In the latest slight at Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, the two suffered the raw side of cartoon humor when they were called out in Family Guy.
The royal breakaways, who are currently residing in California, get flak from crown chasers regularly, but they are not often teased on television programs.
The most recent jibe during the Twain's World episode of the program is the second in two years, the first occurring in 2023, disparaging the value of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s contributions to Netflix.
Highlights
- In the July 17 Family Guy episode, Prince Harry’s marriage is bizarrely grouped with events like the Crusades and Hitler.
- The show had previously ridiculed the couple in a 2023 episode over their Netflix deal and Instagram endorsements.
- Other animated shows, like South Park, have also taken swings at the Sussexes, portraying them as publicity-hungry hypocrites.
Family Guy classed Harry marrying Meghan as just as big an atrocity as the Crusades and WWII
Image credits: Chris Jackson/Getty
In the July 17 installment, the characters Brian Griffin (the talking dog) and Stewie (the precocious toddler), both powered by the voice of the program’s creator, Seth MacFarlane, travel back in time.
Stewie takes the moral high ground during their exploit and warns Brian that a certain action could change the course of history and not necessarily for the better.
“You always say that, but doesn’t history pretty much suck?” Brian complained.
Image credits: FOX
In a bid to make his point, he lists the Crusades and Hitler, then classifies Harry marrying Suits alum Meghan Markle right alongside these atrocities.
The episode depicted Harry watching his marriage being mocked
The scene then cuts to a cartoon depiction of Harry, complete with his red hair, watching the show.
Image credits: FOX
Obviously offended by the reference, he asks, “Again?”, and with his hands on his hips, retorts:
“Oh, like all of your wives are so much better?”
The two caught the attention of the program’s producers a year after they announced their plans to step away from their royal duties.
An earlier episode mirrors suspicions that Harry misses his life at the Palace
In the episode A Stache From the Past, which aired on October 22, 2023, Brian is once again front and center as he tries to devise a plan to recoup money owed to him.
While sitting at a bar, he decides, “I’ll go it alone, just like Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.”
The scene cuts away to a depiction of the two at the side of a pool.
Image credits: FOX
It shows a butler walking in on them as they languish on deck chairs, who addresses Harry: “Sir, your millions from Netflix for no one knows what.”
“Put it with the rest of them,” he tells the butler while gesturing with his hand. Macfarlane took it a step further when he depicted an alert going off on Meghan’s phone.
“Babe, time to do our daily $250,000 sponsored Instagram post for Del Taco,” she says to Harry.
Harry, in line with the public's suspicion that he misses his pampered life with the royal family in England, then laments his departure from it in favor of his American wife, saying, “I shouldn’t have left the made-up nonsense.”
Meghan reacted to a similar mockery by South Park
The satirical animated show, South Park, also jumped on the bandwagon in 2023.
The Comedy Central installment titled The Worldwide Privacy Tour shows the two as royalty from Canada on a mission to convince the public that they were “serious about wanting to be normal.”
Image credits: Comedy Central
They move in across the road from the character Kyle Broflovski, who gets fed up with them quickly.
“I’m sick of hearing about them! But I can’t get away from them. They’re everywhere!” he would later tell his friends.
Some netizens think the furore around Meghan and Harry has been going on for too long
In February of the same year The Spectator quoted an insider saying that she was overwhelmed and annoyed by the episode, and that she “refuses to watch it all.”
Netizens are going with the adage, “Many a true word is spoken in jest.”
“Satire’s sharpest edge cuts where truth hides. Family Guy may exaggerate, but it often echoes what people are really wondering about public figures,” wrote one user philosophically.
Image credits: Karwai Tang/Getty
But not everyone was impressed, and one person wrote:
“I don't get why people think it's funny to mock others all the time, it's just a show but still, some people take it too far.”
“They remain the walking, talking epitome of irrelevance, even in fashionable Montecito,” wrote another, representing anti-Meghan and Harry fans.
Some fans see it as "pure irony"
