Fox hit “Family Guy” will phase out gay jokes, executive producers Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin revealed during a Sunday interview.
“If you look at a show from 2005 or 2006 and put it side by side with a show from 2018 or 2019, they’re going to have a few differences,” Sulkin told TVLine in an interview Sunday. “Some of the things we felt comfortable saying and joking about back then, we now understand is not acceptable.”
“It’s almost unique to Family Guy, though I can think of one other show that’s been on the air longer,” Appel chimed in. “But if a show has literally been on the air for 20 years, the culture changes. And it’s not us reacting and thinking, ‘They won’t let us [say certain things].’ No, we’ve changed too. The climate is different, the culture is different and our views are different. They’ve been shaped by the reality around us, so I think the show has to shift and evolve in a lot of different ways.”
But “Family Guy” will keep in step with politically incorrect humor when it comes to President Donald Trump, of course. In a recent episode of the show, writers took aim at Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, First Daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner.
During the episode, the Trump character sexually assaults Meg Griffin, who is initially not believed by parents Peter and Lois Griffin. “What would your third wife, the soft-core girl-on-girl porn lady, think about this?” Peter’s character says to Trump. “Or the actual porn star your lawyer paid hush money to?”
“When I’m done with you, you’ll be pretty enough to marry an Orthodox Jewish son of a felon who’s too stupid to get into Harvard the normal way,” the Ivanka character says to Meg.
Other comedies are seemingly shifting to a more politically correct mode, too. In October, it was rumored that “The Simpsons” are soon to drop beloved character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, an Indian immigrant who runs a Kwik-E-Mart convenience store.
Film producer Adi Shankar told IndieWire, “I’ve verified from multiple sources now: They’re going to drop the Apu character altogether. They aren’t going to make a big deal out of it, or anything like that, but they’ll drop him altogether just to avoid the controversy.”
Though NBC hit “The Office” is no longer on-air, lead actor Steve Carell recently admitted the show could not stand in today’s current PC-culture.
It “might be impossible to do that show today and have people accept it the way it was accepted 10 years ago. The climate’s different,”Carell told Esquire in October, adding, “I mean, the whole idea of that character, Michael Scott, so much of it was predicated on inappropriate behavior. … A lot of what is depicted on that show is completely wrong-minded. That’s the point, you know? But I just don’t know how that would fly now. There’s a very high awareness of offensive things today—which is good, for sure. But at the same time, when you take a character like that too literally, it doesn’t really work.”