The World According to Stewie

It is a mystery that the Federal Communications Commission allows the television show Family Guy to air in light of its "the witch must burn!" reaction to Janet Jackson's slippery nipple.

Family Guy is indicative of how vastly the tastes of young television viewers differ from the standards set by the occasionally histrionic FCC commissioners. By FCC standards, Family Guy, hands-down the most gratuitously offensive show on network television, shouldn't be airing. Why the FCC allows it to air during a time slot when "sexual and excretory" references are supposedly banned is a head-scratcher. But for those of us who aren't FCC drones who seek to aggressively censor everything that is remotely offensive, Family Guy is accepted because it is, in fact, a response to our generation.

Family Guy is one of the defining shows of our generation. It exists because of our tastes-its legions of fans are willing to accept every offensive joke in good humor because we get it. Family Guy, with its endless pop culture references and disrespect for authority, is a reflection of American youth culture today. It absorbs iTunes; Grand Theft Auto; terrorism; apathy toward political correctness; and the "right here, right now" mentality of the young American. It then mashes them up into a 30-minute slice of insanity.

With the world intruding on our private lives from all sides, Family Guy is our panacea. Family Guy embodies the worldliness of its viewers. Today's children don't stay young for long-college is a job; whom we have sex with is an issue; whether our government knows best is a question. When we just want to stop judging and being judged for a half-hour, we turn to Family Guy for a miracle pill, similar to what Robin Williams called FuckItAll: "I don't feel anything. I don't wanna do anything. FuckItAll."

Every generation of young adults in America has faced greater and greater pressures to be constantly "on." Every year, competition to succeed raises the stakes for young adults looking to go to good universities, get good jobs, and save for the future. We are treated like mini-adults, but there is a reason we are called young adults. After nine hours in class, the library, or a job interview, nothing purges the brain better than Family Guy. It is the ultimate response to our overworked but under-matured generation.

Family Guy is ultimately about nothing. It has no political or moral compass; it can't be tagged as having a social agenda. Family Guy still effectively conveys one message-everyone and everything can and should be mocked, including the FCC. It is hard to focus on being offended by an Ollie with the Black-U-Weather joke when the next five minutes feature paraplegics, dog-on-dog sex, and fat men in bikinis. Family Guy retells the basic adage from the movie Van Wilder-don't take life too seriously or you'll never get out alive.

Maybe the reason the FCC hasn't touched Family Guy is that it doesn't know where to start. The FCC represents a previous generation, complete with the overprotective morality of the Reagan era. Yet even adult TV viewers don't want shows like Family Guy censored. A recent nationwide poll found that fewer than 1 in every 10 adults support increased FCC interference in programming. Parents may not like what they see, but they respect the creative value of uncensored television.

There is a bit of me in Family Guy. A bit of you. And a bit of the hooker I stuck in the trunk of my car a few weeks ago. Family Guy reflects our generation because it recognizes our cultural savvy, our willingness to set new boundaries, and our love of the dirty joke. Like the early years of Saturday Night Live before it, Family Guy is rewriting the rules of acceptable comedy.

To end with a word from our sponsor, Stewie Griffin: "Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but you're a total bitch." That's Family Guy for you, folks. Keep watching. It's television FUBU.