Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, has noticed several similarities between the title character of his work and Stewie Griffin. Ware has remarked, "[The similarities are] a little too coincidental to be simply, well, coincidental." He further stated, "I don't want a book of seven years' worth of my stuff to become available and then be accused of being a rip-off of Family Guy." 20th Century Fox Television has insisted that Stewie is an entirely original character. In a 2003 interview, Seth MacFarlane said that he had never seen the comic strip before, described the similarities as "pretty shocking" and said that he "could see how Ware would reach that conclusion." Double Dribble An incident occurred when an episode of Family Guy included footage from a seven-year-old YouTube video displaying a glitch in the NES game Double Dribble. The inclusion of the footage in the episode led to the removal of the original video by YouTube's automated content identification system. Within a few days however, the video was reinstated after a backlash from the community. Ultimately Fox released an apology after the video was reinstated. Responses Parents Television Council MacFarlane, whose other series American Dad! and The Cleveland Show have also been criticized by the PTC, has fired back on several occasions. In a 2008 interview with the magazine The Advocate, he said: Gay jokes In January 2019, it was confirmed that Family Guy would no longer write gay jokes. During the episode "Trump Guy" which premiered on January 13, 2019, Peter Griffin, was seen telling a cartoon President Trump that the show was trying to "phase out" gay jokes. The change in direction was confirmed by the show's executive producers Alec Sulkin and Rich Appel, along with creator Seth MacFarlane, who stated that they wanted to better reflect the current climate in the show due to societal changes which have seen the jokes become frowned upon over time. In the Season 18 episode "Disney's The Reboot" which premiered on October 20, 2019, when asked "I thought I read you guys were phasing out gay jokes?" Peter Griffin replies: "That quote was taken out of context and widely misunderstood." References 20th-century controversies 21st-century controversies Animation controversies in television Criticism of television series controversies Obscenity controversies in animation Obscenity controversies in television LGBT-related controversies in animation LGBT-related controversies in television Political controversies in television Mass media-related controversies in the United States