Family Guy “Juice Is Loose”

The television show, “Family Guy” represents my understanding of “postmodern” because it is pastiche in art form but yet unpredictable and it defies all rules or norms.  The specific Family Guy episode, “The Juice Is Loose” takes on the real-life situation of the O.J. Simpson trial but with many twists and turns.  In the episode, Peter finds a raffle ticket that was won back in 1989 to play in a golf tournament with O.J. Simpson. The family is devastated that Peter actually considers playing golf with O.J. Simpson, given the serious charges of a double murder made against him. Peter is ignorant as to what transpired during the O.J. Simpson trial, which is odd since almost everyone in the world had some kind of knowledge of the “trial of the century”.  During his golf tournament with O.J., Peter tries to get O.J. to confess to the crimes. O.J. describes how he is demonized by the media and public because of the charges brought against him.  Subsequently, Peter brings O.J. to his home and helps O.J. rebuild his image and reputation. In real life, O.J.’s reputation was never restored and in fact, he served a lengthy prison sentence for another crime. This can be interpreted as the show’s efforts to “defend the Other”, which in this case is O.J. Simpson.

An example of postmodernism where characters and situations are juxtaposed in time and space in “The Juice is Loose” episode is when Adam West makes a reference to Homer Simpson, from the cartoon show “The Simpsons.” There are unconnected signs used to produce new codes of meanings in this particular bricolage.

Another example of postmodernism in the episode of “The Juice is Loose” is when Peter uses the image of Conway Twitty, a famous country singer, in order to avoid his wife’s critique when their infant son, Stewie is found on top of their home’s roof. This happens because Peter ignores his parental responsibilities. Instead of supervising his infant son while his wife runs errands, he has a hangout with his friends whereby the conversations are those of young teenage girls acting immaturely. Stewie is neglected and thus placed in a dangerous situation because of Peter’s behavior. Stewie was on the roof trying to fix a satellite dish and this is another example of the show’s hyperrealism.

In terms of the new narrative, there were significant changes. For example, the fact Peter found a raffle ticket he won and meeting O.J. Simpson. This was followed by Peter trying to get O.J. to admit to the crimes he was charged with and then trying to help O.J. restore the stellar reputation he once held.