Family Guy Under Fire For Joke Gone Too Far
Family Guy is coming under fire for a joke they made about Nipsey Hussle's untimely death in 2021.
The adult animated comedy Family Guy has spent the last quarter of a century telling vulgar and out-of-pocket jokes, but now the American television series is getting slammed on Twitter for a joke they made in 2021 about Nipsey Hussle. The belated online cancelation is in response to a tweet that posted a clip from a Season 19 episode of the Disney-owned show where Chris tells Peter and Lois that he is going to a music festival and then makes a joke about the late Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle.
In the episode titled “Young Parent Trap,” Chris and Meg are posing as a millennial couple to try to out Peter and Lois, who are also posing as a young millennial couple, and they get invited to a music festival. In the now viral Family Guy clip, Chris informs Peter of the festival where there will be a hologram of 2Pac and Nipsey Hussle, the former of which Chris has never heard of before. The online controversy comes from the rapper’s fans, who believe that a joke at the musician’s expense is in poor taste.
There seem to be three sides to the debate around the joke. On one hand, many Twitter users feel similarly to the tweet above in the regard that they feel the Family Guy Nipsey Hussle joke was insensitive to the rapper’s untimely and tragic death. This particular Twitter user pointed out that there may have even been racial biases behind the joke.
Others supported this stance by claiming that the Family Guy Nipsey Hussle joke was racially fueled on purpose with the intention to use the out-of-pocket joke to regain relevance in the face of declining viewership. Meanwhile, another tweet wondered if people even tuned in to watch Family Guy anymore.
Others disagreed that the Family Guy Nipsey Hussle joke was offensive, claiming that if the rapper were still alive, he would likely find it funny as well.
While other users thought that those offended by the joke had misinterpreted what the joke meant. This Twitter user pointed out that Family Guy maybe wasn’t making fun of Nipsey Hussle, but rather how people reacted in the wake of the rapper’s death, pointing out that the butt of the joke was not Nipsey Hussle, but the white hipsters that Meg and Chris are dressed up as.
The final argument around the Family Guy Nipsey Hussle joke was that people were taking the joke too seriously and that the animated adult comedy has built its brand around making vulgar and offensive jokes, which was why this particular user found the joke funny.
Whether audiences consider the joke to be funny or insensitive, Family Guy does point out the tragedy of Nipsey Hussle’s career. The young rapper was 33 years old when he died of a gunshot wound, and he has received more attention post-mortem than he did during his lifetime.
Family Guy was created by Seth MacFarlane, who is known for creating absurd comedy content, like the Ted movies series featuring the foul-mouthed teddy bear that comes to life, with jokes that often cross the line. MacFarlane also voices many of the characters in Family Guy, including Peter, Chris’s father, the character who delivered the Nipsey Hussle joke. Chris is voiced by Adult Swim’s Seth Green, Mila Kunis plays his sister Meg, and Alex Borstein plays the mother, Lois Griffin.
