MacFarlane Looks To Stew Up Laughs

Seth MacFarlane is bent on world domination.

Actually, that’s just the goal of Stewie Griffin, a baby on MacFarlane’s hit cartoon “Family Guy” whose head is shaped like a football and whose voice sounds like that of a British-accented autocrat.

Neil K. Mehta ’06, a second class marshal who heads this year’s class day speaker committee, said that he has relayed many seniors’ requests for MacFarlane to speak in the voice of Stewie during his speech today at 2 p.m. in Tercentenary Theatre. Stewie, who often makes sexual jokes and talks about killing his mother, is one of the most offensive characters on the cartoon show.

Concern over the offensive nature of “Family Guy,” which premiered on Fox in 1999, arose in its first season. Eventually the show was cancelled due to low ratings in early 2002, but before it was pushed off the air, some groups expressed their disapproval of the show’s content. The Parents Television Council, for example, ranked “Family Guy” second on a list of the worst television shows for children, calling it “unbelievably foul.”

However, when DVD sales of the episode skyrocketed after “Family Guy” was cancelled, Fox reinstated the show in May 2005.

Whether MacFarlane’s speech will resemble the show’s content remains to be seen. After what some considered a vulgar Class Day speech by Sacha Baron Cohen—known by the stage name Ali G.—in 2004, concern about the content of Class Day speeches rose.

Last June, class marshal Caleb I. Franklin ’05 told The Crimson that the Harvard administration advised the Senior Class Committee to avoid selecting speakers who might offend older Class Day attendees. Some speculated that the choice of NBC news anchor Tim Russert for last year’s Class Day speaker may have been a reaction to the choice of Cohen the year before. Every Class Day speaker beginning in 2002 had been a comedian before Russert was selected.

“I didn’t see Tim Russert, but I’m more excited about it than I would be if it were Tim Russert,” Clay T. Capp ’06, a “Family Guy” fan, said.

Mehta said that the administration did not suggest that the committee avoid choosing certain speakers.

“No one put pressure on us,” he said.

Mehta said that the committee considered a wide range of speakers. He said that he and other members discussed MacFarlane early on as a good choice for a speaker, but the committee’s final list of options did not only include comedians.

“It’s not as if people said, ‘Tim Russert was not a comedian last year so we have to alternate,’” he said.

MacFarlane’s sense of humor is infused into every aspect of “Family Guy” because he writes, directs, produces, draws and provides the voices for several characters on the popular show. “Family Guy” won Emmys in 2000 for outstanding voice-over performance for the character of Stewie and in 2002 for outstanding music and lyrics in “Family Guy.” MacFarlane is also the creator and executive producer for Fox’s new show, “American Dad.” Over the past week, the busy comedian could not be reached for comment.

MacFarlane grew up in Kent, Conn., and attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where he created his short film “The Life of Larry.” Hanna-Barbera executives picked up the film and hired MacFarlane to write another one for them in Los Angeles.

After MacFarlane worked on several animated series, including “Ace Ventura” and “Johnny Bravo,” Fox’s late-night comedy sketch show “MADtv” approached MacFarlane about airing segments of “The Life of Larry” on its program. Although this deal never came to fruition, Fox still took notice of MacFarlane and gave him the chance to write his own animated series.

Other than informing MacFarlane that Harvard seniors would like to hear him portray Stewie pontificate about taking over the world, the committee gave him no further direction in his speech.

“It’s a total blank slate for him,” he said.

—Staff writer Katherine M. Gray can be reached at kmgray@fas.harvard.edu.