While speaking with Digital Spy in 2019, Patrick Warburton, who plays Joe Swanson on Family Guy, revealed that he refused to lend his voice to an episode only once. Though he said that he believed showrunner Seth MacFarlane had crossed the line on the show “a number of times,” he found a scripted gag from the episode in question to be too offensive to even repeat.
“It had to do with Christ on the cross, but there was no humor in it, and it was just so, so horribly offensive,” the actor explained. Although the joke had nothing to do with his character, Warburton told producers he wouldn’t participate if it was kept in.
Warburton went on to say that he was assured the offending segment wouldn’t make it past standards and practices, but he still questioned why it had to be there at all. In his mind, they were only facing diminished returns by including it because of how offensive it was to Christian people. Warburton also acknowledged that with a show being on the air as long as Family Guy, swings and misses are bound to happen. Yet and still, he feels as though the jokes they’ve done over the years have been clever enough to work more often than not.
A ‘Family Guy’ Voice Actor Once Refused to Work on an Episode Over a Joke About Jesus
It isn’t clear whether the offensive gag Warburton was referring to ever ended up being used on Family Guy. However, it’s worth pointing out that the long-running animated series has made jokes about Jesus on the cross on more than one occasion. The Season 13 episode “Stewie, Chris, & Brian’s Excellent Adventure” contains a cutaway gag about Jesus dying from a combination of cocaine and severe trauma to the colon rather than being crucified.
Interestingly, Warburton is nowhere to be found in this one, and assuming you’re not him, you can check that scene out right here:
Conversely, Warburton voiced Joe Swanson in Season 16’s “Veteran Guy,” which aired a year before his interview with Digital Spy. Nevertheless, the episode managed to somehow squeeze in a Jesus cutaway without him taking issue. This time around, the Messiah has to talk a nervous Ancient Roman intern through the process of crucifying him. Take a look for yourself below.
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