Seth MacFarlane Helps LOC Acquire Carl Sagan Papers 135
dsinc writes with news of a but of altruism on the part Family Guy's creator. From the article: "Seth MacFarlane once included a gag on his animated TV comedy 'Family Guy' about an 'edited for rednecks' version of Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos,' featuring an animated Sagan dubbed over to say that the earth is 'hundreds and hundreds' of years old. Jokes aside, his admiration for Sagan runs deep. The Library of Congress announced Wednesday that, thanks to MacFarlane's generosity, it has acquired the personal papers of the late scientist and astronomer, who spoke to mass audiences about the mysteries of the universe and the origins of life. While MacFarlane never owned Sagan's papers, he covered the undisclosed costs of donating them to the library."
first knee (Score:5, Funny)
sssshhht Ow. sssssssshhht Ow.
Re: (Score:3)
giggity.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, I already knew about the age of the universe then.
But I did learn that rednecks love Mountain Dew!
Deserves Praise (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
No matter what you think of Seth MacFarlane's body of work (early Family Guy is good, the rest is meh at best) he should be commended.
Always nice to see someone who makes their filthy lucre on Fox doing some good karma. ;o)
Re:Deserves Praise (Score:4, Funny)
In all fairness, who amongst us hasn't been sexually molested by a dolphin? This is why I support the tuna industry. It's the To Catch a Predator of the sea.
Re:Deserves Praise (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally, I don't really like his style of humor, and haven't been able to watch a full episode of Family Guy in a very long time. It's obvious, however, that he's a guy with a deep sense of personal morals and an appreciation for intellectual pursuits - even if his work doesn't often promote such things. This strikes me as just the sort of thing Seth MacFarlane would do. He has a particular ideological goal (that Sagan's works should be preserved and public), and will use any mechanism at his disposal to bring it to fruition.
Mr. MacFarlane, I find your characters disgusting, but your character impeccable. Well done.
Re:Deserves Praise (Score:5, Insightful)
he's a guy with a deep sense of personal morals and an appreciation for intellectual pursuits - even if his work doesn't often promote such things
On the contrary. Family guy satires the lack of morals and intelligence. Not only that, but there are numerous gems spread across the show that hint at these qualities.
If you think Family Guy is only about some dumb family doing dumb shit (but with a brilliant baby and a smart dog), then you're not watching it correctly. The jokes may often appear to be off-color, but the humor isn't in the joke itself, but in the making of the joke.
I'd suggest you give it another shot, starting with some of the better episodes. Don't remember which ones off the top of my head, but I'm sure Google can solve that problem. Just beware of spoilers.
Re:Deserves Praise (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember an episode where one of the characters made reference to Benjamin Disraeli. There is the obligatory cut to an animated Disraeli, who looks straight at the viewer and says, "You don't even know who I am." Beautiful!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Then you're missing the joke in a joke. It's not meant for you, obviously. Move along.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't dislike the show, but it's well down on the list.
Re: (Score:2)
One of my favorite bits that comes up now and again started with Peter running home with his golden ticket, then falling on the sidewalk and gripping his ankle. He just rocks back and forth wincing and and gasping. The joke goes on longer than it should, and therein lies the humor.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
he's a guy with a deep sense of personal morals and an appreciation for intellectual pursuits - even if his work doesn't often promote such things
On the contrary. Family guy satires the lack of morals and intelligence.
Isn't that like saying Jackass satires stupidity and Hip-hop videos ridicule our materialistic/sexist society?
You could watch them from that POV with your argument. With South Park it's obvious that people put some thought into the satire and try to convey a "moral lesson learned".
Re:Deserves Praise (Score:4, Insightful)
With South Park it's obvious that people put some thought into the satire and try to convey a "moral lesson learned".
Too obvious, IMO.
Re: (Score:3)
It insists upon itself.
Re: (Score:1)
To borrow a quote from another geek favorite series: "I get it!"
For those of you who didn't immediately think "Futurama" I offer the following: "Ohhh....now I get it!"
Seriously though, clever reference, well done sir.
Re: (Score:2)
he's a guy with a deep sense of personal morals and an appreciation for intellectual pursuits - even if his work doesn't often promote such things
On the contrary. Family guy satires the lack of morals and intelligence.
Isn't that like saying Jackass satires stupidity and Hip-hop videos ridicule our materialistic/sexist society
Yes it's like that almost exactly, apart from the fact that iit isn't
Re: (Score:2)
I stopped watching after the episode where Stewie was seriously hurt, and instead of getting him to a hospital they kept on trying to cover it up until the whole thing turned into a dead baby sick-and-twisted animation. I put up with the Conway Twitty and other overly-long jokes ridiculousness, but that whole episode was repugnant without being funny at all.
Re:Deserves Praise (Score:5, Funny)
I stopped watching after the episode where Stewie was seriously hurt, and instead of getting him to a hospital they kept on trying to cover it up until the whole thing turned into a dead baby sick-and-twisted animation.
On other words, you threw the bathwater out with the baby.
Re: (Score:3)
I put up with the Conway Twitty and other overly-long jokes ridiculousness...
The first time that Conway Twitty went on for more than a minute, I shut it off. It sort of felt like Seth was simply a masochist, relishing in the abuse of his audience. It just felt like, "Ha-ha, you're a fucktard to sit there and keep watching this, but I know you're gonna anyway". So I called his bluff.
Re: (Score:1)
Wow... you sure do put a lot of thought into how people around you want to do bad things to you, don't you?
Re: (Score:2)
Wow... you sure do put a lot of thought into how people around you want to do bad things to you, don't you?
He can't hear you, his tinfoil hat's slipped over his ears and he now thinks Seth has made him go deaf through the power of mind control.
Re: (Score:1)
The Conway Twitty gag was the greatest coup in adult cartoon history.
"Hundreds and hundreds" of hip adolescents, of all ages, sitting around and ironically watching a `70s polyester country-western nightmare. "Huh? what the hell is the crap man?"
Re: (Score:1)
Well before family guy existed there was an infomercial for some country and western hits compilation and his song "You've never been this far before" was on it. They showed him singing it, and it remains one of the creepiest things I have ever seen in my life. An OLD man, eyes closed singing a song about taking someone's virginity. I always wondered if that was the seed of the gag.
An aside....does anyone (some of them are proba
Re: (Score:3)
An aside....does anyone (some of them are probably posting in here) know any young people that watch the show, love it, and get almost NONE of the references the jokes are making?
My eight year old daughter probably misses most of the references, but she still loves it. Unlike some people posting here, she is well aware that it's a cartoon and doesn't keep saying "it's really stupid that a dog can talk or that the baby is so clever".
Re: (Score:2)
It sort of felt like Seth was simply a masochist, relishing in the abuse of his audience.
FYI, that's sadism. Masochism is what Seth would be into if he watched any of his own shows.
Re: (Score:2)
I stopped watching after the episode where Stewie was seriously hurt, and instead of getting him to a hospital they kept on trying to cover it up until the whole thing turned into a dead baby sick-and-twisted animation. I put up with the Conway Twitty and other overly-long jokes ridiculousness, but that whole episode was repugnant without being funny at all.
You do realise that it's a cartoon and no real babies were hurt in the making of it?
Re: (Score:1)
And you do realize that this show is made by Fox so several real babies were likely used as blood sacrifices in the making of it?
Re: (Score:2)
No shit, Sherlock. That doesn't mean it can't be repugnant and not funny.
Re: (Score:2)
I feel the same way. It started out as regular humor, and quickly went to shock humor in cartoon form. Oddly enough, this seems to make a LOT of money for some people. Maybe executives have an affinity for this type of thing. How else do you explain Howard Stern?
At the end of the day, if you can make the suits laugh, it doesn't matter if viewers laugh. It only matters that viewers watch. Whether they are watching because they like it, or because they are making copius notes for the next PTA meeting is
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
American Dad doesn't have quite the same problems that FG does. Yeah, it's got some shock too; but it's not quite so gratuitous as FG, and there's some real humor mixed in. "hilarious" is subjective of course.
Re:Deserves Praise (Score:5, Insightful)
even if his work doesn't often promote such things [as personal morals and an appreciation for intellectual pursuits]
I don't think you've watched enough of it if to say that. Some counterexamples:
* A Hero Sits Next Door [wikipedia.org]: a disabled guy gets added to the cast; Peter reacts badly at first but becomes friends later
* If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin' [wikipedia.org]: Peter starts a religion, Lois says it's wrong, God punishes him for his arrogance, Peter repents.
* The Thin White Line [wikipedia.org]: Brian gets addicted to cocaine and eventually takes responsibility for it by going to rehab
Some of the MacFarlane characters are pretty much immune to personal responsibility considerations, but they're portrayed as highly unrealistic--eg. Stewie (Family Guy), Roger (American Dad), partly Quagmire (Family Guy). The more realistic characters often have strong moral centers--eg. Lois and usually Bryan (Family Guy)--and I think these are the ones you're expected to identify with. For instance, I'm reminded of Lois in You May Now Kiss the... Uh... Guy Who Receives [wikipedia.org]:
Lois Griffin: Wait a minute. Are you saying that two straight people who absolutely hate each other have more of a right to be married than gay people who love each other?!
Mrs. Pewterschmidt: Well, that's what we raised you to believe.
I'd say the audience is expected to identify with Lois and take her view on the matter, considering how poor the rebuttal is. The Carl Sagan bit is the same way, and there are numerous other examples where the audience is expected to take a particular (IMO good) stance.
Family Guy and American Dad morality is a mixed bag, though it's frequently (usually?) good if you throw out the unrealistic characters' lack of consequences. Intellectual pursuits really aren't promoted much though.
Re: (Score:2)
The more realistic characters often have strong moral centers--eg. Lois and usually Bryan (Family Guy)
The mere fact that you count a talking dog among the more realistic characters says it all...
Re: (Score:3)
Well, he's so thoroughly anthropomorphized it's memorable whenever his dog-specific nature comes up--usually his age or expected death. He could become a human without any real changes. In fact a human version of him is shown briefly, I think in the multiverse episode (which is unrealistic because of Stewie's magic, not Brian), and they're basically identical except for looks and longevity. What about his personality itself is unrealistic?
Re: (Score:1)
...and they're basically identical except for looks and longevity.
The ironic part is that the human version (presumably) dies at the end of the episode after being hit by a car.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, essentially all TV is regurgitated, so complaining about Family Guy in particular is kind of unfair. Plot lines, characters, settings, relationships, tones--all of it gets reused, which is of course the basis for tvtropes [tvtropes.org].
Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, American Dad are basically the same, and are very similar to The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, and South Park ... ~= every other sitcom
Friends, Big Bang Theory, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Nanny, Three's Company,
Colbert Report ~= The Daily Show
T
Re: (Score:2)
I had trouble finding precedents for 30 Rock and Glee
Yes there are very few shows involving comedy or singing on television.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I went on to say...
though they're basically just crosses between two genres, namely sitcom/skit show and sitcom/reality-singing.
Re: (Score:2)
Everything in it is a "satire" of other shows, films or memes
That's just not true. It does have lots of references, but I think that's a strength and not a weakness. I'm curious how you would react to the Star Wars Family Guy episodes.
Re: (Score:2)
Family Guy just rides off of the coattails of others. Everything in it is a "satire" of other shows, films or memes. I use the term satire very loosely because it seems like they rip off dialog verbatim, only with their cartoon character saying it.
why are you watching TV if that's your only complaint
I very rarely do.
Yeah, but you are aware that there's an invention called television, and on this invention they show shows, right?
Oh look, I shamelessly stole a quote and applied it to yours for comic/satiric effect. Imagine.
Re: (Score:2)
It's regurgitated pap that we've all heard a hundred times before from other sources. Watching Family Guy is like hanging out with that person who continually repeats the same life stories/drama every time you see them.
As a matter of interest, what do you find entertaining, funny, or enlightening?
Wrestling? Monster Truck racing? Hanna Montana?
Re: (Score:2)
Here's a small hint: you're not supposed to think of Peter Griffin as a fucking role model.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Whenever I hear of see anything about Ted, I can't help but think it's "Wilfred" with a teddy bear.
Re: (Score:1)
Don't loose you're temper their but for all intensive purposes you may as well be talking greek. You misunderestimate the benefit's of more better grammer...
Re: (Score:2)
you don't know the difference between 'then' and 'than'
Seriously, I could care less. Their are a lot of rules regarding english and I don't care what people think, irregardless of any facts.
You have a perfect right to be an ignorant arsehole and not care about what people think of you. You just can't subsequently whine because people think you are an ignorant arsehole and hate you.
Re: (Score:1)
While I like American Dad, it's pretty much one type of humor, done in many different ways.
It's NOTHING like Family Guy aside from being made by the same guy and having the voices intermix.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No, it's not true, it's opinion.
That's only true for you.
The fact that you think like that tells me I would hate to know you.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
You must be a very insecure and shallow person to be able to hate another person over a television show. Enjoy your loneliness.
Don't think he said that though. Have another go. ;)
Did they get any of his early poems? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Mozert? Who told him to write out mozert 500 times and why?
should have been free? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is anyone else kinda ticked-off that this was even necessary?
Why weren't they just donated by the estate to the LOC? Is there something else at play here, or just a greedy estate?
Re:should have been free? (Score:5, Interesting)
I am not so sure there is that much to be ticked-off by. Sagan's widow is quoted as saying that "...Sagan would have been thrilled to see his life’s work made available to the public." That does not sound like a greedy estate trying to get rich from selling stuff she inherited (not that there would be anything wrong with that). TFA is unclear on what the money went towards, I can imagine that transporting, sorting, filing and displaying the (large) collection is no easy feat and that the money is perhaps to be spent on that? Mrs. Druyan was not only Sagan's wife but also co-author, I don't see her as waiting for the highest bidder to auction off her inheritance.
Re:should have been free? (Score:4, Insightful)
Good point: It didn't occur to me that collating and tabulating a lifetime's work isn't something an LOC employee is going to spend a year doing for free... although I assume the LOC has staff to do such things, maybe not. Plus I don't actually know the cost, thanks TFA.
Re: (Score:2)
Sagan would have been thrilled
And just think. SHE could have been the person that made that happen.
Re:should have been free? (Score:5, Insightful)
The papers — contained in more than 800 filing-cabinet drawers — include correspondence with other scientists, drafts of Sagan's academic articles and screenplay drafts for the movie "Contact," ... (emphasis mine)
The cost of donating them might include sorting, collating and preparing the documents to actually be viewable and or some preservation. Often charitable recipients can't or don't want to handle this for private donations. Yes the LOC could probably pay for this, if they're allowed to, which I don't know if they are. (Imagine some idiot right-wing Congress critter, who doesn't believe the Universe exists, complaining about the LOC wasting the taxpayer's money, blah, blah, blah...)
Re: (Score:3)
Making an archive accessible is not simply a matter of moving boxes of papers around. Someone has to go through every last damn page, categorize it, catalog it, and (hopefully) digitize it.
Re: (Score:2)
Give away? Probably not. Put on loan and allow them to make copies for display (not redistribution)? Absolutely.
Either way, MacFarlane has gained a lot of respect from the intellectual community for sure from this.
Re: (Score:2)
If you had something worth (just guessing) a couple of $100K would you just give it away?
Actually, for the sake of humanity and science I would. Obviously MacFarlane feels the same way and that is why he gave away a couple $100K of his own money to free the papers.
A couple of $100K is a lot if that's all you've got to live on for the rest of your life, chickenfeed if you've got a few hundred million in the bank.
I don't know the financial status either of Sagan's estate or Seth McFarlane, I'm just saying everything is relative when it comes to money
Re: (Score:2)
So that just proves the system works
And that, my friend, is an anecdotal fallacy.
Also, he's the producer of the new Cosmos series (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, the "Cosmos for rednecks" gag was good, but isn't it also worth mentioning he's currently producing the next Cosmos [wikipedia.org] with Neil deGrasse Tyson and Ann Druyan?
Re:Also, he's the producer of the new Cosmos serie (Score:5, Insightful)
From Hollywood Reporter [hollywoodreporter.com]:
Quite a serious side to the man. Clearly, menstruation and holocaust jokes are just his day job.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, when you are on fox, you play to the execs who are in charge.
Re: (Score:2)
From Hollywood Reporter [hollywoodreporter.com]:
Quite a serious side to the man. Clearly, menstruation and holocaust jokes are just his day job.
Clearly McFarlane is just a bizarro human, opposite to all normal guys, who work really boring jobs in science, engineering etc, and are only free to make menstruation and holocaust jokes in their spare time.
Re:Also, he's the producer of the new Cosmos serie (Score:4, Funny)
With Seth McFarlane voicing the quick witted effeminate alcoholic globular cluster.
Re: (Score:1)
Yes, the "Cosmos for rednecks" gag was good, but isn't it also worth mentioning he's currently producing the next Cosmos [wikipedia.org] with Neil deGrasse Tyson and Ann Druyan?
This could be so good.
Well that's nothing new (Score:2)
Sagan FTW (Score:3, Informative)
Sagan was awesome. He knew everything about the cosmos except how to pronounce it.
The Demon Haunted World should be required reading in all schools. If you aren't scared by it, you're the reason why it's scary.
MacFarlane Devours Sagan's Books, Makes Amends (Score:1, Troll)
MacFarlane said he watched "Cosmos" as a child and devoured all of Sagan'sbooks.
Coming from the creator of Peter Griffin, this could very well mean that he literally ingested the physical books, Cookie Monster-style, rendering them unavailable to the rest of the world for decades. "He covered the undisclosed costs of donating them to the library," may simply mean he paid to have the books surgically removed from his stomach, paid for a forensic team to piece them back together and will spend a few weeks in a hospital bed in pain, paying for his transgression.
Re: (Score:1)
Impressed and Grateful (Score:1)
I've never been a big fan of MacFarlane, both the man and his work, but I have to say that I'm both impressed and grateful for his generosity in making the work of one of the most important figures in popular science publically available.
It's truly commendable and shows great character. Not to mention he's producing the sequel to Cosmos... I'll have to reevaluate my stance on MacFarlane.
excellent! (Score:1)
I think that Seth McFarlane is fascinating person. I'm still surprised when I listen to his album of standards that he'd even stop to take the time to do something like that. I think this is really excellent that he did this. I look forward to the new Cosmos project he's working on.
Easy to see why there is a cost associated with it (Score:1)
"The collection comprises approximately 800 boxes of materials that document Sagan’s life and work and includes his extensive correspondence with scientific colleagues and other important figures of the 20th century. It also includes book drafts, publications files, "idea files" on various subjects, records of various symposia, NASA files and academic files covering the years he taught at Cornell University. Among the personal files are his birth announcement, handwritten notebooks of his earliest tho
Obligatory complaint about spelling/grammar (Score:2)
...a but of altruism...
Slashdot editors, brain-dead, epsilon minus, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
It was going to be "butt", but that would have involve a cut-away of Ayn Rand wrestling a polar bear.
Good deed, but his history preceeds him (Score:1)
I don't mind toilet humor, my problem is the pure meanness of much of his writing without even bothering with a punch line. I recall a gag about Penelope Cruz's nose (only an idiot would consider her anything less that beautiful) and a crack about Kristen Stewart being the ugly girl vampire and werewolf fought over. Family Guy at least, smacked of a show written by ridiculed drama club kids looking to lash out at their abusers once given a pulpit.
He taints the Sagan's legacy as far as I'm concerned.
Re: (Score:1)
you taint Sagan's legacy as far as I'm concerned.
Re: (Score:2)
I recall a gag about Penelope Cruz's nose (only an idiot would consider her anything less that beautiful) and a crack about Kristen Stewart being the ugly girl vampire and werewolf fought over.
Penelope and GodfatherofSoul sitting in a tree.
K - I - S - S - I - N -G
Re: (Score:2)
It insists on itself.
There they are... (Score:2)
Lucky there's a rationalist/secularist guy.
Part of the collection? (Score:2)
No Obligatory LoC Joke? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm shocked that I haven't seen a Library of Congress as unit of measurement joke yet. It is unfortunate that the cost of donating the materials to the Library of Congress was undisclosed because then we could have a conversion factor for money to LoCs.
Re: (Score:2)
All of Carl Sagan's work is just a fraction of one LoC.
Teehee! (Score:1)
^^^ LOL'ed
Billions And Billions (Score:2)
Of papers. If the sheer volume of papers were written in a microscopically tiny font and shrunk into the size of a typical supermarket tacky romance novel, the entire content of war and peace in an equivalent density and font would no bigger than a fortune cookie paper.
Media Server/Smart Box/TV (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Just ignore my post, wrong article, day all fscked up!
I was half expecting it to turn into a MyCleanPC spam, such was the epic irrelevance of your post.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
No, I'm calling him a fizzle. And I'm getting away with it.
Re: (Score:1)
I personally think Family Guy is completely inane. The writing has done nothing but devolve since the first season, especially after the hiatus following season 2 (I think). At least something good came out of its mass appeal.
I couldn't stand more than a few shows. A few good gags mired in a plethora of dumb ones. Makes Simpsons look downright cerebral. American Dad never worked for me, after watching it a few times. In reflection, it made Family Guy look better by comparison.
I wonder if the LoC would be interested in the Seth MacFarlane papers, when he pops his clogs.
Re: (Score:2)