Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane details how the long-running animated series “unintentionally” predicted the TikTok era in a new conversation with Jordan Rose for Complex.
Asked how he’s been able to navigate multiple phases of the industry, spanning from DVD to streaming and beyond, MacFarlane, whose Family Guy character Stewie was confirmed on Thursday (March 11) to be getting his own spinoff, connected the original series’ penchant for short-form cutaway gags to Gary Larson’s single-panel cartoon series The Far Side.
“You know, what’s interesting about Family Guy is that unintentionally it—in a strange way—predicted the age of TikTok,” MacFarlane told Complex, as seen above and below. “The cutaways were based on the format of The Far Side, the Gary Larson comic strip from the ‘80s and ‘90s. They were these single-panel comic strips that were just groundbreaking.”
Larson’s style, MacFarlane explained, was able to take the format into uncharted territory, ultimately proving to be a massive inspiration for Family Guy.
“Suddenly, it was dangerous,” he added. “It was edgy. It actually made you laugh out loud rather than just acknowledging that something was funny on paper. So that was a huge influence on Family Guy, and the cutaways were a manifestation of that. We could not have known that that little 10-second, 20-second format would be perfect for TikTok. So, it was accidental. We never made any effort to adapt ourselves to the new media. It just kind of happened. We’re not that smart.”
Stewie, set for a 2027-2028 TV season premiere, was announced this past Thursday to have scored a two-season order from Fox. The Family Guy spinoff, per a report from Deadline, is set to focus on the character’s journey through preschool, with “time and space travel” also mentioned as playing a mysterious role in the larger story. MacFarlane, who has long voiced the character, will take on the role again for the new series.
