Andrea Fay Friedman is the actress who did a scene for the show ‘Family Guy’ that caused quite the buzz on the internet. I’m sure you remember the ‘Family Guy’ episode last Sunday that created such an uproar. The actress played a girl with Downs Syndrome who dated Chris on the show and claimed her mother was a ‘former governor of Alaska’. An obvious slam at Palin and her family. You can see the controversial video clip below.
Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol Palin responded to the show for their mean-spirited and insensitive portrayal of Palin’s son Trig who has Downs Syndrome. Now, actress Andrea Fay Friedman is responding to Palin’s response.
Friedman sent an email to the New York Times in which she basically said that Palin needs to chill out.
“I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line “I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska” was very funny. I think the word is ‘sarcasm,’ Andrea Fay Friedman, who has Down syndrome, said in an email to the New York Times.
The website Gawker alleges that the NYT didn’t print the whole story and added an addition line to the email Friedman sent. Whether or not this is true is left up to you. Gawker is known for satire.
“My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”
The controversial ‘Family Guy’ episode drew the ire of groups who advocate for the rights of the mentally disabled as well as that of the Palins. In response, Friedman denies that her role on ‘Family Guy’ was meant to ridicule Trig Palin. Instead, she says she was making fun of Sarah Palin, not her son.
The skit was in poor taste if nothing else. The left loves bashing Palin and her family and then bashing Palin more when she responds or sets the record straight. Now Andrea Fay Friedman, the Family Guy actress is slamming Sarah Palin. I’m sure this will be more fodder for ridicule from the left.
Family Guy is one of the best, funniest, and most satirical commentaries on the vagaries of American life on TV today. The Palin episode was brilliant. The Palins make themselves targets for ridicule because of their many hypocritical statements and glaring ignorance. The Right loves them precisely because they are ill-informed, anti-intellectual, and morally obtuse.
I noticed that you “forgot” to mention that Andrea Fay Friedman was also born with Down Syndrome. Why??
I notice you “forgot” to mention that Andrea Fay Friedman was also born with Down Syndrome. Why would you leave out such an important part of this story?
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I am mentally challenged and developmentally disabled. I am a high functioning autistic adult. I think what was done on Family Guy was wrong. Being mentally challenged is NOT something to make fun of. Palin has more sense. Those of you who support this heartless nonsense are as bad as the current administration is. Only commies make fun of the mentally challenged and there for that makes you ALL commies. The show Family Guy is pathetic in that it makes fun of whites only. Where is there a show making fun of say blacks or Hispanics out there? NO we can’t do that because it is politically incorrect. Well so is making fun of the mentally challenged which I have had happen to me for almost FOURTY YEARS.
In the context of the show, I can’t say that this offended me. Know what it did? It bored me. I mean, for real, can we please stop beating the horse, people? I just get tired of hearing the same politicians get bashed in the media over and over again. I was tired of it when G. W. Bush was in office, and everyone took jabs at him every chance they got. I got tired of it when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, and the conservative party sat around and made jokes about it FOREVER, because they didn’t feel that he deserved it. In my view, if your job is to come up with comedic material to entertain people, I would think that originality would be something you would pride yourself on, but apparently it’s not. The writers of Family Guy were more than willing to fling a little bit more mud on this already soiled politician’s garb. Whatever. I guess as long as they get the paycheck, they’ll pander to the masses. That’s called capitalism. Nothing wrong with that.
However, this “joke” did offend Palin, because she didn’t like that someone drew attention to the fact that her child has Down Syndrome in a manner that was demeaning to herself. I can’t really say that I blame her. I mean, this was an unnecessarily mean-hearted crack at the conservative female politician. The creators of the show, as well as the actress who portrayed Ellen, maintain that the jab was not intended toward Trig, but at the politician herself.
Well, pardon me, but that doesn’t actually make the joke any better. Here’s what they’re saying: “Haha! You have a child with a cureless debilitating mental disability! You suck at baby-making!”
I mean, are you kidding me? That’s not funny. It’s wrong. But you know what? Like I said, the writers of Family Guy have mortgages to pay. It’s a liberal show, with a liberal audience, and they are just writing jokes that they know their audience will appreciate. Fine. I get that. Sarah Palin obviously doesn’t share my perspective – she’s pissed as all hell – but that’s her prerogative. She vented her feelings on this subject on The O’Reilly Factor, and also posted her own and her daughter Bristol’s thoughts on this matter on her facebook page. She gets to do that. She’s entitled to be pissed, and she’s entitled to tell people about it. Way to use the First Amendment. I didn’t disagree with any of the things that happened in relation to these events thus far… until I read an article in response to what Palin said had to say about this episode of Family Guy.
Know what flabbergasts me? The fact that anyone affected with this disease can actually show such insensitivity to the issue that Sarah Palin and her family are facing. Actually, that COMPLETELY shocks and offends me. How can someone who actually has Down Syndrome not see how malicious something like this is? I think Friedman’s flippant response to the matter was an attempt not to feel guilty about how her actions made someone else feel. Friedman’s exact words were:
“I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line “I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska” was very funny. I think the word is “sarcasm.”
In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”
First of all, the word is not “sarcasm.” The word is “satire.” Andrea, what you were doing was “satirizing” a character to poke fun at a woman whose troubles you surely can relate to – and if you can’t then certainly your own mother would be able to. You don’t get to decide how people should deal with their own diagnosis of this disease, or how they should deal with it when their children get it. To say that someone must not have a sense of humor because they don’t find it FUNNY that their child has a disease for which there is no cure, is incredibly judgmental! I wouldn’t find that funny at all either, just like I’m 100% certain that when YOUR parents found out that you had Down Syndrome, they didn’t laugh about it. I commend you and your family on being so well adjusted, but you have to bear in mind, you’re FORTY. You and your family have had four decades to adjust and deal with this. Sarah Palin’s son is still in infancy. She’s still trying to cope with all the things that go along with bringing a permanently handicapped child into the world, and none of them are fun, and even less of them are funny. You, Andrea, of all people, should understand that.
Second of all, yes, laughing is good – laughing is GREAT! I commend you on not only being able to laugh at, but to mock the disease that so many people find so difficult to cope with. You and your folks have clearly done something right ? It’s great that you have a sense of humor – but you can’t demand that this family have a sense of humor about a hurtful joke that you made about them, just so that you don’t have to feel guilty about your own actions. You did something that hurt this family’s feelings. I guess it’s easier to say that people “don’t know how to laugh at themselves” than it is to actually have to face that you hurt them, isn’t it? I mean, you’re obviously not 100% culpable here. You didn’t write the joke, you didn’t do the post production, you didn’t draw the cartoons, and you didn’t write the story boards for it. But you took part in it, and you, more than ANYone else who took part in this mean-spirited, unnecessary piece of political satire, should have been the MOST sensitive –having lived through this yourself – than anyone else taking part.
Third of all, I’m willing to bet every dime that I have that, being a child with a disability, your mother was very protective of you. She probably carried you around, because she loved you, and felt as though she was the only one who could do anything for this more-than-usually helpless child that she loved so much. I’m also willing to bet every dime I have that that’s what Sarah Palin is doing. She’s holding her child for the same reason that your mother used to hold you. The difference is that Sarah Palin is a politician. She holds her child in front of cameras. Your mother didn’t have to do this. To say that Palin does this to get “sympathy votes” clearly shows lack of sympathy on YOUR behalf.
I, too, deal with a chronic, disabling condition. I have multiple sclerosis, and what your parents taught you was right: sometimes the only way to get through the crap that comes with a diagnosis like this is to learn how to laugh at it, and yourself. However, as someone who is part of a community of people whose struggles I can completely relate to with this cureless condition, I would be MORTIFIED if I ever found out that something I did offended one of them – especially if they felt like I was making fun of them for having this disease.
But you know what would make me feel even worse? Offending one of their mothers. Do you have any idea what it’s like to bring a child into the world, and then find that they have a disability that they will have to deal with forever? Do you know what most mothers hope for, when they find out that they’re pregnant? They always say “I just hope my baby is healthy, and happy, and normal.” That’s it. That’s all they want. Though the biological truth is that disabilities such as the ones you and I have are genetic anomalies, most mothers have this horrible, nagging guilt that somehow they GAVE this disease to their child. I mean, they shared a circulatory system with them. They fed them. They gave that child everything that they have… and then to find out that your child has a severely lessened chance of ever being able to experience the normalcy and independence of adulthood – well… it can be overwhelmingly hurtful. The guilt, and pain, and helplessness of it, and the desperation to be able to do ANYTHING to help them, knowing that, if you could, you would lay your own life down for your child’s happiness and well being – but that you can’t, that you never will be able to… it’s heart wrenching.
Sarah Palin and her family have this cross to bear for the rest of their lives. Hopefully, Trig’s case of Down’s will allow him to still have some of the things that every parent wants for their child, but there’s really no guarantee that it will ever happen – just like there was no guarantee that YOU would be able to be the successful, happy person that you are. You can’t take back the things you said, and you can’t demand that Family Guy stop airing this episode (God knows it raked them in a lot of money), but surely, after you discovered that something you took part in hurt someone else, you could have been a bit more sensitive to the struggles that they are about to face – the same struggles that your own parents had to face – and had the grace to say “I’m sorry.”