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October 5, 2009 | 9:12 am

‘Family Guy’ gets Jewish makeover

Posted by Adam Wills

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Lois Griffin – a Jew?

That’s the revelation from last night’s episode of “Family Guy” (titled “Family Goy”), which included Stewie in payot and a kippah reciting a “L’hadlik Ner” blessing during a Passover seder (followed by Mola Ram’s prayer from “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” before he removes Meg’s heart).

This second episode of the season, written by Mark Hentemann, begins with a geektastic “Super Friends” parody opener and then meanders through some flat gags about Peter falling in love with a Kathy Ireland cutout before moving on to a mostly sharp-witted Jewish plot. As can happen in “Family Guy,” the script’s humor takes a few mean-spirited, dark turns, including one gag that only a white supremacist could love –- shooting at Jews.

The Jewish plotline begins when a breast cancer scare leads Lois (voiced by Jewish actress Alex Borstein) to discover that her mother, Barbara Pewterschmidt, is a Holocaust survivor who gave up her Judaism to help her husband get into country clubs (“It was the right thing to do, dear,” Mrs. Pewterschmidt says).

“So Grandma Hebrewberg is actually Jewish?!” Lois asks.

“Yes, when she moved to America, her family changed their name. It was originally Hebrewbergmoneygrabber,” her mother says.

“Family Goy” includes the brief return of Jewish accountant Max Weinstein, the titular character from the episode “When You Wish Upon a Weinstein,” who reassures Lois she doesn’t need to change her life. (Another returning “Weinstein” character: the congregational rabbi voiced by Ben Stein.)

Peter embraces his wife’s Jewish heritage—donning a tallit, kippah and Star of David necklace (chest hair included), and changing his name to “Chhhhhhhh.” When Lois objects, Peter complains, “Leave it to a Jew to take all the fun out of being a Jew.” His enrolling the kids in day school is good for a few laughs, along with his pushing Lois to dress frum in the bedroom to turn him on and, wanting to be humiliated, says, “Tell me I don’t earn as much as your friend’s husband.”

The episode’s conflict is introduced via the ghost of Francis Griffin, Peter’s father, who chastises him for forsaking his Catholic beliefs. Peter immediately shuns his wife (“It’s the only religion with the word ‘ew’ in it”) and crucifies her on a makeshift cross made from Stewie’s crib. The episode takes a truly tasteless turn when Peter emulates Amon Leopold Göth, the Plaszów concentration camp commandant featured in “Schindler’s List,” sitting shirtless in his bedroom window with a rifle aimed at his wife, shooting at her and the town’s other well-known Jew, Mort. After Lois apologizes for Peter, Mort responds with, “No problem, Lois. That’s just how people say hello to me.” The bit crosses the line and hits with the same thud as the protracted scene from the episode “Long John Peter,” in which Peter is offered up as the real killer of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson and O.J. is portrayed as the couple’s horrified best friend.

As Lois and Peter square off over whether the family will celebrate Passover or Easter, the resolution pulls in Jesus—a semi-regular character on the show—to reach an interfaith bridge of understanding, which seems to offer tepid support for Judeo-Christian belief and indulges mildly funny slights against Islam and faith in general.

My hope is that the series will roast the familial Jewish themes introduced in “Family Goy,” rather than continuing on the Jews-as-targets route. The show has regularly featured some inspiring Jewish gags – both in good taste and bad. And while highbrow community in-jokes would be better received by Jewish viewers, the likely reality is the Holocaust humor will continue to dominate. “Family Guy” voice actor Seth Green—also a Jew—once shared with me something Borstein told him prior to the launch of “Robot Chicken”: “The moment you put a bunch of Jewish writers in a room, you’re going to get a ton of Hitler jokes.”

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I saw the episode you so carefully outlined.  To say the least, I was totally offended by it.  If Jews wrote this episode, they should be totally ashamed of themselves.  It enbodys the worst of any stereotypical rants about Jews.  Goebels couldn’t have done better.

Comment by Oscar the Grump on 10/05/09 at 2:28 pm

whoever wrote this ugly thing should be in great pain for life. The next time a stupid person makes a remark because of the show the curse is on you. low life creatures.

Comment by a on 10/05/09 at 7:51 pm

I normally watch this show here & there.  After the 1st anti-semitic remark (after the breast cancer scare) I quickly got up from my couch & said “I’m done”. I then paced my house for a good 1/2 hour in a rage.  Fox should have have refused to air this ep.  I cannot believe the actress who voices Lois (a Jew) went along with this, as well as Seth Green.  How dare they do this to their/own people?  My husband has called Fox & I am next.

Comment by Linda Goncher on 10/06/09 at 5:13 am

I’m glad to see that I was not the only one offended by this show.  This was blatantly anti semitic.  I don’t care if the writers or voices are Jewish.

Comment by David Gesundheit on 10/06/09 at 6:53 pm

C’mon people, if you find this type of humor offensive, why were you watching the show in the first place? This show has been around for 10 years, I think, and it’s well known that they make fun (sometimes with tasteless jokes) of pretty much every human group: Asians, Blacks, Jews, WASPs, Mexicans, women, men, the elderly, even the handicapped, to name a few. I understand that this type of humor is not for everybody. But if you watch the show, it’s not OK to feel offended only when they mock “your” people. That’s hypocrisy.

Get a life, learn to laugh at yourself. It’ll be good for you. BTW, also Seinfeld (TV show) made fun of people who took Schindler’s List too seriously.

Comment by Diego Mamani on 10/07/09 at 12:05 am

I agree with Diego - this episode was pretty consistent with the level of humor that Family Guy employs on every episode.  I won’t deny that some moments were a bit strained . . . . but that’s because for this particular episode it was my group that was the brunt of the jokes (as opposed to, let’s say, when Family Guy spends extended periods commenting on Asian female drivers).  I think Family Guy has generally laid off of Jewish humor because of the flak they received for their first Jewish episode (home of Peter’s famous positive quote “Look Lois even Optimus Prime is Jewish !”).  Nevertheless, I thought the episode was fine, perhaps a little closer to the line than Rabbi Krustofsky.

Comment by Josh Seeherman on 10/07/09 at 9:34 am

Oh come now. Family Guy makes Jewish jokes, black jokes, white jokes, Asian jokes, Native American jokes, Indian jokes, Christian jokes, Irish jokes, Republican jokes… if you’re alive, you’re not safe from having your feet stepped on.

Just about everyone knows full well that Family Guy is anything but anti-semitic, especially if they look at the, you know, MORAL OF THE EPISODE.

I’d stretch as far as saying that they’ve made much, -much- worse black jokes than anything else on Family Guy, but that just may be because I’m black.

Still, I’m not going to flail my arms and say “done” because I don’t know how to laugh at not only myself, but the racists themselves that Family Guy are actually making fun of more than anything by imitating them.

What, you’ve never watched The Boondocks?

Comment by Hi there on 10/07/09 at 12:25 pm

I saw the episode and loved it.  I would like to suggest to you all that this video was not making fun of Jews at all.  If you really get beyond the surface of what you see, its really poking fun at ignorant christains being ignorant christains.  They treat all Jews as stereo-types, think they are right and everyone else is wrong and put down everyone and anything that isn’t that isn’t the filtered b.s. version of their religion taught to them.  Especially bringin in Jesus at the end, to basically say ‘Hey, I was Jew and practiced Judaism and you worship me and now you hate Jews?’  obviously not a direct quote, but that was the message I got.  But I tend to not get distracted by how things look on the surface and see them for what they really are.

Comment by Moose on 10/07/09 at 9:28 pm
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