939 Europe, Mort Goldman has to pretend to be a Catholic priest and administer last rites to a dying Nazi soldier. His speech is full of problems, and Brian and Stewie attempt to subtly correct him with simultaneous coughs. One of the problem statements is: "We pray in the name of You, and Your son, who died in a freak accident that, um, You can't really blame on anyone..."
Why it makes no sense: This is not the place to nitpick the idea that 1st Century Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus (as if God didn't intend His son to be crucified in order to atone for the sins of mankind). Accepting it as true for the sake of argument, why should Mort Goldman feel guilty about it? The farthest back in time he has been is 1939 (assuming he's the same age as Peter and hasn't traveled back in time any other time). The white descendants of plantation owners feel no guilt over slavery, even if they pay reparations, because it is something their ancestors did, and not they themselves. Mort Goldman would not have been involved in any of the planning to crucify Jesus, and the same is probably true of almost everyone else in the Temple in 1939. Even if sin does attach to children, doesn't the sacrifice of Jesus absolve the children of the sins of their parents? (If I'm wrong on the theology, please, don't hesitate to correct me).
But why take it seriously? Family Guy producer Seth Macfarlane got a free pass from the offensive lyrics Peter sings in the pre-cancellation episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," including "Even though they killed my Lord, I need a Jew." Macfarlane's justification was "Consider the source" (listen to the commentary to that episode). Peter is an idiot and more than one episode can be offered as proof, including episodes that show he doesn't even know much about the religion he was baptized in (Catholic). The free pass Macfarlane got for Peter doesn't also apply to Jewish characters in the show, such as Mort Goldman and of course the 1939 rabbi earlier in the episode. While Mort denies anyone was responsible for the death of Jesus, he does so in a decidedly suspicious way. Take, for example, the way that Stewie vouches for Mort as "an Aryan" priest: "He's molested me many times." Then a real Catholic priest shows up and says he was held up doing "innocent, non-molesty things," in almost the same tone of obvious denial that Mort used just seconds ago for the Jewish responsibility for the death of Jesus. Blanket accusations of deicide (against the Jews) and of child molestation (against Catholic priests) are very serious accusations indeed, and to try to give them validity as kernels of truth to jokes is very concerning indeed.
In order to get a free pass this time, Seth Macfarlane will have to paint Mort Goldman as very much an idiot, something that the writers of this episode have already begun to do (combined with the stereotype of Jews as hypochondriacs). An even more elaborate dance will be required to justify the rabbi's comments earlier in the episode.
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2 comments:
You said you won't "nitpick the idea that 1st Century Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus" but then you go on to do precisely that.
Not that I have a problem with that. But your focus on that is causing you to miss other nits with this episode, like: if the Nazis are publishing Mort Goldman's likeness as that of a typical Jew, how is it that Brian and Stewie can pass Mort Goldman off as a Catholic priest (they say "Aryan priest") to the Nazis?
I think "Weinstein" is way more offensive than "Germany". In the former, Peter is not a Jew, but he spews hate speech in lyrics set to music. In "Germany," the Jewish characters' playful denials are making fun of this logical fallacy, not reaffirming it.
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