My point being, I don’t see these comments as particularly racist, but more the product of tired, drunk morons desperate to fill the dead air.

As for the original topic, I didn’t see that particular episode of Family Guy, but from what I know of the show, this seems more similar to the Haddadi incident than you’d think. I think the writers of Family Guy understand that their target audience isn’t the smartest group of people. Therefore many of their jokes are based on simple preconceived notions, rather than a reflection of the actual situation. Just like with the stereotypical Goldman family, the alarm clock joke relies on limited knowledge by the audience for its humor. The audience thinks of Palestinians as people in the Middle East and that people in the Middle East are terrorists. They don’t know who Netanyahu is or anything about Hamas. They may have picked up somewhere on the internet or TV a headline or two regarding an incident in Gaza, but they certainly didn’t read it or watch it. Their ignorance makes the joke funny.

Those of us who are discussing it here obviously understand the Palestinian situation much better and we find the joke inappropriate and also not really that funny because it makes little sense.

All I know is that Michael Smith first broke my heart as an utterly useless first round pick by the Celtics and now is part of this nonsense. He’s rising on my list of least favorite Basketball personalities. Kobe, Bill Laimbeer and Kurt Rambis might be off the hook soon.