An entire episode, just to roast Donald Trump?
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00:00When it comes to adult animated shows, there are few, if any, that can actually beat Family Guy on
00:05the topic of longevity. Now, in its 20th season, the show has been through many,
00:09many different eras, and has never once been afraid to say exactly what it means.
00:14Of course, this means that there's been lots of episodes that make particular jabs or shots
00:18at certain people or concepts, and some of these jabs are made out of deep, deep spite.
00:23I'm Amy from WhatCulture, and here are 10 Family Guy episodes probably made out of spite.
00:2810. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz
00:32There are countless times that Family Guy has taken its shots at organised religion,
00:35with Jesus Christ even becoming a semi-recurring character on the show. There is one episode,
00:40however, that stands out as feeling like a real slap in the face to the very idea of religion.
00:45Though he was raised Catholic, Seth MacFarlane is now a proud atheist,
00:49and he would have a lot to relate to with Peter Griffin in this episode.
00:52Francis, Peter's father, was a devout Catholic and hated anybody that disagreed with him.
00:56He wanted Stewie baptised, and wouldn't even let the Protestant Lois sit at the same dinner table
01:01with him. It wasn't until Lois told Peter that he was now a grown man, and could choose whatever
01:06religion he wanted, that he realised he didn't have to follow in his father's faith. In real life,
01:11this is where Seth MacFarlane renounced religion altogether, but obviously in the show that's not
01:15enough, so Peter decided to set up the First United Church of the Fonz. The point of this
01:19episode came from Brian, in that really this was no different to any other organised religion.
01:24He made the point that it was still based around the exploitation of ignorance,
01:27and gathering around to tell tales and sing songs, and that's all it is. Unsurprising that they got
01:31a lot of religious pushback on this one, but you know, you take the risks.
01:369. Foxy Lady
01:37In spite of Family Guy's home being on Fox Network, in recent years particularly,
01:41Seth MacFarlane has not been shy about sharing his feelings for Fox. Throughout the pandemic,
01:46he's stated regret that Family Guy is still affiliated with the company, but this is nothing
01:50new. Way back in 2009, in Season 7 of Family Guy, the writers showed exactly what they thought
01:55of Fox News. After the usual news anchor was sent to Guantanamo Bay, Lois became the station's new
02:00anchor, and was immediately tasked with an exposé about the possible homosexuality of Michael Moore.
02:05However, when the story seemed to implicate the extreme right-wing Rush Limbaugh, Fox no longer
02:10wanted the story to run. Brian himself said that they have a biased agenda, and that they're an
02:14evil company that Lois would have sold her soul to work for. The very liberal Seth MacFarlane
02:18made sure to include pictures of several Republican presidents on the Fox News wall,
02:22just to drive home the point.
02:248. P.T. 4
02:26Political figures are never safe from the trademark satire of Seth MacFarlane and Family Guy. It all
02:31came from Peter and the guys watching a Russian bootleg copy of Rocky IV, and seeing Drago beat
02:36the titular character. This led to Peter challenging Vladimir Putin to a fight, and after a brief spell
02:41as friends, Peter realised just how evil, controlling, and dangerous the Russian leader was.
02:46In Family Guy, this came in the form of suspending Tom Brady, but the message of
02:49someone having to stand up to Putin to survive was clear. The two settled their differences in
02:54a boxing ring, which ultimately ended in a dance. However, at the end of the episode,
02:57a voiceover from Peter referenced Alexei Navalny. And, after talking all night, Vlad poisoned Peter
03:03with radioactive tea, who then lost half of his body weight, all of his hair, and grew lesions
03:07that would never heal. This entire episode seemed to be produced just to make the point that this
03:12man was the President of the United States' best friend, obviously at the time Trump was in power,
03:16and to encourage people to think about just how insane that is.
03:207. 420
03:22If you can think of just about any hot topic that divides the entire population of the USA,
03:26there's a good chance Family Guy has had a say on the subject. This is certainly the case with
03:30the legalisation of marijuana. Seth MacFarlane is an advocate for legalising it, and has even
03:34admitted to smoking pot with his parents in the past. Like many things, he was able to put across
03:38his own views with Family Guy, in this case how he believes the country and the government
03:42sensationalise his pot. In the episode, two cops let Peter go despite being drunk at the wheel,
03:47covered in blood with a corpse in the back seat, and a map detailing where he was going to bury
03:51the body. And yet, when they found a small amount of pot on Brian, he was sent straight to prison.
03:56As something of an attack on the phony war on drugs, in which Brian tells the real reason
04:00marijuana is illegal and that it's less dangerous than alcohol, Family Guy certainly took their
04:05shots, complete with one of the greatest closing songs to date.
04:086. Excellence in Broadcasting
04:11Essentially, people know Seth MacFarlane as a liberal who's against everything that the
04:15Republican Party stands for. So, when he chose to have prominent Republican Rush Limbaugh feature
04:19on the show in Season 9, people were a little bit surprised. Limbaugh voiced his own character,
04:24despite being opposed to MacFarlane in just about every political aspect. This did, however,
04:29give the writers and MacFarlane in particular the platform to call out everything the Republicans
04:33stand for. The episode called the party out on a laundry list of issues, from being racist,
04:38to their unwavering stance on abortions, oil money, the death penalty, executing children,
04:43never giving women credit for anything, helping rich white guys whenever they need a tax break,
04:46and an infant George W. Bush. Family Guy used this opportunity to completely slaughter them.
04:52Arguably the best part for MacFarlane was that he got to call Rush Limbaugh a stupid right-wing dick
04:56and a boneheaded fascist corporate shilling blowhard. All of this was in Brian's voice,
05:01of course, but that is also just Seth's normal speaking voice, and it's likely that there was
05:05very little acting needed there. 5. Jesus, Mary and Joseph
05:10As said previously, Seth MacFarlane isn't exactly one for religion. Not only has there previously
05:14been an episode of Family Guy that called out Christianity, in this one the target became a
05:18little more specific. As Peter and the family sat down after decorating the Christmas tree,
05:22he began to tell them a story. It wasn't Star Wars this time, but the tale of Jesus, Mary and
05:27Joseph. The tone was set straight away, as Peter describes it as an awe-inspiring tale that's
05:32cost millions and millions of lives. From here the episode essentially cracked jokes at the
05:37expense of both the story and Christianity in general. It pointed out plot holes and made
05:41light of one of the most important aspects of the entire Bible. There have been plenty of Family Guy
05:46episodes that have been based around Christianity, such as Jesus pretending to be a virgin to get
05:50girls, but here the writers targeted one specific piece of the religion and totally tore it to
05:55shreds. 4. Cutaway Land
05:58Family Guy weirdly is both one of the most popular animated shows of the 20th century,
06:02whilst at the same time being one of the most criticised. Among the many things that often
06:06grinds the gears of fans and non-fans of the show are the cutaways. Though quirky and endearing to
06:10begin with, many felt that the show began to rely too much on shock humour and silly cutaway gags,
06:16and less on actual writing. Enter Cutaway Land, an episode that may well have just been created
06:21to piss people off. Never ever scared of offending its audiences, Family Guy looked these critics in
06:26the face and gave them an episode that was just one cutaway after another, as Peter and Lois
06:30travelled through the titular cutaway land in what ultimately became one giant cutaway. Just to
06:35add insult to injury, the episode even visited old cutaways, like the first ever cutaway that
06:40showed Hitler in the gym, and arguably the most well-known of them all, the AIDS song.
06:44You want less cutaways, they said? How about more than ever?
06:483. Emmy-Winning Episode
06:50Family Guy's been nominated for 28 Emmys and has won a total of eight. However,
06:54there is clearly some animosity between the show's writers and the Emmys themselves.
06:59Several jokes have been made over the years, but the season 16 opener appeared to be a direct
07:03shot at the awards show. From the very start of the episode, Peter and Lois broke the fourth
07:07wall by claiming that the show always gets passed over at the Emmys, and that their crossover with
07:11The Simpsons did absolutely nothing for them. For this episode, then, they would ditch the
07:15silly humour and go Emmy-hunting, parodying the likes of Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory,
07:20Breaking Bad, Homeland, The Sopranos, Frasier, and more. Family Guy made it very clear that
07:26they believed there were certain shows and people that won the same awards year after year. Not that
07:30they're bitter about it or anything, they just chose to end the episode by saying that there's
07:34a conspiracy against them and they'll never win one. I'm refraining from comment at this time,
07:38you make your own conclusions.
07:402. PTV
07:42It's not controversial to say that Family Guy is just completely synonymous with offensive
07:46jokes and shock humour. And if Seth MacFarlane and the writing room can make a joke that not
07:50only crosses the line but obliterates it, they'll make it. Naturally, this led to the show having a
07:56turbulent relationship with the FCC and the Parents' Television Council. There have been
08:00numerous complaints around sexual content over the years, but way back in 2005, MacFarlane had
08:05his own jab back. PTV saw Peter set up his own TV station in the face of the FCC censoring
08:11everything from bikinis to Dick Van Dyke. This ultimately led to the censoring of life itself,
08:15with no audible farts allowed, swearing bleeped over, and a complete ban on sex. This satire
08:21seemingly showed Family Guy's feelings towards the FCC and, in general, television censorship.
08:26They sensationalised an incident at the Emmys which they believed 20 billion people were
08:30offended by, with Bryan making the eloquent point that there are things much worse for children than
08:34television. What wasn't so eloquent was having a whole song and dance routine set to a backdrop
08:39of the show's most sexual moments. But hey, Family Guy has never been one for subtlety.
08:441. Trump Guy
08:46Just in case you hadn't got the message already from the constant Republican slamming,
08:50Seth MacFarlane doesn't like them, and unsurprisingly, he didn't like their President
08:53Trump. Even in a time when Republicans were trying to convince us that it was just cringy and lazy to
08:58rip on Trump because it was so overdone, you know, obviously not entertaining the thought that maybe
09:02it is just hilarious because you're elected him, the Family Guy team made the bold decision to
09:07still go ahead and make an episode that was entirely dedicated to just ripping and dunking
09:11on Trump. There was no real set-up to the episode. Peter just immediately got a new job in Trump's
09:16White House to allow the maximum amount of time making jokes at the President's expense.
09:20From his appearance to his children, calling him a lumpy orange garbage vegetable,
09:24and painting him as Jabba the Hutt grabbing Meg, you know where, the writers did not hold back.
09:29As silly as some of it was, there was a genuinely strong point made by the end of the 22 minutes.
09:34People can get offended by Family Guy and the stupid jokes they make, but this was a cartoon
09:38they couldn't turn off. Donald Trump was the President of the United States, as embarrassing
09:43as that was, and there was no way to turn him off. So, McFarlane's decision to really go ham
09:47on this episode was kind of, maybe, like a whole national or international coping mechanism. Even
09:53if you usually hate Family Guy, that's one thing you can bond over. You probably hated Trump more.
09:57And with that, we've reached the end of this list of 10 Family Guy episodes,
10:00probably made out of spite. If you can think of any more, then let us know in the comments
10:04down below, and remember to check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like this
10:08every single day. As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture, and I'll catch you next time.