Topic: American Dad

[Pugnate]

I saw the first season of American Dad, and I liked it well enough till the final two parter Stan of Arabia. Seriously, WTF? It really really upset me because it was just stupid and mostly false. It lacked any class whatsoever and was basically full of as many raw jokes possible. When I first realized the episodes were going to be set in Saudi Arabia, I was pretty excited. I thought it would be awesome for them to mock Saudi Arabia etc., but the bullshit spewed out was so untrue. There could have been plenty of ways to approach the subject, but they pretty much fucked it up.

Worse part is that people who watched believe it to be true. Most Americans are uninformed and impressionable when it comes to other cultures, probably because they have so little contact with the outside world. Everyone who watched this episode seems to now have that impression of the country.

I decided to go with the director's commentary and I found some things interesting. The first was that the writer was an American woman of Persian parents (Nahnatchka Khan), so it made sense that she had an axe to grind like many hardcore Persian American women. The other thing is that they admitted they did little research and none of them has ever been near the country.

Saudi Arabia isn't a great place, and there are so many ways to mock it that I find it hard to believe they fucked up so badly. They could have mocked the politics, the discrepancies, the class ism. Instead they chose to focus on women's rights, which was an obviously great direction, but they were too eager to get it right. Actually I don't think they cared to get it right.

On the subject of guns, weapons are banned in Saudi Arabia. I've never ever seen a gun in Saudi Arabia, unless a cop had it. Also I didn't know people could be killed for singing on the streets. I wonder why the police don't open fire during any open celebration. Pirated DVDs aren't sold left and right. Actually Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries in the middle east to adopt strict copy right policies ten years ago.

Women can't go out without a male escort? That's bullshit. I guess my mother should stop going out shopping with her friends or going for groceries.

They showed a woman rotting in jail because she stole a candy bar, and had her hand missing. That is again bullshit.

Also the Saudis were ready to kill when they were told god was a woman, as they insisted god was a man. Muslims don't believe god to have a sex.

Plus the cities were made to look like some rotting desolate third world rat hole, when in actuality they are some of the wealthiest places in the world.

Some pictures of Saudi cities:






I have to be honest, the cities in Saudi Arabia look far more modern than most places in the world. The roads are easily better than any where else either.

There was nothing good about the episode. The writers were extremely ignorant, and fit very typically into the stereotype everyone else has of Americans. They don't care as long as it is funny.

It would be the same as making a cartoon about an Arab family going to America and finding the roads full of redneck incestuous families that are drunk, violent, illiterate, ignorant and extremely stupid.

[Pugnate]

Will ‘American Dad’ Define the Saudis for Us?
Michael Saba, sabamps@aol.com
 
“YOU want me to wear sandals. What do you think I am, an Ay-rab?” So said the “Chief” or “Muggsy” in a film over 50 years old that my kids and I watched on TV last weekend. The film was one of the “Bowery Boys” or “East Side Kids” comedy series that played throughout the 1940s and 1950s. All the kids that I knew went to see every one of these films starring Leo Gorcey as the Chief and Huntz Hall as Satch. We got some of our first impressions of the world around us from those films and, sprinkled in these films, were numerous references to the Arabs or Ay-rabs as the Chief called them. Almost all of those references were negative or demeaning to people of Arab descent. Entertainment outlets are apparently becoming more specific these days. Now there are distinct references to Saudi Arabia and Saudis in world of fictional movies and sitcom television.

Two weeks ago Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Turki Al-Faisal gave a speech to the US Army College in Pennsylvania entitled “Community and Cooperation.” In the speech, Prince Turki addressed the issue of American popular culture. He stated, “...the American people know very little about Saudi Arabia — except that it is a far away place, where the people wear robes, and there is plenty of oil, sand and camels. In some ways this perception is improving, but I feel in many ways, Americans’ view of my country is devolving. There is a cartoon show in the US on the Fox network called ‘American Dad.’ It is about a CIA agent. In two recent episodes, this American Dad was sent to Saudi Arabia as punishment for ruining his boss’ birthday party.”

“American Dad” is a very popular animated sitcom which appears weekly on Fox TV. Since the inception of “The Simpsons”, the seminal popular culture hit which has been on TV screens for more than 15 years, these animated sitcoms have become great crowd-pleasers. “American Dad” is no exception. Stan Smith plays the dad and is depicted as a CIA agent with a highly dysfunctional family. In an unprecedented two part series called “Stan of Arabia”, Stan is sent to Saudi Arabia as punishment for disrupting the birthday party of his boss.

Although most of these animated sitcoms have few sacred cows, “Stan of Arabia” gives its audience a particularly brutal portrayal of Saudis and Saudi Arabia. Stan relocates his family to Saudi Arabia and all of them experience nothing but grief from the Saudis. Stan sells his son, disguised as a woman, to a Saudi. Stan’s wife and daughter confront the cartoon-created harsh Saudi culture and the whole family are put before a Saudi crowd who are charged with stoning the Smith family to death. At the end of the series, Stan and his family return to the US and he kisses the ground.

Scattered throughout the two programs are various references to Saudis as woman-haters, murderers, terrorists and thugs. Other cultural icons pop up periodically during the programs. Angelina Jolie, Michael Moore and Jay Leno make guest cartoon appearances. The 1980s punk rock group, The Clash, enters the picture at one point doing their song, “Rock the Casbah” which depicts a Saudi-looking buffoon-like fellow on its original cover and features lyrics like “bombs between the minaret.” “Rock the Casbah” was reportedly the unofficial anthem for the US Army during the first Gulf war.

So what’s the harm in cartoonists and Fox TV having a little fun with Saudis and Saudi Arabia? Popular culture is usually defined as the objects, images, artifacts, literature, music and so on of “ordinary” people. The content of pop culture is determined in large part by industries that disseminate cultural material, for example, the film, television and publishing industries, as well as the news media.

Many public opinion polls have suggested that popular culture has a huge effect on public perception. And, stereotypes brought to the public through media as overtly innocent as animated cartoons, might be more effective than actual news broadcasts. The stereotypes of Saudis promulgated in “Stan of Arabia” are probably, therefore, extremely effective and penetrating.

According to the Fox Network, the original broadcast of “Stan of Arabia” scored a relatively high rating and viewer numbers for the broadcast numbered about 7.3 million. Almost all the comments on the Fox blog were positive towards the show. These remarks included: “Last night’s episode was one of the best...almost everything in Saudi Arabia was spot-on”; “This episode was hilarious. My wife doesn’t think this show is that funny, but she was rolling on the ground last night”; “ A nice look into the reality of life and repression in Saudi Arabia”; “Series classic”; “A very special episode”, and “This two-parter is, at the moment, the climax of ‘American Dad’s’ greatness.”

William Grieder, a national correspondent for the liberal magazine The Nation has written “Hollywood is our great national entertainer and also the most effective teacher of our young...We can argue at length about how much this process is accidental and unintentional, how much is purposeful and politically motivated...Do we always need some one or other as villain to dread or despise?”

Media misrepresentation of Saudi Arabia is legend. A Frontpage.com article by Chris Weikopf, who also writes for the Los Angeles Daily News, began: “Saudi bashing has become the new sport in Washington and with good reason.” What Wiekopf was really saying was that it’s not only OK to “bash” an entire nation/ethnic group but it is also “good.” Put any other country or group in the “Saudi” word space and the writer would be rightfully accused of racism.

We can’t do much about what the “Bowery Boys” said 50 years ago, but we can and must point out and protest the racism and ethnic slander that exists in the media today including programs like “American Dad.”
 

[Quemaqua]

Well, American Dad is hardly a good way to judge anything at all.  It's really a shitty show and I can't say I ever found it entertaining, and at this point I more or less hate Seth Macfarlane for his shallow, short-sighted, rampantly liberal views.  Not only that, but his contempt for anyone who has a different opinion.  I think he's one of your typical American idiots that still believes in the broken system and enjoys making a mockery of anything he doesn't view as right.  I mean, that's more or less what he does for a living, but he goes well beyond other people of the same mind, and not in ways I can even say that I find clever or creative.  Family Guy is still sort of okay now and again, but it's gone downhill, and American Dad was stupid from the get-go.

I haven't seen the episode in question, so I really can't comment on it directly, I can only state that ignorance seems to be more or less right up the show's alley.  They don't have to go much further than across the street to demonstrate this, let alone all the way to Saudi Arabia.

[Pugnate]

Well, American Dad is hardly a good way to judge anything at all.

You are right, but I am afraid most simple minded people don't know that. I'll post some links to the forums, but mostly people were saying stuff like,"That episode was right on."

Never mind the fact that neither them nor the writers have been anywhere near the country.

I finished the 4th season of Family Guy, and it started horribly. I couldn't believe it! What the hell happened? How did one of the best shows ever made go from wow to wtf? Towards the second half it got a lot better though, and was on par with the first three seasons. But the first half of season 4 was incredibly stupid.

Also when I learned that Seth McFarlane was going to be doing another animated sitcom, I wondered how he could possibly divide his time between two shows of the same genre. It just didn't make any sense.

It was just the jokes that really lacked any direction in both American Dad and the first half of Family Guy season 4. For example, if you are going to poke fun at catholics or Christians, why not aim at something they did rather than something that makes absolutely no sense what so ever.

Say for example, a joke about a Catholic priest running after altar boys makes sense considering how many scandals there have been. But what the fuck does Mel Gibson and a bunch of Christians chasing after Peter in a car have anything to do with anything? So many of the jokes were too transparent.

Writer One: OK let's make fun of Christians.
Writer Two: Awesome!
Writer One: But we've covered all stereotypes associated with Christians, there is nothing left.
Writer Two: Oh who cares? As long as the joke shows Christians to be evil/stupid/ignorant, it is fine. Does the joke have to have a point?

The first three seasons of Family Guy were clever. Even the last half of season 4 was good, but for a while it was as if they going to tackle the subject of a joke despite having no ideas.

In the American Dad episode of Saudi Arabia there was a joke that typifies the rawness of whole affair. In it the liberal daughter wants to see a Michael Moore movie, despite her dad's objection. She takes her brother to it, where they see it is a movie about Moore having  sex with Angelina Jolie, and it features a lot of Moore's hairy ass.

In the end she concludes,"Michael Moore sold out!", and leaves.

W T F?

So many angles for a Michael Moore joke, and they totally screwed it up. Again it was almost as if they just wanted to do the joke, and didn't care how they got around to it.

[scottws]

I never bothered to see the show so I can't even comment on it.  But whoa, that one building looks like the thing in HL2.  Awesom.

[Cobra951]

I did see that episode, amd thought it hit way below the belt.  I did not feel in any way "educated" by it, about Saudi Arabia.  It was obviously meant to be outrageous and irreverent.  We have to put up with shit about our own culture and Christianity from the same rabid liberals so entrenched in Hollywood.  (The whole priest thing is so blown out of proportion that some people actually think the whole priesthood is perverted.  I was educated in Jesuit schools from 5th to 11th grade, and went to church every Sunday until I was about 16.  Never ever did I encounter a pedophile wearing robes.  I was a pretty boy too, BTW.)  When you consider the entire USA, these guys are fringe--no doubt about it.  Don't let it misguide you about what the bulk of Americans think.  You're right in that we're mostly ignorant about the difference between Saudi Arabia and Iran or Iraq, though.  I hope that gets rectified in the future. 

[Ghandi]

American Dad is one of the stupidest shows I have ever seen (along with "Drawn Together"- wow that's a horrible show). I watched 10 minutes of the debut and I decided never to watch it again. It is true, though, that I know very little about Saudi Arabia, other than the whole oil thing. Aren't the top 10% incredibly rich and the bottom 90% poor? I think that I heard that in a class, but I might be wrong.

Edit: Oh yeah, and to go along with Cobra, I know many incredibly intelligent Catholic priests who were outraged when the notion began going around that they were all pedophiles. Even to this day, the belief is fairly widespread.

[scottws]

I think part of Catholicism's problem is the whole no marriage thing.  Right now, since priests can't marry, you probably get some people in the seminary here and there that want to try to hide the fact that they are gay or are weirdos.

[iPPi]

I really dislike this show.