Table of Contents
Acknowledgments: These People Are Freakin’ Sweet viii
You Better Not Read This, Pal: An Introduction to Family Guy and Philosophy 1 J. Jeremy Wisnewski
Part I Those Good Ole’ Fashion Values on Which We Used to Rely 3
1 Killing the Griffins: A Murderous Exposition of Postmodernism 5 J. Jeremy Wisnewski
2 Family Guy and God: Should Believers Take Offense? 16 Raymond J. VanArragon
3 Quagmire: Virtue and Perversity 27 Shaun Miller
4 Francis Griffin and the Church of the Holy Fonz: Religious Exclusivism and “Real” Religion 36 David Kyle Johnson
Part II Lucky There’s a Family Guy! (And What a Family!) 49
5 Let Us Now Praise Clueless Men: Peter Griffin and Philosophy 51 Jerry Samet
6 Lois: Portrait of a Mother (Or, Nevermind Death, Motherhood is a Bitch) 59 Stephanie Empey
7 Mmmyez: Stewie and the Seven Deadly Sins 74 Sharon M. Kaye
8 The Other Children: The Importance of Meg and Chris 87 P. Sue Dohnimm
9 He Thinks He’s People: How Brian Made Personhood for the Dogs 99 Daniel Malloy
Part III He-He-He-He-He. You Expected More Lyrics, But You’re Getting Logic, Comedy, and The Logic of Comedy 113
10 The Logic of Expectation: Family Guy and the Non Sequitur 115 Jonah P. B. Goldwater
11 What Are You Laughing At (And Why)? Exploring the Humor of Family Guy 128 Andrew Terjesen
12 Thinkin’ is Freakin’ Sweet: Family Guy and Fallacies 139 Robert Arp
13 The Simpsons Already Did It! This Show is a Freakin’ Rip-Off! 149 Shai Biderman and William J. Devlin
Part #F1 Family Problems 161
14 Is Brian More of a “Person” than Peter? Of Wills, Wantons, and Wives 163 Mark D. White
15 The Ego is a Housewife Named Lois 175 Robert Sharp
16 The Lives and Times of Stewie Griffin 186 Tuomas Manninen
17 Kierkegaard and the Norm (MacDonald) of Death 198 Adam Buben
Appendix: Everything You Ever Needed to Know about Meg Griffin, as Compiled by the Contributors 209
Notes on Contributors: What the Deuce!?! They’re Real! (Most of Them, Anyway) 210
Index: He-He-He-He-He-He .You Read Books 214
1 That’s right, freakin’ #F. What are you, some kind of mathematician?