Sarah Palin is very offended. She didn’t like the recent episode of The Family Guy, when a female character with Down syndrome went on a date and was asked about her family. “My dad’s an accountant,” she replies, “and my mom is the former governor of Alaska.”
So is terribly offended.
Horribly offended.
Ridiculously offended.
So, naturally, she’s speaking out. Loudly. On her Facebook page, Palin wrote that the episode “felt like another kick in the gut,” and she encouraged her virginal teenage daughter Bristol (last seen on Oprah) to speak out as well. So she did: “If the writers of a particularly pathetic cartoon show thought they were being clever in mocking my brothers and my family yesterday, they failed.”
Actually, they succeeded. In a big, big way. First, the episode was funny. Second, it wasn’t even remotely offensive (Note: When politicians say they’re offended, they’re only offended if their fake-offense doesn’t garner extra votes.) Third, it led to what I consider to be the greatest Palin smack-down offered to date. Andrea Fay Friedman, the 39-year-old actress who did the voice of the girl (and who has Down syndrome herself), responded to Palin’s “outrage” with this statement …
“I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. In my family we think laughing is good, and I was raised by parents 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 bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”
In a word: Perfect.
