I haven't seen someone ridicule the deaf since I was in grammar school. It's clearly in bad taste, so juvenile that even some 13-year-olds are mature enough not to do it. So it was with a mixture of shock and awe that I watched this clip of Alex Borstein, the voice of Lois Griffin on the animated TV show Family Guy, mock the deaf Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin. The awe came when Marlin appeared and gave Borstein a taste of her own medicine.

I'm not a big fan of Family Guy, Seth McFarlane's acerbic brainchild of the post-politically correct age. I just don't think it's well-written or, really, all that funny. But I appreciate it for helping us move past the tyranny of hyper-sensitivity that political correctness imposed. After all, such sensitivity is often shallow or even empty, and rarely an honest show of compassion. But I have to wonder, are there lines that even a risque show like Family Guy shouldn't cross, lest we devolve into savagery? On the other hand, if Matlin herself can take the joke, who are we to complain?