Partial Terms of Endearment There are many TV programs people can enjoy. However, some TV programs are not simply for fun; they contain sarcasm or criticism towards our society. “Family Guy: Partial Terms of Endearment” is an episode of abortion in our society. Abortion has been a controversial topic for a long time. We would assume that Family Guy is simply criticizing abortion. However, when observing the show more in-depth, there is an implicit meaning behind the whole context. Actually, Family Guy is more talking about abortion. In this episode, Peter’s role is important because he represents people who disagree with the horrible procedures of abortion. This episode describes the unethical procedures of abortion and portrays it through humor and over-exaggeration by personifying the fertilized egg. There is no doubt that all the characters that appear in the show agree that the procedures of killing babies are horrifying and unethical. I partially agree with Peter when he explains one should avoid abortion but there are some cases in needs of abortion, and I believe there should be some restrictions for abortion and a high quality of sex education.
Family Guy shows their position of abortion by anthropomorphize of fertilized egg. There is a scene where Peter and Lois go to the family center to discuss whether procuring abortion or not. In front of the family center, Peter and Lois encountered people, who disagreed with abortion and kept saying, “No! Abortion.” One of the protesters showed Peter and Lois a video that explained why they oppose abortion. In the video, there was a fertilized egg and embryo. The embryo held a message in his hand stating, “Mom, please don’t kill me, I love you.” Of course, people do not know what the embryo thought in womb, but no one wants to die before he or she is born. It is kind of over exaggeration to stimulate Peter’s emotion and Peter feels sweet of that embryo. Also, the embryo said, “I want to be a member of your community. Can I hug you?” He seemed very excited to be born. However, a hook soon pulled him out of womb due to abortion. Peter was shocked and surprised and said, “Oh, my god!” After being exposed to the unpleasant scene, Peter changed his attitude towards abortion. Family Guy described this scene humorously, yet with some seriousness. We do not think that embryo can talk and think in womb but making them personifying, the Family Guy tries to make people think embryo is also a human like us. Nonetheless, the producers of Family Guy maximized their disagreement towards people, who decide to procure abortion. The show might have caused a significant reaction from people because abortion is such a controversial issue in the society but they make people to think it is kind of light topic by using humor a lot. However, Family Guy’s intention was rejected by Fox Broad Casting, and could not be featured on TV.
The producers’ arguments were expressed humorously in the “Family Guy: Partial Terms of Endearment” episode. The topic of abortion causes a serious controversy among people. Nevertheless, Family Guy seemed as if it did not want to make this episode evoke severe agree or disagree of debate among people. Therefore, they delivered their position hilariously. Peter did not want Lois’ pregnancy at first. So, he strongly agreed with abortion. He even tried to make miscarriage of Lois by hitting her stomach. We can assume that he is a very extreme and immature person. He was the one who strongly insisted Lois’ abortion, however, he changed his mind after visiting the local family center. There should be something strong motivation for changing Peter. As I mentioned above, a talking fertilized egg and an embryo that was holding a message altered Peter’s perspective and finally, he became a deprecator of abortion. By delivering the producers’ viewpoints towards the controversial idea in a humorous way, they made people laugh, instead of causing severe debate.
It is unlikely that