Family Guy earned many fans through its satire. But, its star, Patrick Warburton’s mom, Barbara Lord, was not one of them.
Explaining her reason for hatred, the actor, who plays Joe Swanson, told The Mirror, “There is a huge gap with my parents and myself,” adding, “Something like Family Guy, because they’re so deeply religious they would see it as blasphemous and not truly understanding that satire is what it is.”
Ironically, the money the 59-year-old sent to his mother from the proceeds of the Fox sitcom went to a group calling for the series’ cancellation.
“She’s donated money to Parents Television Council, and their biggest fish to fry is to get Family Guy off the air,” he said.
Despite her repeated attempts, Family Guy lasted 22 seasons and became one of the top-hit sitcoms in television history.
Patrick, meanwhile, argued for the “need for satire in society,” noting, “We need to be able to hold up the mirror; we need to be able to laugh.”
“I think that in the realm of comedy, we need to have that immunity in society so that comedians can feel free to take a swing of the bat and it might be a miss, but if we don’t have satire and we don’t have humor, then we’re all at a tremendous loss,” he concluded.