Jon Stewart has gotten into a number of heated debates with people since taking over The Daily Show in 1999, but there was at least one angry exchange the viewers at home never got to hear. While appearing on Piers Morgan’s show in 2011, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane revealed that he once found himself on the receiving end of Stewart’s ire due to a joke he made pertaining to the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike.
For context, MacFarlane participated in the strike and sided with the Writers Guild, whereas Stewart opted to do his show anyway, reportedly claiming that his writers stood behind his decision. Some sources suggest that this Family Guy gag from the 2008 episode “McStroke” was in reference to that:
According to MacFarlane, Stewart didn’t appreciate being called out publicly and made his feelings very clear during an angry hour-long phone conversation afterward. MacFarlane went on to call Stewart a “phenomenally good debater,” and said that if anyone had been keeping score that night, Stewart would’ve been the winner.
More than anything else, however, MacFarlane remembered being in shock at the situation’s oddness. Leading up to that, MacFarlane had been a big fan of The Daily Show and couldn’t have possibly foreseen being yelled at by Stewart over a joke.
The Jon Stewart-Seth MacFarlane Feud Revisited
Looking back, MacFarlane told Morgan that the overall effect of the Writers Guild strike was debatable. Yet and still, he felt that it was important for people in positions of power to stand up for those who weren’t at their level. Stewart’s response to that was, “Who the hell made you the moral arbiter of Hollywood?” By MacFarlane’s own admission, it would’ve been a good response in any debate.
MacFarlane maintained that he thought Stewart was wrong for not shutting down his show, and argued that the Family Guy gag came from the right place. At the same time, MacFarlane acknowledged that it probably could’ve been better executed. In the end, he stood by his point of view on the subject. Since then, MacFarlane and Stewart seem to have quietly made up, as MacFarlane has appeared on The Daily Show a few times since sharing his story with Morgan all those years ago.
The post 18 Years Ago, Jon Stewart Yelled at Seth MacFarlane for an Hour Over a ‘Family Guy’ Joke appeared first on VICE.
