Last night Fox aired “Jesus, Mary and Joseph!” an episode of Family Guy that was postponed in response to the Sandy Hook shooting. However, the episode only had a single instance of cartoon violence and it bore little resemblance to the tragedy. Stewie plays the role of baby Jesus, who transforms his manger into a spaceship in order to fend off the Romans. He shoots lasers beams (not bullets) at the soldiers (not children), who explode into mostly smoke with relatively little blood and guts.
Also pulled was “Minstrel Krampus” an episode of American Dad, which still hasn’t been rescheduled. The episode description says it’s about “the legendary Minstrel Krampus, a Christmas demon who used to punish naughty children on Christmas.” While that sounds like it might further traumatize schoolchildren, I can’t see how it could be worse than last night’s episode, “National Treasure 4: Baby Franny: She’s Doing Well: The Hole Story.” Henry Watkins was trapped in well for 35 years after saving Francine from the same fate. The first thing he does when he gets out is bite off his wife’s nose and spit it in his son’s face! Henry is unable to cope with the world so he dives back into his well. He dies on impact unbeknownst to Francine, who visits the well every week to drop in photos of breasts as repayment for saving her.
Fox really jump the gun here because scenes like these are status quo for creator Seth MacFarlane. At this point, it’s doubtful that anything could offend fans.
