Seth MacFarlane Rips Into Fox News With 'Family Guy' Sketch

Family Guy took shots at Fox News with a new PSA about the COVID-19 vaccine, and series creator Seth MacFarlane said that it was completely intentional. MacFarlane appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week ahead of the premiere of Family Guy Season 20, where he discussed the show's latest stunt. MacFarlane has been very blunt about his dislike of sharing a network with Fox News in recent months.

"We did this Family Guy PSA about vaccination because I looked around, and I saw everyone else at Fox Corp doing their part to get good science out there... and looking down the barrel of that kind of peer pressure, I said 'gosh, we've got to do something too," MacFarlane said sarcastically. He and Kimmel cracked jokes about Fox News' anchors' general criticism of COVID-19 safety guidelines - particularly vaccine mandates, considering that the Fox company itself has a vaccine mandate for employees already in place. With that, they rolled the Family Guy PSA.

The clip itself featured Family Guy's Stewie and Brian - both voiced by MacFarlane himself - discussing the importance of getting vaccinated and the common concerns surrounding it. By the show's standards, there were few jokes included, although there was one merciless quip about the viral clip of Gal Gadot singing "Imagine" by The Beatles.

Back at the news desk, MacFarlane and Kimmel made some more jokes about the social and political climate within Fox, particularly the juxtaposition between the news division and the entertainment side. Kimmel asked if the company had any qualms about MacFarlane's PSA, and he said they did not.

"It's very civil of them," he joked. He said that the company is like "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," and that neither side wants to be associated with the other one. "I mean, you see on the news side, they're obviously in their imaginary fairyland, and then you have the entertainment side that's like 'alright, we've got to exist with these people, so let's be political, and let's make the best of it."

This is the second Family Guy vaccination PSA, the first of which was released back in April. The new one will be airing on Hulu and broadcast TV this week leading up to the new season. Family Guy Season 20 premieres on Sunday, Sept. 26 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Fox.