Sometimes one line is all it takes. In a February episode of Family Guy—a show not exactly intended for the entire family—a character with Down syndrome says, "My dad's an accountant, and my mom's the former governor of Alaska." Cue the real former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, whose youngest child, Trig, has Down syndrome. She was not happy with the episode, and made it known on Facebook and on the air.
But Andrea Fay Friedman, the actress who played the Family Guy character and who herself has Down syndrome, said in an email to the New York Times,"I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor." She also noted, "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." Ouch.