Comedy | February 18, 2010 | 108 comments

'Family Guy' Actress Responds To Sarah Palin's Criticism

source: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/family-guy-voice-actor-says-palin-does-not-have...

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Andrea Fay Friedman, the voice actress who played the role of "Ellen" --the character depicted as having Down syndrome on the Valentine's Day episode of Family Guy, has responded to the criticism of sometime-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Of special significance, Friedman herself has Down syndrome. Palingates has Friedman's complete response:

My name is Andrea Fay Friedman. I was born with Down syndrome. I played the role of Ellen on the "Extra Large Medium" episode of Family Guy that was broadcast on Valentine's day. Although they gave me red hair on the show, I am really a blonde. I also wore a red wig for my role in " Smudge" but I was a blonde in "Life Goes On". 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.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/family-guy-voice-actor-says-palin-d...
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108 comments // 'Family Guy' Actress Responds To Sarah Palin's Criticism

  • shizzam
  • Mumup
  • jimmysemens
  • onemalefla
  • jimmysemens
  • xiola
    • 0
      xiola  

    • Wow. This has been #1 for quite a long while now. And the sex addiction article has been featured for a long time. Is Current stuck?

    • 2 years ago
  • Bryan_Meadows
  • jamfan1921
  • Cat_Ladies_Man
    • +2
      Cat_Ladies_Man  

    • does any self-respecting person with an IQ over 100 actually like Palin still? Why is she still here? Just forget about her she's a fucking joke.

    • 2 years ago
  • KSirys
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  

    • I so much enjoyed Andrea in "Life Goes On." I heard she was wonderful to work with on the set, too.

      Good for her for speaking up! There's no comparing her to that palin misfit.

      And for those who still don't realize, it's called Down syndrome (capital D, no apostrophe, lower-case S).

    • 2 years ago
  • common_sense_please
    • +2
      common_sense_please  

    • I finally get it--Sarah is not pissed about pwnd by a working-actually employed at her original job actress who has down's syndrome--she's pissed that Family Guy implied Trig was going to grow up to have a sex change and become a strong, smart, independent woman who flips "her" mom the verbal bird for being a dumb-ass when it came to how to appropriately handle and raise a child with a disability.

    • 2 years ago
  • cclark_productions
  • Drach
  • manny0409
    • 0
      manny0409  

    • Palin was pwned lol!!!! noticed how she said she carries her son around like a loaf of bread to look for sympathy and votes...nice

    • 2 years ago
  • sneakysheeky
  • tommic
    • +1
      tommic  

    • Sarah Palin has now gotten her fifteen minutes of fame as Andy Warhol would put it. She is woefully inept at dealing with it as it comes. When you seek the limelight darkness is only a step away. Sarah Palin in thinking she is more than she is feels compelled to critique those to whom she doesn't agree with but at the same time cannot articulate any position other than Washington is too big, big government is bad, and conservatives have the answer. Its painfully obvious conservatives don't have an answer to anything, they continue the same old themes that have brought the United States to where it is today. Record deficits, the worst recession since the great depression and they try to blame it on President Obama. People who understand economics know it was continued tax breaks for the rich, coupled with deficit spending and massive borrowing that brought us to this day. If we as acountry are lucky we might find our way out of this mess in five to ten years, it took thirty years of tax breaks with the GOP spending like drunken sailors, its going to take time to undo what they did.
      Sarah Palin just go home, go away, count your money enjoy your brief fling with fame and slide into some deep dark hole like the one you crawled out of.

    • 2 years ago
  • QuinlanT
  • Davidod
    • +1
      Davidod  
    • QuinlanT:

      No problem: she'd simply deliver one of her winning hypnotic *winkie-winkies* and a "doncha-know", and her opponent would melt like an Alaskan glacier (that is, when global climate change comes a'callin').... : )

    • 2 years ago
  • oliveMADNESS
  • coleslaw
  • rockfrek3
    • 0
      rockfrek3  

    • I want to shake this girls hand and ask here how it feels to be smarter then a former governor (all though in this case my eight year old brother could say that)

    • 2 years ago
  • TaurusChic
  • Confucius
  • device80
  • RudyRudell
  • jimmysemens
  • Nephwrack
  • photopro1
    • -2
      photopro1  

    • You guys should read the actual article from the NY Times. She did NOT say "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.
      "
      Whoever posted this article decided to put words in someones mouth. Not cool, and certainly not news.

    • 2 years ago
  • Davidod
    • +4
      Davidod  
    • photopro1:

      As some other news blogs explain, apparently some news outlets decided to CLIP the last part of her words so they wouldn't piss off Sarah.... Hedging their bets, in case Palin makes an impression on the political process and then retaliates by denying access....

    • 2 years ago
  • Davidod
  • RudyRudell
    • 0
      RudyRudell  
    • photopro1:

      Actually the NY Times article did not print Andrea's full email to them. She did indeed say the french bread comment. According to comments placed on the NYTimes article:
      quote
      "

      Why did you not print the full email?

      As follows:

      My name is Andrea Fay Friedman. I was born with Down syndrome. I played the role of Ellen on the "Extra Large Medium" episode of Family Guy that was broadcast on Valentine's day. Although they gave me red hair on the show, I am really a blonde. I also wore a red wig for my role in " Smudge" but I was a blonde in "Life Goes On". 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."
      endquote

      cheers

    • 2 years ago
  • coughsyup
    • -1
      coughsyup  

    • Belligerence or sarcasm but whatever; to each their own I guess......also I'm not sure Friedman isn't expressing huge amounts of jealousy for a two-year old with the bread loaf analogy but what I see in reality is that with Sarah P as this kid's mother he's got way more publicity than you can shake a broom at. Fit that under your arm!! You can't, your jealous.

    • 2 years ago
  • Davidod
    • 0
      Davidod  
    • coughsyup:

      Just what every 22 m.o. needs: PUBLICITY! Hey, look at ME! I'm retarded, but still too young to know it! LOL! Yeah, THAT'S what must be going thru Trig's mind, eh?

      Methinks your (sic) not drinking ENOUGH cough syrup, but that's you're (sic) problem...

    • 2 years ago
  • coughsyup
    • 0
      coughsyup  
    • Davidod:

      http://worry.th

      I didn't say it was a good thing...and not that you're funny or Family Guy is spot-on 100% funny also.

      I'm on the side that for that show and particularly for that one segment that it wasn't a good show of class and don't see it prevalent for ANYONE to find anger at Sarah P just because she decided to fully take on a situation to what some may consider a personal attack.

      This is my opinion obviously and if there is something to argue then please state your position.

    • 2 years ago
  • common_sense_please
    • 0
      common_sense_please  
    • coughsyup:

      The overarching issue here is not to be angry with Sarah Palin personally. It's to call her out on her blatant hypocrisy--and how she picks and chooses who to "fully take on" for using the word retarded as an insult.

      She demanded Rahm Emmanuel's resignation in a Facebook rant for using the phrase fucking retarded-once in a closed door meeting so unless she was actually there she essentially demanded his resignation based on hearsay. Then her good friend and fellow Republican teabag supporter Rush Limbaugh went on a 40 minute animated spastic tirade about the Democrats and political correctness that was recorded both on video and on audio tape. During this radio/video session Rush Limbaugh uses the word retarded in the same slang manner that Rahm Emmanuel's "supposedly" did--but Rush Limbaugh doesn't stop at one use of the word he rants on and on using it several times in a very negative angry and slang way. So when Sarah was rightly asked--what do you have to say about Rush Limbaugh's tirade that was basically a misuse of the word retard that you took exception to Rahm Emmanuel's using--she said (again her response is on video) that really Rush Limbaugh did not mean it--and he was just being satirical. But then comes the real kicker--she was so offended by an episode of Family Guy that she asked her daughter to respond to how horrible it was Trig was being abused and called names by the media--and completely missed that Family Guy and Seth Green are at the top of the food chain when it comes to being satirical and mocking everybody and everything

      As Andrea put it so succinctly--its about calling her out for treating her son like a loaf of bread instead of a person and how she treats her son's disability as a way to gain votes.

      And to me we should all honestly be in favor of opening up a discussion about how Sarah seems to only take issue with Democrats or people she doesn't agree with politically using the word retarded in a negative derogatory way but if Republicans use it she either ignores the reference or incorrectly labels it as okay because it was meant as satire.

    • 2 years ago
  • Davidod
    • 0
      Davidod  
    • coughsyup:

      "I'm on the side that for that show and particularly for that one segment that it wasn't a good show of class"

      I agree, but watching 'Family Guy' expecting to see class is like attending an elementary school dance recital expecting to see artistic dance, i.e. there MAY be better places to find it?

      Frankly, I think 'Family Guy' is derivative and moronic and going for the cheap laugh (I've always been more of a Simpsons/King of the Hill guy), but the funny aspect here is that Sarah feels it's necessary to challenge every reference to herself that SHE finds to be an insult (cowering behind the "I'm only standing up for poor Trig"). She started with Letterman, and has had what, 5 flare-ups since?

      Palin seeks out the spotlight de jour that she can step in, just to make her 15 minutes of fame stretch out a little bit longer. Sure, she played the victim quite well at first, but it's getting tiresome. In this case, she was absolutely biatch-slapped.

      Mark my words: give her another (6) months, and she'll be standing on the Plaza of the "Today Show" with Trig under her arm, waving at the cameras from behind the anchors to get anyone's attention ("Look at me! I'm still on TV!")

      PS Seth McFarlane finally responded to this silliness on Maher's show last night: I posted a link in 'comedy'.

    • 2 years ago
  • coughsyup
    • 0
      coughsyup  
    • Davidod:

      I don't remember right off but with the case of Letterman didn't the flare up not start about Trig at all but about the barely teenage daughter? If you remember the same way I do...anyways......there are different outlets people get their information or comedy as well....I've enjoyed all those you mention but mostly favor a sadistical sense of humor unlike that of the homoerotic South Park but more like in the vein of Futurama...

      In reality I didn't watch this episode of Family Guy and so to be clear... my credentials shouldn't be regarded very far about this one.

      I fell I gain more listening to PBS radio in just 2 hours than if I spent half the day of watching the tv news of Walt Disney, News Corp., Viacom and Time Warner bulls@%t. It's like sitting through hours and hours of programmed commercials and neither do I see where what Sarah P has said has fallen THAT far from the evidence....also I'll add that many people are very liberal to what they consider to be politics....or topics which are deemed political....meaning that....when you are already in the immediate limelight and repeated stabs have been taken at your expense then why is it unusual for a person to stick her neck out to defend their situation? Idunno...just guess people are mad and like her as their focus on being mad.

      She is a bit opportunistic though...maybe too much for my taste really.....but, even so, maybe it's something about her truth that I can't stomach.....ultimately I must give her credit where it is due for at least acknowledging the matter that she's getting poked fun at and also we don't have to wonder whether she has a clue or not about her being made into a display. I think it's funny that people that endure her remakes and claim that she is horrible and should just leave her "Political-Celebrity" behind suggest that most people fear their own self loath and so to kick out a few emotive quips on Current helps in subduing that sort of inconvenient beast of "lostness" for just a little longer.

    • 2 years ago
  • Drach
    • +2
      Drach  

    • I'd like to see the abortion episode.

      Nothing says "fuck you" like rubbing her nose in the pile of shit she made us all smell.

      Maybe she should read some newspapers and political web sites, rather than watching cartoons? I think Katie Couric should have gotten that through her skull after she was humiliated on national TV. If you want to be a politician try keeping up with world politics, Para sailin' Sarah Palin.

      What a dumb bitch.

    • 2 years ago
  • Drach
    • +1
      Drach  
    • Drach:

      oh, and I'm also sick of people calling Alaska "The last Frontier" It's not. Our galaxy is the last frontier. Our universe has not been explored yet. Stop telling us that Alaska is the "frontier" it's not... We know what's there. Snow, trees, and ice.. maybe some oil and some polar bears and wolves (which Sarah shoots from a helicopter).

      Man I hate that bitch.

    • 2 years ago
  • EdJoyProductions
    • +1
      EdJoyProductions  
    • Drach:

      Personally, I would have very much enjoyed watching her pregnancy with Trig after she found out about the Downs Syndrome. I know she doesn't believe in abortion, but I bet her standards of self care decreased and dangerous activities increased. That is just the kind of person that she seems to be, an insufferable, judgemental hypocrite that would equate her own neglect as an act of God if anything had happened to that baby.

    • 2 years ago
  • roryd00d
  • CoveredInPaint
    • +5
      CoveredInPaint  

    • I find it ironic that Mrs. Palin has a problem with this episode, but not any of the episodes that make fun of child abuse, rape, spousal abuse, murder... the list goes on and on. This episode is tasteful compared to most other episodes. (Please note, my problem isn't with Family Guy, I'm actually a BIG fan of the show) What I have a problem with is the fact that Sarah Palin is only whining about this one issue which is obviously a ploy to get pity from voters. Also, if she is going to find faults with Family Guy, it's done WAY worse things.

      I also completely agree with Andrea, Sarah Palin uses her children as props for her political campaigns. You go, Andrea. I love the "french bread" analogy.

    • 2 years ago
  • randallr01
  • ryan8566
    • +2
      ryan8566  
    • randallr01:

      that's a great point...but i think the problem is she doesn't suck, much less swallow. i don't think she could find a good cock with the lights on, much less know what to do with it.
      as i said in another post, there is is a lot to be said for semen, and a good BJ, but i think that is out of her realm.

    • 2 years ago
  • Kathleen_Vessels
  • fonetik
  • YakovFox
    • 0
      YakovFox  

    • OOOOH SHITTT ahahahahahahahaahha.

      "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."

      fuck you Palin

    • 2 years ago
  • Lucretia_Gross
  • ocanada
    • +1
      ocanada  

    • There are some media exploitations, this wasn't one of them. People like Carlos Mencia and his De De Deee sketches. This wasn't that. What they really objected to was the comment referencing Palin not Down Syndrome.

    • 2 years ago
  • lifestudentno83
    • 0
      lifestudentno83  

    • Sarah Failin, a.k.a Failin Palin, gets owned again.

      I hear there's some great views of the landscape in Alaska this time of year... Some people can see Russia from their houses... Perhaps she should take a vacation there... PERMANENTLY.

      Disclaimer: Not a death threat. Just want her to move back to Alaska and never be heard from again via news media. Just putting that in there for any staff/Conservatives/Tea Partiers who might attempt to misinterpret/twist/misconstrue that comment.

    • 2 years ago
  • janellsonfire
  • CalgarC
  • Marbled_Godwit
  • HsIV
  • Davidod
    • 0
      Davidod  

    • Oh, snap! Palin's been mercilessly pwnd by Andreas!

      Here's an episode showing the work of actress Andreas Friedman, from her "Life Goes On" days (1992):

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCIh_pQ2edc

      Love the fact Palin tries to act as the self-appointed spokesperson for those with Down Syndrome, only to get told to sit and spin by someone who actually HAS Down.

      Like I say, Palin's only an attention whore, cut from the same cloth of others who act outrageous to seek an audience (Texas dude with a Piper Cub, anyone:?)

    • 2 years ago
  • Bushido
    • +7
      Bushido  

    • I don't know if it is funny, sad, or just disturbing that this young woman has better cognitive reasoning skills than a former state Governor.

    • 2 years ago
  • crazycatgirl
  • Lucretia_Gross
  • EdJoyProductions
  • bethopea
  • Argon18
    • +2
      Argon18  

    • It certainly points out Palin's hypocrisy, but she'll never admit to it.

      Her egocentric viewpoint is full of double standards

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
  • lolitanimatronic
  • lifestudentno83
  • Nephwrack
  • WestmanRandoballet
  • sophosthegreat
  • bailey78
  • Brazil617MA
  • iamfree
    • +5
      iamfree  

    • "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."

      O'Snap!

    • 2 years ago
  • ebin_lee
  • planetjoseph
  • eerinn
  • JulietDG
    • +3
      JulietDG  

    • i could only strive to be as cool as this girl- so glad she called Palin out for pimping out Trig the way she does. Laughter should overcome all. Even a frozen ex alaskan governor.

    • 2 years ago
  • irie_ojo
  • CalgarC
  • ItsNaYo
    • +2
      ItsNaYo  

    • HA! In your face Palin. What is she is going to or what CAN she say now?

      I don't know who said this but I liked it..."If you cant make fun of everyone. Then you can't make fun of anyone." Which is true if its really mean to laugh at one person and not the next then what is the point of comedy?

      ...I heart you Seth MacFarlane...

    • 2 years ago
  • bethopea
  • Euphoriatic
  • clish1
  • bansheewail
  • tommytripper
  • common_sense_please
    • 0
      common_sense_please  

    • Also if I were Brittney Spears I would be really really pissed right now--she took so much crap and even lost custody of her son's for awhile because she was such a lousy mother for smoking in front of them and acting like a crazy drugged out person who did stupid things like attack people who made stupid comments towards her or shaved her head in public--which Sarah didn't do that--she just ripped off people who paid $600 to see her by reading poorly written crib notes off her hand and laundered money by buying copies of her own book to run up the sales and then giving them away as swag at fund raisers in her honor.

      But the truly sad commentary on all of this is that the mainstream media and the teabaggers never bothered to call Sarah on her hypocrisy--that job fell to one of her son's peers who eloquently points out to Sarah that her parents raised her to be a well adjusted woman who is a working and in demand actress with a strong sense of self and a sense of humor--while Sarah is raising her son to think he deserves to be carried around like a loaf of french bread or that he should only get pissed off with people who are using humor and sarcasm to raise awareness of his disability but ignore it as "satire" when someone completely misrepresents his disability and uses it in a derogatory name calling rant against their political enemies.

    • 2 years ago
  • tommytripper
  • CannedSardine
  • irie_ojo
  • CalgarC
  • common_sense_please
    • +3
      common_sense_please  

    • I love it. Stephen Colbert and now this lovely young lady--calling out Sarah for the hypocrite and liar she is.

      That and I love the fact someone finally pointed out to Sarah that by using her child's disability as a weapon and a way to get votes or sell her brand and get her name out there is not cool and is in fact a form of child abuse.

      Andrea Fay Friedman and Eunice Kennedy Shriver = epic win
      Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh = epic fail

    • 2 years ago
  • Jake_Leonard
  • ignignokt
  • irie_ojo
  • ras_menelik
  • gbboone
    • 0
      gbboone  

    • I wasn't offended by this as much as the comment at the end of the show about down syndrome people being just mean normal people.

    • 2 years ago
  • Mergenarium
    • 0
      Mergenarium  
    • gbboone:

      The comment wasn't that people with Down's are meanER than "normal" people. It was that they aren't LESS mean because they have Down's. They have the potential to be assholes, just like the rest of us.

      It was more of a "People with Down's are just like the REST of us: total assholes."

    • 2 years ago
  • emarston
    • 0
      emarston  

    • i'm sure Palin will want to look into if she's really "special needs" or not. To bad she quit her job because then she could set up a comity. That being said I didn't see it because I don't find family guy funny but I can rest knowing it most likely wasn't.

    • 2 years ago
  • irie_ojo
  • emarston
  • violintastic
    • 0
      violintastic  

    • It was a great point that Palin treats her son like just another tool to make her seem like a caring/more qualified politician, well done Ms. Friedman.

      I still think that the whole Down Syndrome on Family Guy wasn't too classy, and while it is important to have a sense of humor, there is a line between poking fun and being offensive.

    • 2 years ago
  • revolutioninamerica
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