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 Guy on
00:05 the topic of longevity. Now, in its 20th season, the show has been through many,
00:09 many different eras, and has never once been afraid to say exactly what it means.
00:14 Of course, this means that there's been lots of episodes that make particular jabs or shots at
00:18 certain 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 organized 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 religion.
00:45 Though he was raised Catholic, Seth MacFarlane is now a proud atheist,
00:49 and he would have a lot to relate to with Peter Griffin in this episode.
00:52 Francis, Peter's father, was a devout Catholic and hated anybody that disagreed with him.
00:56 He wanted Stewie baptized, and wouldn't even let the Protestant Lois sit at the same dinner table
01:01 with him. It wasn't until Lois told Peter that he was now a grown man, and could choose whatever
01:06 religion he wanted, that he realized he didn't have to follow in his father's faith. In real life,
01:11 this is where Seth MacFarlane renounced religion altogether, but obviously in the show that's not
01:15 enough, so Peter decided to set up the first United Church of the Fonz. The point of this
01:19 episode came from Brian, in that really this was no different to any other organized religion. He
01:24 made the point that it was still based around the exploitation of ignorance and gathering around to
01:28 tell tales and sing songs, and that's all it is. Unsurprising that they got a lot of religious
01:32 pushback on this one, but you know, you take the risks.
01:35 9. Foxy Lady
01:37 In spite of Family Guy's home being on Fox Network, in recent years particularly,
01:41 Seth 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 thought of
01:55 Fox News. After the usual news anchor was sent to Guantanamo Bay, Lois became the station's new
02:00 anchor, and was immediately tasked with an expose about the possible homosexuality of Michael Moore.
02:05 However, when the story seemed to implicate the extreme right-wing Rush Limbaugh, Fox no longer
02:10 wanted the story to run. Brian himself said that they have a biased agenda, and that they're an
02:14 "evil" company that Lois would have sold her soul to work for. The very liberal Seth MacFarlane
02:18 made sure to include pictures of several Republican presidents on the Fox News wall,
02:22 just to drive home the point.
02:24 8. P.T. 4
02:26 Political figures are never safe from the trademark satire of Seth MacFarlane and Family Guy. It all
02:31 came from Peter and the guys watching a Russian bootleg copy of Rocky IV, and seeing Drago beat
02:36 the titular character. This led to Peter challenging Vladimir Putin to a fight, and after a brief spell
02:41 as friends, Peter realised just how evil, controlling, and dangerous the Russian leader was.
02:46 In Family Guy, this came in the form of suspending Tom Brady, but the message of someone having to
02:50 stand up to Putin to survive was clear. The two settled their differences in a boxing ring, which
02:55 ultimately ended in a dance. However, at the end of the episode, a voiceover from Peter referenced
02:59 Alexei Navalny. And, after talking all night, Vlad poisoned Peter with radioactive tea, who then
03:04 lost half of his body weight, all of his hair, and grew lesions that would never heal. This entire
03:09 episode seemed to be produced just to make the point that this man was the President of the
03:13 United States' best friend, obviously at the time Trump was in power, and to encourage people to
03:17 think about just how insane that is. 7. 420
03:22 If you can think of just about any hot topic that divides the entire population of the USA,
03:26 there's a good chance Family Guy has had a say on the subject. This is certainly the case with the
03:30 legalisation of marijuana. Seth MacFarlane is an advocate for legalising it, and has even admitted
03:35 to smoking pot with his parents in the past. Like many things, he was able to put across his own
03:39 views with Family Guy, in this case, how he believes the country and the government sensationalises
03:43 pot. In the episode, two cops let Peter go despite being drunk at the wheel, covered in blood with a
03:48 corpse in the back seat, and a map detailing where he was going to bury the body. And yet,
03:52 when they found a small amount of pot on Brian, he was sent straight to prison. As something of an
03:57 attack on the phony war on drugs, in which Brian tells the real reason marijuana is illegal and
04:01 that it's less dangerous than alcohol, Family Guy certainly took their shots, complete with one of
04:06 the greatest closing songs to date. Six, excellence in broadcasting.
04:11 Essentially, people know Seth MacFarlane as a liberal who's against everything that the Republican
04:15 Party stands for. So, when he chose to have prominent Republican Rush Limbaugh feature on
04:20 the show in Season 9, people were a little bit surprised. Limbaugh voiced his own character,
04:24 despite being opposed to MacFarlane in just about every political aspect. This did, however, give
04:29 the writers, and MacFarlane in particular, the platform to call out everything the Republicans
04:33 stand for. The episode called the party out on a laundry list of issues, from being racist,
04:38 to their unwavering stance on abortions, oil money, the death penalty, executing children,
04:43 never giving women credit for anything, helping rich white guys whenever they need a tax break,
04:46 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 right-wing
04:56 dick, and a boneheaded fascist corporate shilling blowhard. All of this was in Brian's voice,
05:01 of course, but that is also just Seth's normal speaking voice, and it's likely that there was
05:05 very little acting needed there. 5. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
05:09 As said previously, Seth MacFarlane isn't exactly one for religion. Not only has there previously
05:14 been an episode of Family Guy that called out Christianity, in this one the target became a
05:18 little more specific. As Peter and the family sat down after decorating the Christmas tree,
05:22 he began to tell them a story. It wasn't Star Wars this time, but the tale of Jesus, Mary,
05:27 and Joseph. The tone was set straight away, as Peter describes it as an awe-inspiring tale that's
05:32 cost millions and millions of lives. From here, the episode essentially cracked jokes at the
05:37 expense of both the story and Christianity in general. It pointed out plot holes, and made
05:41 light of one of the most important aspects of the entire Bible. There have been plenty of Family Guy
05:46 episodes that have been based around Christianity, such as Jesus pretending to be a virgin to get
05:50 girls, but here the writers targeted one specific piece of the religion, and totally tore it to
05:55 shreds. Four. Cutaway Land. Family Guy weirdly is both one of the most popular animated shows of
06:01 the 20th century, whilst at the same time being one of the most criticized. Among the many things
06:05 that often grinds the gears of fans and non-fans of the show are the cutaways. Though quirky and
06:10 endearing 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. Enter Cutaway Land, an episode that may well have just
06:20 been created to piss people off. Never ever scared of offending its audiences, Family Guy looked
06:25 these critics in the face and gave them an episode that was just one cutaway after another, as Peter
06:30 and Lois travelled 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 ever cutaway
06:40 that showed Hitler in the gym, and arguably the most well-known of them all, the AIDS song. You
06:44 want less cutaways, they said? How about more than ever? Three. Emmy-winning episode. Family Guy's
06:51 been nominated for 28 Emmys and has won a total of eight. However, there is clearly some animosity
06:56 between the show's writers and the Emmys themselves. Several jokes have been made over the years, but
07:00 the season 16 opener appeared to be a direct shot at the awards show. From the very start of the
07:05 episode, Peter and Lois broke the fourth wall by claiming that the show always gets passed over at
07:10 the Emmys, and that their crossover with The Simpsons did absolutely nothing for them. For
07:14 this episode, then, they would ditch the silly humour and go Emmy-hunting. Parodying the likes
07:18 of Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, Breaking Bad, Homeland, The Sopranos, Frasier, and more,
07:24 Family Guy made it very clear that they believed there were certain shows and people that won the
07:28 same awards year after year. Not that they're bitter about it or anything, they just chose to
07:32 end the episode by saying that there's a conspiracy against them and they'll never win one. I'm
07:36 refraining from comment at this time, you make your own conclusions. Two. PTV. It's not controversial
07:43 to say that Family Guy is just completely synonymous with offensive jokes and shock humour.
07:48 And if Seth MacFarlane and the writing room can make a joke that not only crosses the line but
07:52 obliterates it, they'll make it. Naturally, this led to the show having a turbulent relationship
07:57 with the FCC and the Parents Television Council. There have been numerous complaints around sexual
08:01 content over the years, but way back in 2005, MacFarlane had his own jab back. PTV saw Peter
08:07 set up his own TV station in the face of the FCC censoring everything from bikinis to Dick Van
08:12 Dyke. This ultimately led to the censoring of life itself, with no audible farts allowed,
08:17 swearing bleeped over, and a complete ban on sex. This satire seemingly showed Family Guy's
08:22 feelings towards the FCC and, in general, television censorship. They sensationalized
08:27 an incident at the Emmys which they believed 20 billion people were offended by, with Bryan
08:31 making the eloquent point that there are things much worse for children than television. What
08:35 wasn't so eloquent was having a whole song and dance routine set to a backdrop of the show's
08:39 most sexual moments. But hey, Family Guy has never been one for subtlety.
08:43 1. Trump Guy
08:45 Just in case you hadn't got the message already from the constant Republican slamming,
08:50 Seth MacFarlane doesn't like them, and unsurprisingly, he didn't like their President
08:53 Trump. Even in a time when Republicans were trying to convince us that it was just cringey and lazy
08:58 to rip on Trump because it was so overdone - you know, obviously not entertaining the thought that
09:02 maybe it is just hilarious because you're elected him - the Family Guy team made the bold decision
09:07 to still go ahead and make an episode that was entirely dedicated to just ripping and dunking
09:11 on Trump. 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. From
09:20 his appearance to his children, calling him a lumpy orange garbage vegetable and painting him
09:25 as Jabba the Hutt grabbing Meg... you know where, the writers did not hold back. As silly as some
09:30 of it was, there was a genuinely strong point made by the end of the 22 minutes. People can get
09:34 offended by Family Guy and the stupid jokes they make, but this was a cartoon they couldn't turn
09:39 off. Donald Trump was the President of the United States, as embarrassing as that was, and there was
09:44 no way to turn him off. So McFarlane's decision to really go ham on this episode was kind of,
09:49 maybe, like a whole national or international coping mechanism. Even if you usually hate
09:53 Family Guy, that's 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,
10:00 probably made out of spite. If you can think of any more, then let us know in the comments
10:04 down below, and remember to check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like this
10:08 every 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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