“Family Guy” devoted Sunday’s entire episode to mocking President Trump, with one scene in particular bringing poor Meg into the mess.
While “Trump Guy” included jokes both big (a minute-long fight scene between Trump and Peter, his new press secretary, throughout Washington, D.C.) and small (about Trump’s hands), the “clearly offensive” moment came when “Family Guy” showrunners Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin decided to take on what may be Trump’s most inappropriately quotable moment.
Yes, there is a “grab her by the p—-y” scene in the episode, and it involves Peter’s daughter, Meg, who has been brought to Trump, all dolled-up.
“Let’s play a game,” Appel told Entertainment Weekly. “If I say the words ‘Donald Trump’ to you, what’s the first thing you think? … The only point in using Meg was to show that men like Trump can attempt to prey on vulnerable people. It’s clearly offensive and gross and not appropriate. But not only didn’t we not want to show it, we don’t want to be too explicit about exactly what happened.”
When asked how the Seth MacFarlane-created comedy went about handling the sensitive topic of sexual assault, Appel added: “We wanted to touch on this aspect of Trump’s public face, without putting Meg in too compromised a position. And the focus of the show was not [that]; our point was that Peter and Lois found it hard to believe at first that the president could be accused of an unwanted touching, but as is so often the case, people who question someone’s reporting of an unwanted touching realize they need to take it really seriously, and that’s what happens in the episode.”
“Family Guy” airs Sundays at 9/8c on Fox.