Family Guy for a 7 year old?

My daughter is badgering me to watch Family Guy, I’ve never watched it but I gather its for adults really. She loves the Simpsons. We’re pretty relaxed parents and she understands that sometimes ‘strong’ language is used for comedic effect and is not to be used in ‘real life’.

Is FG content a bit too grown up for her? Can’t really be bothered getting into it unless I know we can watch it together.

My Daughter is 10 and we’re pretty relaxed too but not sure Family Guy would be something I’d let her watch, it bleeps out the swearing but there are some very tasteless jokes in it and comedy violence.

FG does have some very crude jokes and controversial themes maybe watch a bit yourself first before you make up your mind but I would probably say delay it a few more years.

Season 8 Episode 21 – “partial terms of endearment” is about as controversial as it get IMO and was banned for viewing in the USA

There’s some pretty dark humour in Family Guy,way more than in the Simpsons, along with a fair bit of ‘unusual’ sexual innuendo – one of the secondary characters is ‘Herbert the pervert’; the local paedophile. That would probably give me more cause for concern than the swearing as such.

i would say its for grown ups, not 7 year olds, language isnt too bad but its the sexual and political scenes that are not suitable really, I think its great personally but would wait until my offspring were older to let them watch it

Thanks chaps, that’s all I need to know.

I really like family guy but I don’t think it’s suitable for a 7yr old. There’s a pretty good chance she wouldn’t ‘get’ a lot of the jokes anyway. As above, watch some yourself and see what you think.

it’s a halfway house between the Simpsons and southpark, much closer to southpark than Simpsons

I’d go with the closer to Southpark bit not sure I’d trust Funky Monkeys directions though…

3/4?

actually thinking about it, southpark is probably more suitable for younger kids, high school age I would say

Family Guy is much more adult orientated than Southpark.

it varies, the stars wars take offs are the simpsons with poop gags

Depends if your daughter “gets it” my wife (45) doesn’t understand FG or Simpsons whilst the 3 of us are in hoots of laughter.

Some episodes would be fine for a 7 year old but not many. That said it’s well worth watching without her

Watch at least 6 episodes before deciding if you like it or not. Some if the ” flash backs ” where they compare what they are doing to something take some getting used to.

I love FG and its had me crying with laughter in the past.

Only thing I don’t get is when they mention Z list celebs from the states and am probably missing a good joke as we don’t know who they are taking the mick out of.

Has she seen Futurama?

My kids love watching the Simpsons, but I think some of the humour in Family Guy would be pretty uncomfortable to watch with them.

Another vote for just watching it yourself though. Its the work of genius. While there’s a lot of adult humour, there’s a lot of just utterly hilarious nonsense too…

I love FG and its had me crying with laughter in the past.

Its a rare example of Americans being able to laugh at themselves. Not for kids.

I think the clue is in the rating, no?

I think the clue is in the rating, no?

Its a rare example of Americans being able to laugh at themselves.

Well.. themselves and the British.. 😆

No way for a 7 year old. Some very very inappropriate stuff in there. I love it, its brilliant but its not a kids cartoon (bestiality, child grooming, offending just about every race / religion going etc).

You think that was bad, remember the time…

a tremendous programme, that is only truly funny to adults, but is not going to ‘harm’ kids who inadvertently watch it !1

You should definitely watch Family Guy, it’s brilliant.

You should not let your kids watch it though, although they probably won’t understand the jokes, it isn’t a dual level cartoon like the simpsons, and definitely wasn’t meant to be watched by kids.

It even has Bugs Bunny in it.

I was going to post the sheep shearing scene but not a good idea.

I never understood how the ratings worked for these things with adult content. My Dad let me watch Delta Force when I was 5 and I turned out alright.

Though I still secretly want a bicycle that’s capable of firing an anti-aircraft missile.

Family Guy is much more adult orientated than Southpark.

Wait…what?

Family Guy is much more adult orientated than Southpark.

Piffle.

I’d rather my 7 year old (if I had one) watch southpark than Family guy. there are some seriously messed up plots in FG.

I’d rather my kids watched someone get run over, than see someone fall off a tall building

Quite like Family Guy but it sort of lost its sheen a bit when South Park did an episode taking the piss out of it – IIRC the writers of FG turned out to be giant manatees selecting two random concepts/people/scenarios from ‘idea balls’ and putting them together to make the ‘do you remember that time…..’ gags.

It does feel a bit like that sometimes.

+1 for not being suitable for a 7 year old though.

I’d rather my 7 year old (if I had one) watch southpark than Family guy. there are some seriously messed up plots in FG.

8)

It’s bleeped out on TV but not on all the DVDs. I don’t have kids but I wouldn’t let them watch it at that age! The only parallel I would draw with the Simpsons is it is an animation based around a family.

For each one of those suicide scenes, there are just as many ‘poor taste’ scenes in Family Guy that are equally as bad if not worse.

it’s incredibly formulaic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-5OABcNfX0

I’m 32 and I find it traumatising…

Absolutely no chance. I don’t care about swearing, and the gross out vomit stuff is not a problem, but a 7 year old is definitely not old enough to understand the context of the behaviour in the show.

A lot of the humour is based on the outrageous transgression of social conventions and norms. At that age I doubt you’d understand that. There’s a lot of very bad behaviour in it, not to mention taking the piss out of black and disabled people, and I would hate to think that my kid would be seeing it on telly and thinking it’s normal.

I remember even as a late teenager repeating some crappy things that I’d seen on telly in comedy shows (Blackadder for one) and it led to some uncomfortable situations. I was old enough to realise the difference between telly and real life, but only AFTER it’d come out of my mouth.

Kids that age are still picking up a lot of their social codes from what’s around them, and that includes TV. Family guy is a PARODY of society, and you have to understand something fully before you can understand a parody of it.

^^^^ 😀