Patrick Warburton has commented on Family Guy's controversial sense of humor, saying that everyone "takes themselves too seriously."
The 58-year-old actor is best known for his portrayal of Joe Swanson, a macho, muscly paraplegic police officer in the Quahog Police Department who is often subject to intense anger problems.
Some of his best moments include revealing that he lost the use of his legs after local criminal Bobby Briggs shot him when he was undercover at Briggs' heroin lab - despite having previously said that he became paralyzed after a faceoff with The Grinch, which saw him slide off the roof and trip on a roller skate, before breaking his spine and leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
Despite being wheelchair-bound, any Family Guy fan could tell you that Joe is one of the toughest characters in the show, not allowing his disability to get in his way of anything.
While many people find the animated adult comedy hilarious, many people often hit out at the show for going a little too far - covering a range of themes like incest, bestiality, racism, and sexual assault. One person who doesn't particularly think the series has any comedic value is Parents Television Council member Barbara Warburton - Patrick's mother - who has criticized the show for "sending the wrong messages to children", per the Daily Mail.
But Patrick disagrees, having recently told Fox News: "I used to apologize for being on Family Guy, and I apologize no more because this world is a horrible native satire. Everybody takes themselves too seriously, and… I think in many ways become an overwhelming mess. But we need humor in our lives, and we need love and humor, acceptance. It's all rather simple."
During the interview, Patrick also spoke about his religious upbringing, and how his mother had raised him. "I was brought up very Catholic. My father was in the monastery for three months. That being said, my mother was worse than my father. I mean, she has scrupulosity, so it's all religion all the time with my mother. Cut to, like, two years ago, when my wife's doing Ancestry.com, she finds out that I'm actually 12.4% Ashkenazi Jew."
The Daily Mail reports that Mrs. Warburton had admitted to praying to God that her son would quit his role on Family Guy.
As for the future of the show, many sources have reported that Seth MacFarlane - the show's creator and the voice of Brian and Peter Griffin - is taking part in the current writer's strike, which is set to continue until the Writers Guild Of America (WGA) has secured a new deal, per NME.
For those who are unaware, the strike began on May 2 after unsuccessful negotiations between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). At this point, it's not known whether MacFarlane's involvement in the strike will affect future seasons of Family Guy.
Hopefully, we'll be seeing those "good old-fashioned values" soon!
