Who’d have thought the innocent-looking bloke on the page opposite was responsible for some of the dirtiest laughs of the decade? As he launches spin-off The Cleveland Show, we chat to Family Guy mastermind – and the voice of Peter, Brian, Stewie and Quagmire – Seth McFarlane. Is there anything you’re afraid to joke about? You know, if something is a recent tragedy, we generally steer clear of it. You develop a sixth sense about it. I mean, we’re now treading into the territory of making jokes about 9/11, believe it or not. So you think comedy needs time before something is funny?
Family Guy Puke-A-Thon
Is there a story or joke you wanted really badly to put in that got cut?
Yeah, usually it’s religion based. If there’s a joke that pokes fun at Christianity or Judaism or Islam, usually that’s a problem.
And that’s so much worse than killing babies, right?
Yeah, but I’m an atheist so I don’t give a shit.
Isn’t it weird that Brian is so human and yet does doggy stuff like sniff bums?
Actually, we’ve started to think of Brian as a person, so when the network says, ‘Brian can’t do this, it’s too disgusting,’ our response is, ‘Now wait a minute. He’s an individual. He deserves the same rights.’ We get indignant about him. Even though he’s a dog.
Why did Stewie go from being a homicidal maniac to a gay little songbird?
It wasn’t a conscious decision but we found doing the ‘take over the world’ thing every week was getting played out and felt dated. It was weirdly 90s. Believe me, if we were still doing that, the show would be on its last legs.Homocidal Stewie
Do you share Peter’s hatred of the English?
Noooo, I love the English!
Why?
Because you gave us Benny Hill, Python, The Office… er, Neville Chamberlain? A:
Why does Peter hate the English?
Because Peter is an idiot. He’s a sheltered New England man.
A lot of your jokes go on a long time… and then they go on longer. And then they go past the point where anyone else would have stopped.
Those are easy jokes because the seconds tick by and you don’t have to write new jokes.
Family Guy’s just missed out on an Emmy. What would Stewie wear to the ceremony?
My guess is that we squeaked in. There’s still a lot of bias against animation. [Does Stewie’s voice] And anything by Donna Karan.
Do people ever ask you to record their answerphone message on their phone?
Is that what you want?
Maybe… How many times a day does it happen?
Not a whole bunch, but people have come up to me in airports asking me to do it.
Would you do the ‘You’ve Got Aids’ song?
Sure, yeah. Want me to do it right now? [Goes into ‘You’ve Got Aids’]
Cheers, that’ll be on my phone later. Does the whole cast fancy co-star Mila Kunis, or are you too afraid of Macaulay Culkin to have a crack?
No, I would totally bang her.
So you’re not scared of her Home Alone boyfriend then?
He may be a black belt! I’ll be careful.
Would you ever make a Family Guy movie for theatrical release?
Yes, actually. We have one extremely unexpected approach I think people will like. We don’t want to do just a long episode. There’s no way you could do this idea on TV, let me put it that way.
When are you going to start work on it?
Probably within... You know, I was about to talk out of my ass there. I don’t know. I would hope within the year.
Will you kill off Klaus the goldfish on your other show, American Dad?
No! Why? Oh that’s right, you guys don’t like the Germans. Jesus, it’s been what, 60 years?
Well, y’know, we’re still upset about it.
You’re still smarting!
So do you hate [Simpsons’ creator] Matt Groening then?
People want us to hate each other, but we get along extremely well. He’s a wonderful guy. Serious.
What happened when you first saw The Simpsons?
I’d never seen anything like it in my lifetime. The Flintstones was the last big successful animated show, then The Simpsons came along and blasted open that door. No live-action comedy can hold a candle to it. When I was in college I wanted to work for Disney. As soon as I saw The Simpsons, I said, ‘I don’t want to do Disney. I want to do that.’
Any plans for a Simpsons collaboration then?
The Flintstones Meet The Jetsons, kinda? It’s funny, I’m not joking when I say Matt is a great guy and we’ve developed a friendship. He’s fantastic and it’s certainly possible if I asked him he might say yes. But the physical task of doing it would be next to impossible because there’s no time to even get our own shows done.
What about cameos in the movie?
Maybe. It’s a possibility.
Do you ever forget which one is your normal speaking voice?
No. Luckily, when I’m not on the clock, I tend to instinctively leave the voices there.
Do you have to pull different faces to get in each character?
It happens naturally, yeah. [Talks out of side of mouth] When I do Peter it kind of does that and [talks like Stewie] Stewie kind of goes into this stretched out lip thing.
Have you ever done them wrong, so Peter talks like Stewie?
Oh, yeah. At a table read, absolutely.
What’s going on with The Empire Strikes Back episode [the sequel to the ‘Blue Harvest’ Star Wars parody]?
There was some talk it would be released on DVD first, then aired. I don’t know. It’s basically done, all the writing is done and the animatic is finished. We’re happy with it.
Is there anything besides Star Wars you want to devote a whole double episode to?
Well, if Paramount would let us do Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan, that would be cool. If we could do The Sound Of Music we’d definitely do that. It has to be something everyone’s absolutely familiar with and with Star Wars, we expect our audience to know it word-for-word. So we do gags with that understanding.
We’ll just call Julie Andrews right now, then.
Well, Lucasfilm is very generous. They just said, ‘OK. Do it. Then send it to us,’ and they only had a handful of notes. They’re very progressive in that way. They recognise it’s OK to embrace different forms of media instead of clinging to the old ways. I can’t imagine anyone else letting us to do that.
Have you got any good celebrity cameos coming up on Family Guy?
Stewie and Brian go to Russia with Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd. Should be fun.
Tell us about The Cleveland Show. Will there be any crossovers with Family Guy?
There’ll be no crossover. Cleveland’s moving towns, there’s a whole new crop of characters and Peter’s not going to visit anytime soon. It’ll be a while before Cleveland comes back. Actually, for Empire, we will bring him back so he can play R2D2, but we want to give that show a chance to get its own groove.
Will you be involved?
[Family Guy producers] Rich Appel and Mike Henry are at the helm but I haven’t decided yet whether I’m doing any voiceovers or not. I’m stretched so thin my time is limited.
Would you ever do a spin off with Quagmire?
Probably not. I don’t think he’d be able to sustain it the same way Cleveland could. What’s funny about Quagmire is that he’s so despicable. If you had to do an episode a week where Quagmire had to go through some revelation…
You mean because he’s a one-joke character it would end up like Joey?
Well kind of, yeah. Probably not as good…
Where did ‘giggity’ [Quagmire’s catchphrase] come from?
I have a friend named Steve Marmel who’s a stand up comic. He used to call me and when I picked up the phone he’d go into this Jerry Lewis impression and I’d respond in turn. As time went by we got really lazy about it. It went from [does Jerry Lewis voice] ‘Leigen deee shmoigen deee fleigen goigen’ to just, ‘Hey, giggity.’ So, it seemed kind of funny. A:You did the voice for Johann Kraus in
Hellboy II when director Guillermo del Toro didn’t think you’d do it. What made you?
I’ve never seen the first Hellboy but I do stuff if it sounds cool and if it’s someone I want to work with. Guillermo had a clear idea how he wanted the character to sound. It was exciting because after being on the other side of the recording booth I know it’s vitally important to know exactly what you want. In a weird way it’s also lent me some credibility beyond Family Guy.
What’s going on with your Google shorts?
They’re television-budgeted animations made for the internet. It’s a grand experiment of sorts. It’s basically like a sketch show. There’s a sketch with two ducks watching Meet The Parents and talking about how they just can’t get invested in it. The best analogy I can come up with is it’s like animated versions of a Far Side one-panel.Family Guy Season 7 is out on DVD on 10 Nov. The Cleveland Show will out in the UK next year.
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