Microsoft is shocked to find racy content in “Family Guy” special. Pulls Out

Published on October 26th, 2009

Posted by John C Dvorak in computers, media

Microsoft is shocked to find racy content in “Family Guy” special | Los Angeles Times — What idiots.

Less than two weeks after announcing that it would be the sole sponsor of Fox’s November 8 “Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show,” Microsoft has pulled out.

MACFARLANE According to Variety’s Mike Schneider, who broke the story, everything was humming along just fine until the folks at Microsoft went to the taping of the special last week and were shocked, shocked to find racy humor and tasteless jokes about deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest.

29 users responded in " Microsoft is shocked to find racy content in “Family Guy” special. Pulls Out "

Subscribe to this post comment rss or trackback url

# 1 tikichaos12 said, on October 26th, 2009 at 4:18 pm

Who has ever heard of racy content or tasteless humor in Family Guy? I find this an outrage!

# 2 qb said, on October 26th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

Who wants chowder?

# 3 Troll said, on October 26th, 2009 at 4:22 pm

Huh!? You mean Microsoft folks have better things to do than watch moronic cartoons? Wow!

# 4 Zybch said, on October 26th, 2009 at 4:23 pm

Seriously, what did MS expect?
However they shouldn’t have pulled out prematurely (rhythm method perhaps).
In the same way that many of the Win7 wallpapers are a drastic departure from the stayed old boring HDR landscape images MS usually include, having a bit of raunch and ‘racy’ content would have done them a lot of good in the eyes of people who had written them off as being too big to change and becoming irrelevant.

# 5 Improbus said, on October 26th, 2009 at 4:25 pm

They have billions in the bank but still can’t figure out how to buy a clue. Jeez.

# 6 sargasso said, on October 26th, 2009 at 4:42 pm

#1. I agree, entirely. Outrageous!

# 7 honeyman said, on October 26th, 2009 at 4:44 pm

Possibly the only cool(ish) bit of marketing Microsoft have ever done, and they ruin it by pulling out and making idiots of themselves. Good work, Microsoft. You are the guru’s of uncool.

# 8 cantigas said, on October 26th, 2009 at 4:49 pm

Family Guy doesn’t appeal to little asian girls who make slide shows with ponies.

# 9 WTF said, on October 26th, 2009 at 5:47 pm

(snip)….racy humor and tasteless jokes about deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest.

Hmm, I may just have to check this show out

# 10 dm said, on October 26th, 2009 at 5:48 pm

If I pull out when I’m micro soft, that means it’s too late.

# 11 Carcarius said, on October 26th, 2009 at 7:27 pm

This is almost as funny as a Family Guy episode.

# 12 Steve S said, on October 26th, 2009 at 8:12 pm

“racy humor and tasteless jokes about deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest.”
Honestly, doesn’t anyone at Microsoft have a clue? The above fare are among the least offensive topics shown on The Family Guy.

# 13 John C Dvorak said, on October 26th, 2009 at 9:09 pm

#2 Yes…one of the all time classics

# 14 Ho-Lip Tex said, on October 26th, 2009 at 9:15 pm

Proof positive that the folks at Microsoft are completely out of touch with the rest of the world. As well as reality.

# 15 Jim said, on October 26th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

Certainly gets them more press. And now they’ve pissed off a show that has writers who like to make incessant jokes at the expense of people they don’t like. Not to mention South Park, which is FAR more likely to make a whole episode about something like this and be waaaaaay grosser about it.

*shrug*

# 16 Ah_Yea said, on October 26th, 2009 at 9:43 pm

Another win for the Microsoft PR machine!

# 17 jay said, on October 26th, 2009 at 10:07 pm

dude better advertising by pulling out. doesn’t cost them much and now everyone talk about Microsoft

# 18 Family Conflicts said, on October 27th, 2009 at 12:05 am

I am shocked just shocked
Not so much at goings on of “family guy” but Microsoft’s level of research
And yet we “cannot live ” without their new products
What a conflict !
And you thought that families of alcoholics had conflicts and problems of perception

# 19 Jopie said, on October 27th, 2009 at 12:58 am

Well for some it takes a bit longer to find out about the tastelessness i guess.

# 20 RTaylor said, on October 27th, 2009 at 3:10 am

I can believe the MS executives had never viewed this program, and having seen it had serious doubts. It was an advertising firms pitch that failed.

# 21 GF said, on October 27th, 2009 at 3:11 am

Damn, I just scored a sponsorship with them for “MILFS Gone Crazy, a Marge Simpson Special.” Although some of you may know it better by the working title, “How I learned to make some real cash with Windows 7, Frontpage, MSN video chat and Hotmail.” I hope they don’t get wise.

# 22 soundwash said, on October 27th, 2009 at 3:24 am

There is nothing “racy” about family guy. (unless ofc, your a lemming)

It pokes fun at how absurd and thin-skinned. our society has become–and how great it once was..

Hmm…instead..maybe they should advertise during Southpark’s Paris Hilton parody with the “whore off” contest..now that was funny.

The irony with these two cartoons(series) is that they are more in touch with real reality than any flesh and blood series could ever hope to be.

Both are highly instructive of the moral corrosion and destruction the sociopaths on both the left and right, are intentionally leading this country into.

Remember, in order for good comedy to work, it must be based in the truth.

George Carlin would assuredly approve of them.

Since the days of the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour, these are only two new cartoons worthy of an animators time.

All the rest meant to turn your kids into mushy-headed do-goody snitches, a a new army sign up, or an eco-terrorist.

-s

(don’t watch them on tv. find then on a stream. -tv rots your brain.)

# 23 Fat_Anarchy said, on October 27th, 2009 at 3:36 am

Urgh. Just more evidence of how lame Microsoft really is. It is almost as bad as their Microsoft 7 Party film that they released.

This was a chance fo them to become somewhat relevant to the kids, but what a surprise, they blew it. Then they sit there wondering why all the kids are flocking to Apple, while they sit there like some old geezer, afraid to change or be edgy in any way.

# 24 The Monster's Lawyer said, on October 27th, 2009 at 4:59 am

#23 – “I don’t see Apple out there using any shock value cartoon to pedal their stuff. All they got is that smarmy fellow with passive aggressive tendencies…..i’m just saying….” ~ Peter Griffin

# 25 Pollerbar said, on October 27th, 2009 at 5:05 am

Those Apple commercials are so true!!

# 26 Antonio said, on October 27th, 2009 at 7:19 am

#17 – Wait until Macfarlane is done with them. Then we’ll see if you think this is good, cheap publicity.

# 27 Honest Abe said, on October 27th, 2009 at 7:25 am

And yet MS remains dominant while you Apple FanBoys whine.

Thats funny…Need a tissue?

# 28 soundwash said, on October 27th, 2009 at 8:10 am

PS…what you should do is…tell both
Apple and MS to kiss arse and use a flavor of Linus…Ubuntu is nice (for XP fans) cause it looks similar and you can boot and run a persistent copy off a USB key..

If you need a slim version (low memory systems) use Xbuntu and if you’ve been brainwashed into thinking the Vista GUI is Tits on a Ritz use Kbuntu..

If you want install and run Ubuntu like a Windows app inside your OS, use the Wubi installer (located within the second link below.

To try Ubuntu burn the ISO to a CD and select the first option: “try without making changes to your system”

Better still, get a VM like VMware or MS’s Virtual PC and boot the VM using the ISO

Here is a link to the latest stable release ISO for v9.04 of Ubuntu (32bit)

go here to select a different DL location and/or the 64bit ISO

for U.S. People, i recommend the MIT Lab location, it comes down at 13-15mbps here in NYC (about 4-6m,min for the 700mb CD image
on a cable ISP)

These ISO’s have all you need including Firefox browser, Open Office. plus GIMP, which is a pretty dam good photoshop clone, an IM app, an EMAIL app, plus and a whole lot more.
I recommend grabbing a 2gb or 4 gb USB stick so you can carry your “world on a stick”

Ubuntu will read FAT flavor(s)and NTFS file systems as well as Linux..not sure about HPFS

Booting off the LiveCD (iso) will NOT make any changes to your PC when you select the “dont make changes” option (default/first on list)

It only needs a 256mb system to run the LiveCD option, though obviously, a 1gb or more is better as it allows it to create a much larger RAM drive to swap kernel and other goodies to for faster access.

Enjoy!

-s

# 29 Rick Cain said, on October 28th, 2009 at 12:02 am

You know it reminds me of the time I gave a fish helmet to mohammed the prophet!

(insert scene of peter handing mohammed the prophet a fish helmet).

Leave Your Reply Below...

Comment Moderation is Active, so if your comment doesn't
show up immediately, please don't submit it again.

Special Deals 4U

25% off eHarmony subscription with code EHTECH
12-percent discount forever with code TECH
10-percent discount and free month using TECH10
10-percent or 30 dollars off weekly car rental!
Get 10-percent discount on car rental!
Get 10% off rental cars!
Get 10% off Dollar rentals!
Discounts on domain names!