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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
00:05on the topic of longevity. Now, in its 20th season, the show has been through many, many
00:10different eras, and has never once been afraid to say exactly what it means. Of course, this means
00:15that there's been lots of episodes that make particular jabs or shots at certain people or
00:19concepts, and some of these jabs are made out of deep, deep spite. I'm Amy from WhatCulture,
00:24and here are 10 Family Guy episodes probably made out of spite. 10. The Father, the Son,
00:30and the Holy Fonz. There are countless times that Family Guy has taken its shots at organized
00:35religion, with Jesus Christ even becoming a semi-recurring character on the show. There is
00:39one episode, however, that stands out as feeling like a real slap in the face to the very idea of
00:44religion. Though he was raised Catholic, Seth MacFarlane is now a proud atheist, and he would
00:49have a lot to relate to with Peter Griffin in this episode. Francis, Peter's father, was a devout
00:54Catholic and hated anybody that disagreed with him. He wanted Stewie baptized and wouldn't even
00:59let the Protestant Lois sit at the same dinner table with him. It wasn't until Lois told Peter
01:03that he was now a grown man and could choose whatever religion he wanted that he realised
01:08he didn't have to follow in his father's faith. In real life, this is where Seth MacFarlane renounced
01:12religion altogether, but obviously in the show that's not enough, so Peter decided to set up the
01:17First United Church of the Fonz. The point of this episode came from Brian, in that really this was no
01:22different to any other organised religion. He made the point that it was still based around
01:25the exploitation of ignorance and gathering around to tell tales and sing songs, and that's all it is.
01:30Unsurprising that they got a 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, Seth MacFarlane has not
01:43been shy about sharing his feelings for Fox. Throughout the pandemic, he stated regret that Family Guy is
01:47still affiliated with the company, but this is nothing new. Way back in 2009, in season 7 of
01:53Family Guy, the writers showed exactly what they thought of Fox News. After the usual news anchor
01:57was sent to Guantanamo Bay, Lois became the station's new anchor, and was immediately tasked
02:01with an expose about the possible homosexuality of Michael Moore. However, when the story seemed to
02:06implicate the extreme right-wing Rush Limbaugh, Fox no longer wanted the story to run. Brian himself
02:12said that they have a biased agenda and that they're an evil company that Lois would have sold her soul to
02:16work for. The very liberal Seth MacFarlane made sure to include pictures of several Republican
02:21presidents on the Fox News wall, just to drive home the point.
02:248. PT4
02:26Political figures are never safe from the trademark satire of Seth MacFarlane and Family Guy.
02:31It all came from Peter and the Guys watching a Russian bootleg copy of Rocky 4, and seeing Drago
02:36beat the titular character. This led to Peter challenging Vladimir Putin to a fight, and after a
02:40brief spell as friends, Peter realized 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 someone having to
02:50stand up to Putin to survive was clear. The two settled their differences in a boxing ring,
02:54which ultimately ended in a dance. However, at the end of the episode, a voiceover from Peter
02:59referenced Alexei Navalny. And after talking all night, Vlad poisoned Peter with radioactive tea,
03:04who then lost half of his body weight, all of his hair, and grew lesions that would never heal.
03:08This entire episode seemed to be produced just to make the point that this man was the president of the
03:13United States' best friend, obviously at the time Trump was in power, and to encourage people
03:17to think about just how insane that is.
03:197. 420
03:21If 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 the
03:30legalization of marijuana. Seth MacFarlane is an advocate for legalizing it, and has even admitted
03:35to smoking pot with his parents in the past. Like many things, he was able to put across his own views
03:39with Family Guy. In this case, how he believes the country and the government sensationalizes pot.
03:44In the episode, two cops let Peter go despite being drunk at the wheel, covered in blood with
03:48a corpse in the back seat, and a map detailing where he was going to bury the body. And yet,
03:52when they found a small amount of pot on Brian, he was sent straight to prison. As something of an
03:57attack on the phony war on drugs, in which Brian tells the real reason marijuana is illegal and that
04:02it's less dangerous than alcohol, Family Guy certainly took their shots, complete with one of the
04:06greatest closing songs to date. 6. 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, give the
04:29writers, and MacFarlane in particular, the platform to call out everything the Republicans stand for.
04:34The episode called the party out on a laundry list of issues, from being racist, to their
04:38unwavering stance on abortions, oil money, the death penalty, executing children, never giving
04:43women credit for anything, helping rich white guys whenever they need a tax break, and an infant George
04:48W. Bush. Family Guy used this opportunity to completely slaughter them. Arguably the best part
04:53for MacFarlane was that he got to call Rush Limbaugh a stupid right-wing dick, and a boneheaded
04:57fascist corporate shilling blowhard. All of this was in Brian's voice, of course, but that is also just
05:02Seth's normal speaking voice, and it's likely that there was very little acting needed there.
05:075. 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 Joseph.
05:28The tone was set straight away, as Peter describes it as an awe-inspiring tale that's cost millions and
05:33millions of lives. From here, the episode essentially cracked jokes at the expense of both the story
05:38and Christianity in general. It pointed out plot holes, and made light of one of the most important
05:43aspects of the entire Bible. There have been plenty of Family Guy episodes that have been based around
05:47Christianity, such as Jesus pretending to be a virgin to get girls, but here the writers targeted one
05:52specific piece of the religion and totally tore it to shreds.
05:564. Cutawayland
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 Cutawayland, an episode that may well have just been created to
06:21piss people off. Never ever scared of offending its audiences, Family Guy looked these critics
06:26in the 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.
06:35Just to add insult to injury, the episode even visited old cutaways, like the first ever cutaway
06:40that showed 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 8. 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 wall
07:07by claiming that the show always gets passed over at the Emmys, and that their crossover with The
07:11Simpsons did absolutely nothing for them. For this episode then, they would ditch the silly humour and
07:16go Emmy hunting. Parodying the likes of Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, Breaking Bad,
07:21Homeland, The Sopranos, Frasier and more, Family Guy made it very clear that they believed there
07:26were certain shows and people that won the same awards year after year. Not that they're bitter
07:30about it or anything, they just chose to win the episode by saying that there's a conspiracy against
07:35them and they'll never win one. I'm refraining from comment at this time, you make your own conclusions.
07:402. PTV
07:42It's not controversial to say that Family Guy is just completely synonymous with offensive jokes
07:47and shock humour, and if Seth MacFarlane in the writing room can make a joke that not only crosses
07:51the line but obliterates it, they'll make it. Naturally, this led to the show having a turbulent
07:56relationship with the FCC and the Parents Television Council. There have been numerous complaints around
08:01sexual content over the years, but way back in 2005, MacFarlane had his own jab back.
08:06PTV saw Peter set up his own TV station in the face of the FCC censoring everything from bikinis to
08:12Dick Van Dyke. This ultimately led to the censoring of life itself, with no audible farts allowed,
08:17swearing bleeped over and a complete ban on sex. The satire seemingly showed Family Guy's feelings
08:22towards the FCC and, in general, television censorship. They sensationalised an incident at the Emmys which
08:28they believed 20 billion people were offended by, with Bryan making the eloquent point that there
08:32are things much worse for children than television. What wasn't so eloquent was having a whole song
08:37and dance routine set to a backdrop of the show's most sexual moments, but hey, Family Guy has never
08:42been one for subtlety. 1. Trump Guy
08:46Just in case you hadn't got the message already from the constant Republican slamming, Seth MacFarlane
08:50doesn't like them, and unsurprisingly, he didn't like their President Trump. Even in a time when
08:55Republicans were trying to convince us that it was just cringey and lazy to rip on Trump because it
08:59was so overdone, you know, obviously not entertaining the thought that maybe it is just hilarious because
09:04you all elected him, the Family Guy team made the bold decision to still go ahead and make an episode
09:08that was entirely dedicated to just ripping and dunking on Trump. There was no real setup to the
09:13episode. Peter just immediately got a new job in Trump's White House to allow the maximum amount of
09:18time making jokes at the President's expense. From his appearance to his children, calling him a lumpy
09:23orange garbage vegetable and painting him as Jabba the Hutt grabbing Meg, you know where, the writers
09:28did not hold back. As silly as some of it was, there was a genuinely strong point made by the end of
09:33the 22 minutes. People can get offended by Family Guy and the stupid jokes they make, but this was a
09:38cartoon they 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 MacFarlane's decision to really go ham on this
09:48episode was kind of, maybe, like a whole national or international coping mechanism. Even if you
09:53usually 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, probably made out of spite.
10:02If you can think of any more then let us know in the comments down below and remember to check out
10:06whatculture.com for more lists and articles like this every single day. As always, I've been Amy from
10:11WhatCulture and I'll catch you next time!
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