More Flack: Seth MacFarlane, left, and Alex Borstein perform during a Fox show. Image by MICHAEL BECKER/FOX

The animated sitcom ?Family Guy? isn?t exactly high art. The Sunday night, 30-minute program, which airs on the Fox television network, is filled with off-color jokes. Nonetheless, many fans were disappointed when the show?s creator, Seth MacFarlane, took things to a new extreme November 8 during a variety special titled ??Family Guy? Presents: Seth and Alex?s Almost Live Comedy Show.?

More Flack: Seth MacFarlane, left, and Alex Borstein perform during a Fox show. Image by MICHAEL BECKER/FOX

In the special, part of a Fox night of programming celebrating MacFarlane with multiple ?Family Guy? episodes, the screenwriter?s Jewish co-star, Alex Borstein, (who, like MacFarlane, voices a character on the animated series), protests his singing ?Edelweiss? from ?The Sound of Music,? a tribute to Austria. MacFarlane tells Borstein that the television show is not the place to bring out her ?Hebrew baggage.? Still arguing, Borstein reveals that her mother and grandmother ?barely escaped? the Nazis. In response, MacFarlane implies that if World War II were never to have occurred, Borstein would have more competition in Hollywood from Jewish female comedians. ?Right now, it?s just you and Sarah Silverman,? he says. Defeated, Borstein joins MacFarlane in song.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis of the crisis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The variety show included a bit that mocks Jewish actress Marlee Matlin, who is deaf. When asked if she found the show?s controversial jokes offensive, Matlin told EW.com: ?Offensive. No. Sick, very. But that?s Seth and Alex. Humor comes in all forms and everyone has their cup of tea about what makes them laugh.?

Questions regarding MacFarlane?s humor about Jews have long circulated. In 2000, he penned a ?Family Guy? episode titled ?Once Upon a Weinstein.? The show?s Catholic protagonist, Peter, happens upon a Jewish man, and the encounter leads him to conclude that converting his dim-witted son, Chris, to Judaism will increase the boy?s intelligence. Father and son race off to Las Vegas for an instant bar mitzvah, prevented only by the family matriarch, Lois. Due to its controversial content, the episode did not air for several years.

In October, the Forward reported that Fox took flack for airing an episode titled ?Family Goy,? in which Lois discovers her mother is Jewish. The episode was laden with stereotypes.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount