An entire episode, just to roast Donald Trump?
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00:00 When it comes to adult animated shows, there are few, if any, that can actually beat Family
00:04 Guy on the topic of longevity. Now, in its 20th season, the show has been through many,
00:10 many different eras, and has never once been afraid to say exactly what it means. Of course,
00:14 this means that there's been lots of episodes that make particular jabs or shots at certain
00:18 people or concepts, and some of these jabs are made out of deep, deep spite. I'm Amy
00:23 from WhatCulture, and here are 10 Family Guy episodes probably made out of spite.
00:28 10. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz
00:32 There are countless times that Family Guy has taken its shots at organised religion,
00:35 with Jesus Christ even becoming a semi-recurring character on the show. There is one episode,
00:40 however, that stands out as feeling like a real slap in the face to the very idea of
00:45 religion. Though he was raised Catholic, Seth MacFarlane is now a proud atheist, and he
00:49 would have a lot to relate to with Peter Griffin in this episode. Francis, Peter's father,
00:53 was a devout Catholic, and hated anybody that disagreed with him. He wanted Stewie baptised,
00:58 and wouldn't even let the Protestant Lois sit at the same dinner table with him. It
01:02 wasn't until Lois told Peter that he was now a grown man, and could choose whatever
01:06 religion he wanted, that he realised he didn't have to follow in his father's faith. In
01:10 real life, this is where Seth MacFarlane renounced religion altogether, but obviously in the
01:14 show that's not enough, so Peter decided to set up the first United Church of the Fonz.
01:19 The point of this episode came from Brian, in that really this was no different to any
01:22 other organised religion. He made the point that it was still based around the exploitation
01:26 of ignorance, and gathering around to tell tales and sing songs, and that's all it is.
01:30 Unsurprising that they got a lot of religious pushback on this one, but you know, you take
01:34 the risks.
01:35 9. Foxy Lady
01:37 In spite of Family Guy's home being on Fox Network, in recent years particularly, Seth
01:41 MacFarlane has not been shy about sharing his feelings for Fox. Throughout the pandemic,
01:46 he's stated regret that Family Guy is still affiliated with the company, but this is nothing
01:50 new. Way back in 2009, in Season 7 of Family Guy, the writers showed exactly what they
01:55 thought of Fox News. After the usual news anchor was sent to Guantanamo Bay, Lois became
01:59 the station's new anchor, and was immediately tasked with an expose about the possible homosexuality
02:04 of Michael Moore. However, when the story seemed to implicate the extreme right-wing
02:08 Rush Limbaugh, Fox no longer wanted the story to run. Brian himself said that they have
02:12 a biased agenda, and that they're an evil company that Lois would have sold her soul
02:16 to work for. The very liberal Seth MacFarlane made sure to include pictures of several Republican
02:21 presidents on the Fox News wall, just to drive home the point.
02:24 8. PT4 Political figures are never safe from the
02:28 trademark satire of Seth MacFarlane and Family Guy. It all came from Peter and the guys watching
02:32 a Russian bootleg copy of Rocky IV, and seeing Drago beat the titular character. This led
02:37 to Peter challenging Vladimir Putin to a fight, and after a brief spell as friends, Peter
02:41 realised just how evil, controlling, and dangerous the Russian leader was. In Family Guy, this
02:46 came in the form of suspending Tom Brady, but the message of someone having to stand
02:50 up to Putin to survive was clear. The two settled their differences in a boxing ring,
02:54 which ultimately ended in a dance. However, at the end of the episode, a voiceover from
02:58 Peter referenced Alexei Navalny. And, after talking all night, Vlad poisoned Peter with
03:03 radioactive tea, who then lost half of his body weight, all of his hair, and grew lesions
03:07 that would never heal. This entire episode seemed to be produced just to make the point
03:11 that this man was the President of the United States' best friend - obviously at the time
03:15 Trump was in power - and to encourage people to think about just how insane that is.
03:20 7. 4/20
03:22 If you can think of just about any hot topic that divides the entire population of the
03:25 USA, there's a good chance Family Guy has had a say on the subject. This is certainly
03:29 the case with the legalisation of marijuana. Seth MacFarlane is an advocate for legalising
03:33 it, and has even admitted to smoking pot with his parents in the past. Like many things,
03:37 he was able to put across his own views with Family Guy - in this case, how he believes
03:41 the country and the government sensationalise pot. In the episode, two cops let Peter go
03:45 despite being drunk at the wheel, covered in blood with a corpse in the back seat, and
03:49 a map detailing where he was going to bury the body. And yet, when they found a small
03:53 amount of pot on Brian, he was sent straight to prison. As something of an attack on the
03:57 phony war on drugs, in which Brian tells the real reason marijuana is illegal and that
04:01 it's less dangerous than alcohol, Family Guy certainly took their shots, complete with
04:05 one of the greatest closing songs to date.
04:08 6. Excellence in Broadcasting
04:11 Essentially, people know Seth MacFarlane as a liberal who's against everything that the
04:15 Republican Party stands for. So, when he chose to have prominent Republican Rush Limbaugh
04:19 feature on the show in Season 9, people were a little bit surprised. Limbaugh voiced his
04:23 own character, despite being opposed to MacFarlane in just about every political aspect. This
04:28 did, however, give the writers, and MacFarlane in particular, the platform to call out everything
04:33 the Republicans stand for.
04:34 The episode called the party out on a laundry list of issues, from being racist, to their
04:38 unwavering stance on abortions, oil money, the death penalty, executing children, never
04:43 giving women credit for anything, helping rich white guys whenever they need a tax break,
04:47 and an infant George W. Bush. Family Guy used this opportunity to completely slaughter them.
04:52 Arguably the best part for MacFarlane was that he got to call Rush Limbaugh a stupid
04:55 right-wing dick, and a boneheaded, fascist, corporate, shilling blowhard. All of this
05:00 was in Brian's voice, of course, but that is also just Seth's normal speaking voice,
05:04 and it's likely that there was very little acting needed there.
05:07 5. Jesus, Mary and Joseph
05:09 As said previously, Seth MacFarlane isn't exactly one for religion. Not only has there
05:14 previously been an episode of Family Guy that called out Christianity, in this one the target
05:18 became a little more specific. As Peter and the family sat down after decorating the Christmas
05:22 tree, he began to tell them a story. It wasn't Star Wars this time, but the tale of Jesus,
05:27 Mary and Joseph.
05:28 The tone was set straight away, as Peter describes it as an awe-inspiring tale that's cost millions
05:33 and millions of lives. From here, the episode essentially cracked jokes at the expense of
05:37 both the story and Christianity in general. It pointed out plot holes, and made light
05:41 of one of the most important aspects of the entire Bible. There have been plenty of Family
05:45 Guy episodes that have been based around Christianity, such as Jesus pretending to be a virgin to
05:50 get girls, but here the writers targeted one specific piece of the religion and totally
05:54 tore it to shreds.
05:56 4. Cutaway Land
05:58 Family Guy weirdly is both one of the most popular animated shows of the 20th century,
06:02 whilst at the same time being one of the most criticised. Among the many things that often
06:05 grinds the gears of fans and non-fans of the show are the cutaways. Though quirky and endearing
06:10 to begin with, many felt that the show began to rely too much on shock humour and silly
06:15 cutaway gags, and less on actual writing.
06:17 Enter Cutaway Land, an episode that may well have just been created to piss people off.
06:22 Never ever scared of offending its audiences, Family Guy looked these critics in the face
06:26 and gave them an episode that was just one cutaway after another, as Peter and Lois travelled
06:31 through the titular cutaway land in what ultimately became one giant cutaway.
06:35 Just to add insult to injury, the episode even visited old cutaways, like the first
06:39 ever cutaway that showed Hitler in the gym, and arguably the most well-known of them all,
06:43 the AIDS song.
06:44 "You want less cutaways?" they said. "How about more than ever?"
06:48 3. Emmy-winning episode
06:50 Family Guy's been nominated for 28 Emmys and has won a total of 8. However, there is
06:55 clearly some animosity between the show's writers and the Emmys themselves. Several
06:59 jokes have been made over the years, but the season 16 opener appeared to be a direct shot
07:03 at the awards show.
07:04 From the very start of the episode, Peter and Lois broke the fourth wall by claiming
07:08 that the show always gets passed over at the Emmys, and that their crossover with The Simpsons
07:12 did absolutely nothing for them.
07:13 For this episode, then, they would ditch the silly humour and go Emmy-hunting, parodying
07:17 the likes of Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, Breaking Bad, Homeland, The Sopranos, Frasier
07:23 and more.
07:24 Family Guy made it very clear that they believed there were certain shows and people that won
07:28 the same awards year after year. Not that they're bitter about it or anything, they
07:31 just chose to end the episode by saying that there's a conspiracy against them and they'll
07:35 never win one. I'm refraining from comment at this time, you make your own conclusions.
07:40 2. PTV
07:42 It's not controversial to say that Family Guy is just completely synonymous with offensive
07:46 jokes and shock humour. And if Seth MacFarlane and the writing room can make a joke that
07:50 not only crosses the line but obliterates it, they'll make it.
07:54 Naturally, this led to the show having a turbulent relationship with the FCC and the Parents
07:58 Television Council. There have been numerous complaints around sexual content over the
08:02 years, but way back in 2005, MacFarlane had his own jab back.
08:06 PTV saw Peter set up his own TV station in the face of the FCC censoring everything from
08:11 bikinis to Dick Van Dyke. This ultimately led to the censoring of life itself, with
08:15 no audible farts allowed, swearing bleeped over, and a complete ban on sex.
08:20 The satire seemingly showed Family Guy's feelings towards the FCC and, in general, television
08:25 censorship. They sensationalised an incident at the Emmys which they believed 20 billion
08:29 people were offended by, with Bryan making the eloquent point that there are things much
08:33 worse for children than television. What wasn't so eloquent was having a whole song and dance
08:37 routine set to a backdrop of the show's most sexual moments. But hey, Family Guy has never
08:42 been one for subtlety.
08:44 1. Trump Guy
08:46 Just in case you hadn't got the message already from the constant Republican slamming, Seth
08:50 MacFarlane doesn't like them. And unsurprisingly, he didn't like their President Trump.
08:54 Even in a time when Republicans were trying to convince us that it was just cringey and
08:57 lazy to rip on Trump because it was so overdone - you know, obviously not entertaining the
09:01 thought that maybe it is just hilarious because you're elected him - the Family Guy team made
09:05 the bold decision to still go ahead and make an episode that was entirely dedicated to
09:10 just ripping and dunking on Trump.
09:12 There was no real set-up to the episode. Peter just immediately got a new job in Trump's
09:16 White House to allow the maximum amount of time making jokes at the President's expense.
09:20 From his appearance to his children, calling him a lumpy orange garbage vegetable and painting
09:25 him as Jabba the Hutt grabbing Meg... you know where, the writers did not hold back.
09:29 As silly as some of it was, there was a genuinely strong point made by the end of the 22 minutes.
09:34 People can get offended by Family Guy and the stupid jokes they make, but this was a
09:38 cartoon they couldn't turn off. Donald Trump was the President of the United States, as
09:42 embarrassing as that was, and there was no way to turn him off.
09:45 So MacFarlane's decision to really go ham on this episode was kind of, maybe, like a
09:49 whole national or international coping mechanism. Even if you usually hate Family Guy, that's
09:54 one thing you can bond over. You probably hated Trump more.
09:57 And with that, we've reached the end of this list of 10 Family Guy episodes probably made
10:01 out of spite. If you can think of any more, then let us know in the comments down below,
10:05 and remember to check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like this every
10:08 single day. As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture, and I'll catch you next time.
10:13 (upbeat music)
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