Across 14 seasons and 266 episodes, Family Guy has cracked jokes about everything from Star Wars to the Detroit Lions to cool whip. So what’s the FOX animated comedy’s latest target? YouTube. In the show’s April 17th episode, Stewie cracked jokes about YouTube stars Jenna Marbles, Ray William Johnson, Bethany Mota, Marcus Butler, and Ingrid Nilsen, defining them as both rich and anonymous.
In turn, Stewie mentions the above content creators, and each time, Brian echoes the sentiments of Americans of a certain age by not recognizing any of the names. As Stewie notes, Brian’s ignorance doesn’t matter, because those YouTubers are rich. “This,” he concludes, pointing to the FOX logo in the corner of the screen, “this is over.”
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It’s fun to see a major network show riffing on the online video community, even if Family Guy is overstating the amount money that can be made on the Internet. As creators a few steps down the ladder from big shots like Marbles and Mota have noted, funds can often be tight, especially once a channel’s production costs are taken into account.
But that’s OK, because it’s a joke, and when you make a joke, you get to take creative liberties. Or so I’ve heard.
