An Oscar-Winning Actor Was Not Amused By His Family Guy Parody

Seth MacFarlane’s long-lived animated sitcom “Family Guy” has always been known for its flippant, non-sequitur pop culture references and its deliberately tasteless humor. “Family Guy” is often described as being a show for fratboys, as it taps into crass, low impulses. Almost all the characters on the show are ignorant, impulsive, crass, and often prejudiced. One might be tempted to take offense if the show weren’t also so pointedly adolescent; it’s clear that the writers of “Family Guy” are instructed to go for the quickest, funniest gag, and are not instructed to espouse any kind of irresponsible ethos. The writers are all smart people. They simply love dumb jokes. 

Many jokes are made at the expense of celebrities, and many real-life actors and performers are lampooned openly on the show. Case in point: William Shatner (as played by MacFarlane) is often depicted as posing, vamping, and vogue-ing in his performances, a clear exaggeration of Shatner’s sometimes-clipped acting style. 

“Family Guy” even poked fun at Adrien Brody, for no other reason than he was in the pop consciousness. In the episode “Friends Without Benefits” (December 9, 2012), Meg (Mila Kunis) goes to see a 3-D movie called “Adrien Brody Doing Sit-Ups.” A side view of the screen depicts an outsize nose emerging from the screen to a terrified audience. 

In a 2017 interview with Andy Cohen on “Watch What Happens Live,” MacFarlane revealed that Brody did not appreciate that dig at his nose. That’s fair, as the mockery seems unwarranted. Brody had won an Oscar ten years earlier for playing Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist,” and was largely beloved by audiences. Making fun of his nose seemed like a low blow. 

On “Watch What Happens,” a viewer called in and asked MacFarlane if any celebrities reacted negatively to his lampoons, and MacFarlane immediately brought up Brody. The animator recalled an incident wherein he met Brody at some sort of showbiz function, and had a chance to talk to him. MacFarlane remembered the gag he made at Brody’s expense, so he was a little deferent, choosing instead to talk about a 2009 sci-fi film Brody acted in. MacFarlane said: 

“He didn’t take it all that well. […] I walked up to him at a party because I had Just seen ‘Splice,’ and I thought it was awesome. I said, ‘Hey, I really like “Splice.” I hope there’s no hard feelings.’ And the [implicatios] was ‘Well, there are.'”

Making fun of certain actors’ noses has long been the subject of comedy, going back to caricatures of Jimmy Durante, and lasting through images of Dustin Hoffman. Brody, however, didn’t think it was so funny, especially since his nose was the only punchline, and there wasn’t even a more sophisticated dig at his acting or personality. It’s possible that Brody sensed the gag was also antisemitic, given the history of bigoted caricatures of Jewish people. Brody’s father is of Polish Jewish descent.

“Family Guy” also made fun of Brody in the episode “And Then There Were Fewer” (September 26, 2010). That episode saw the show’s man characters embroiled in an Agatha Christie-like murder mystery. During the investigation, the character of Joe Swanson (Patrick Warburton, who once refused to participate in a certain episode) became annoyed with Tom Tucker (MacFarlane). Joe noted that Tom is such a miserable person that, if there were a movie made about the current murder, Tom would be played by Adrien Brody. 

That, too, seemed like an unwarranted attack on Brody, as he has long been known for his excellent performances. Brody could easily have taken offense at either.