Thought #1:  I don’t entirely get the joke- at least insofar as the alarm clock aspect is involved.  The joke is about a suicide bomber, right?  For better or for worse, that’s the joke.  The clock blowing up, however, is much more reminiscent of a scene from Munich in which one of the Mossad guys who might actually be Jewish (i.e. not The Hulk) plants a bomb in a PLO hotel room.

Thought #2:  In the inevitable Internet squabbling that’s resulted, a prevalent “It’s racist!” argument is that, while Family Guy’s incessant Jew Jokes are about religion, this is about race (the implication being religion is fair game, race is not).  However, neither of these positions is particularly coherent.  Family Guy mocks Judaism, Jewishness and everything in between.  The Goldman’s aren’t so comically insufferable due to their insistence on observing the Shabbos- it’s the shrill voices, effeminate men, hypochondria and so on- ethnic and racial traits.  On the other side of the coin, the “Palestinian” in the clock is clearly acting out an extremely warped view of Islam that, while perhaps sadly intertwined with Palestinian national resistance, is nonetheless a ‘religious’ act.  If it is, for one reason or another, ok to mock religion, this may well be in bounds.

Thought #3:  Then why, exactly, is the alarm clock “Palestinian” and not “Muslim” or, even less offensive, “Jihadi?” A tough question. “Muslim Alahm Clahck” BOOM! would be incredibly offensive but in a way that wouldn’t particularly standout from the rest of the series.

Thought #4:  As always, the real thing here is the burden of representation.  Jon Stewart, Shmuely Boteach and Neil Diamond are out there to balance out the Goldmans whereas I would have to guess that less than half of America, and far less than half of Americans in the Family Guy demographic, can name a single living Palestinian.  And certainly not anyone outside of realm of politics.  So when “Palestinian” pops up in American popular culture, it’s in this context pretty much 100% of the time.  That’s undeniably problematic.

Thought #5:  It’s probably worth noting that just as the joke is offensive to Palestinians who face the burdens of oppression throughout the world and particularly in the West Bank and Gaza, it’s also a joke that makes light of the way in which lots of innocent people have been murdered and maimed. I have no interest in policing such humor, but it’s worth considering how the safety of an American living room recontextualizes the horrors of others.

1. In honor of Veterans Days (or Remembrance Day as the rest of the world knows it), a wonderful set of videos of dogs welcoming their owners back from military service. Get those tissues ready and enjoy.

2. The Daily Show skewered Sean Hannity for using footage from Glenn Beck’s “9/12” rally in DC to depict Michelle Bachmann’s much smaller rally. As departing White House Communications Director Anita Dunn pointed out, “Well that is where you are getting fact-checking and investigative journalism these days folks. It is a different media environment.” Nice to see the rest of the press prove their utter fecklessness once more. For his part, Hannity mustered the most pathetic of apologies, saying it was “inadvertent,” which led to this wonderful response from Stewart and his staffperson forced to watch Hannity daily:

3. Our own Liz Ellcessor offers two excellent posts on television’s encounters with people with disabilities, one a follow-up to her Antenna post on the Glee episode “Wheels,” and another on Brothers. Let’s hope it’s not another 300 years till American television offers us two shows with people with disabilities. Adding to Liz’s own links to other commentators on the episode, I’ll also note Myles McNutt’s piece at Cultural Learnings.

4. MediaCommons unveiled its new profile system, which is exciting and well worth reading about.

5. Jason Mittell continues his admirable process of discussing the job search at his department at Middlebury in as open terms as he’s probably allowed to. The job market scares people more than anything other than the tenure process, so it’s great to see someone opening up about it in something other than woefully vague terms.

6. In honor of Seth McFarlane’s bad week (Family Guy had its worst week in the ratings this year by 0.5 points, Cleveland Show by 0.6 points, and American Dad by a full point, while his Family Guy Presents Seth and Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show received poor reviews), here comes this explanation of how his shows get put together:

7. In the world of odd adaptations, it seems that Justin Halpern’s Twitter account, ShitMyDadSays, is being made into a sitcom by the Will and Grace creators and Warner Bros. TV. See here for more commentary, though I suspect I’ll discuss this soon over at The Extratextuals, cause it’s so wonderfully paratextual. Update: I’ve now done so here.

8. Annie Peterson talks about web traffic and star talk. I’m going to be very obtuse with details, since Antenna’s supposed to be under the radar right now, so we’re not ready to play with the fire she offers the kindling to build. But to see the evidence of her assertions, see her earlier post here too.

9. Timothy Burke discusses using Power Point in the classroom (though all PP haters should, as we learned at MCS colloquium on Thursday at Wisconsin, consult Kurt Squire for tips. Kurt, to be fair, credits Henry Jenkins with leading the way, a shout out that I’d echo).

10. Finally, in the blast from the past category, it’s old, but if you’ve never treated yourself to Real Ultimate Power and the wonders of all things ninja, do go here and enjoy.

Also, note that the new issue of Flow is out, and that it was Human Rights week on In Media Res