Seth MacFarlane Slams Fox News with Family Guy “Vaccine Awareness” PSA

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has never been afraid to call out his employers at Fox for fomenting misinformation and outright lies with their sister network Fox News. Now, in light of Fox News’s fearmongering around the Covid-19 vaccine, Family Guy has released a public service announcement that explains how the vaccines work and why it’s so important to get one.

MacFarlane and the Family Guy showrunners collaborated with a team of scientific experts and epidemiologists to write the PSA, along with help from the Ad Council’s “It’s Up To You” Covid-19 Vaccine Education Initiative. “We were proud to work with some of the nation’s leading immunologists and epidemiologists on this PSA. And while we never understood a single note they gave us, we took them all,” said Family Guy EP-showrunners Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin.

In an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, MacFarlane told Kimmel that he was inspired by the Super Friends PSAs of his youth.

MacFarlane mocked Fox News by quipping, “That’s why we did this Family Guy PSA because I looked around and I saw everyone else at Fox Corp. doing their part to get good science out there and be responsible with their platforms, and looking down the barrel of that kind of peer pressure, I said, ‘Well gosh, we’ve got to do something too.’”

Kimmel and MacFarlane then called out the hypocrisy of Fox News for relentlessly criticizing Biden’s vaccine mandates while having a vaccine mandate of their own.

The Family Guy PSA concisely covers the importance of vaccines, and how they work to fight the Covid virus, along with a dig at Gal Gadot’s “Imagine” video. MacFarlane also addressed what he called the “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” relationship he has with Fox vs. the Fox News agenda.

“I think you see on the news side, they’re obviously in their imaginary fairy land, and then you have the entertainment side that’s like ‘okay, we gotta exist with these people, so let’s be political and let’s make the best of it,'” said MacFarlane.

The two also discussed the history of PSAs, which had me wondering why the government and Hollywood haven’t partnered to make a massive PSA campaign to support masking/getting vaccinated. It’s honestly shocking that we’re 20 months into the pandemic, and Marvel hasn’t released a video or ad campaign of the Avengers advising the public to get vaccinated. Same goes for you too, DC and Warner Bros. Get on it!

You can watch the interview in full here:

(via Deadline, image: screencap)

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Chelsea Steiner

Chelsea was born and raised in New Orleans, which explains her affinity for cheesy grits and Britney Spears. An pop culture journalist since 2012, her work has appeared on Autostraddle, AfterEllen, and more. Her beats include queer popular culture, film, television, republican clownery, and the unwavering belief that 'The Long Kiss Goodnight' is the greatest movie ever made. She currently resides in sunny Los Angeles, with her husband, 2 sons, and one poorly behaved rescue dog. She is a former roller derby girl and a black belt in Judo, so she is not to be trifled with. She loves the word “Jewess” and wishes more people used it to describe her.

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