10 Family Guy Episodes Probably Made Out Of Spite
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 at
00:18certain people or concepts, and some of these jabs are made out of deep, deep spite. I'm Amy from
00:24WhatCulture, 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. He
00:56wanted Stewie baptised, and wouldn't even let the Protestant Lois sit at the same dinner table with
01:01him. It wasn't until Lois told Peter that he was now a grown man, and could choose whatever religion
01:06he 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. He
01:24made the point that it was still based around the exploitation of ignorance, and gathering around
01:28to tell tales and sing songs, and that's all it is. Unsurprising that they got a lot of religious
01:32pushback 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 of
01:55Fox News. After the usual news anchor was sent to Guantanamo Bay, Lois became the station's
02:00new anchor, and was immediately tasked with an expose about the possible homosexuality of Michael
02:05Moore. However, 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 made
02:18sure to include pictures of several Republican presidents on the Fox News wall, just to drive
02:23home the point. 8. 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 someone having to
02:50stand up to Putin to survive was clear. The two settled their differences in a boxing ring, which
02:55ultimately ended in a dance. However, at the end of the episode, a voiceover from Peter referenced
02:59Alexei Navalny. And, after talking all night, Vlad poisoned Peter with radioactive tea, who then
03:04lost half of his body weight, all of his hair, and grew lesions that would never heal. This entire
03:09episode 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 to
03:17think about just how insane that is. 7. 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
04:56dick, and 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,
05:27and Joseph. 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 light
05:42of 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. Four. Cutaway Land. Family Guy weirdly is both one of the most popular animated shows of
06:01the 20th century, whilst at the same time being one of the most criticised. Among the many things
06:05that often grinds the gears of fans and non-fans of the show are the cutaways. Though quirky and
06:10endearing to begin with, many felt that the show began to rely too much on shock humour and silly
06:15cutaway gags, and less on actual writing. Enter Cutaway Land, an episode that may well have just
06:20been created to piss people off. Never ever scared of offending its audiences, Family Guy looked these
06:25critics in the face and gave them an episode that was just one cutaway after another, as Peter and
06:30Lois travelled 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 showed
06:40Hitler in the gym, and arguably the most well-known of them all, the AIDS song. You want less cutaways,
06:46they said? How about more than ever? Three. Emmy-winning episode. Family Guy's been nominated
06:51for 28 Emmys, and has won a total of eight. However, there is clearly some animosity between
06:56the show's writers and the Emmys themselves. Several jokes have been made over the years,
07:00but the season 16 opener appeared to be a direct shot at the awards show. From the very start of
07:05the episode, Peter and Lois broke the fourth wall by claiming that the show always gets passed over
07:10at the Emmys, and that their crossover with The Simpsons did absolutely nothing for them. For this
07:14episode, then, they would ditch the silly humour and go Emmy hunting. Parodying the likes of Modern
07:19Family, The Big Bang Theory, Breaking Bad, Homeland, The Sopranos, Frasier, and more, Family Guy made it
07:25very clear that they believed there were certain shows and people that won the same awards year
07:29after year. Not that they're bitter about it or anything, they just chose to end the episode by
07:33saying that there's a conspiracy against them and they'll never win one. I'm refraining from comment
07:37at this time, you make your own conclusions. Two. PTV. It's not controversial to say that
07:44Family Guy is just completely synonymous with offensive jokes and shock humour. And if Seth
07:48McFarlane and the writing room can make a joke that not only crosses the line but obliterates it,
07:53they'll make it. Naturally, this led to the show having a turbulent relationship with the FCC and
07:58the Parents Television Council. There have been numerous complaints around sexual content over
08:02the years, but way back in 2005, McFarlane had his own jab back. PTV saw Peter set up his own
08:08TV station in the face of the FCC censoring everything from bikinis to Dick Van Dyke. This
08:13ultimately led to the censoring of life itself, with no audible farts allowed, swearing bleeped
08:18over, and a complete ban on sex. The satire seemingly showed Family Guy's feelings towards
08:23the FCC and, in general, television censorship. They sensationalised an incident at the Emmys
08:28which they believed 20 billion people were offended by, with Bryan making the eloquent
08:32point that there are things much worse for children than television. What wasn't so eloquent
08:36was having a whole song and dance routine set to a backdrop of the show's most sexual moments. But,
08:41hey, 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 McFarlane 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 cringey and lazy
08:58to rip on Trump because it was so overdone, you know, obviously not entertaining the thought that
09:02maybe it is just hilarious because you're elected him, the Family Guy team made the bold decision
09:07to still 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. From
09:20his appearance to his children, calling him a lumpy orange garbage vegetable and painting him
09:25as Jabba the Hutt grabbing Meg, you know where, the writers did not hold back. As silly as some
09:30of it was, there was a genuinely strong point made by the end of the 22 minutes. People can
09:34get offended by Family Guy and the stupid jokes they make, but this was a cartoon they couldn't
09:39turn off. Donald Trump was the President of the United States, as embarrassing as that was,
09:43and there was no way to turn him off. So McFarlane's decision to really go ham on this
09:48episode was kind of, maybe, like a whole national or international coping mechanism?
09:52Even if you usually hate Family Guy, that's one thing you can bond over. You probably hated Trump
09:57more. And with that, we've reached the end of this list of 10 Family Guy episodes, probably
10:01made out of spite. If you can think of any more, then let us know in the comments down below,
10:05and remember to check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like this every single day.
10:09As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture, and I'll catch you next time.