A theme is emerging amid recent Hollywood abuse allegations: hiding in plain sight.
In Harvey Weinstein’s case, everyone seemed to know — there’s video of Courtney Love warning women of exactly the type of behavior that finally came to light, multiple jokes were written into Tina Fey’s 30 Rock about the subject, and then there’s this joke that Seth MacFarlane made while announcing Oscar nominees in 2013.
Related: Kevin Spacey comes out as gay while addressing Anthony Rapp sexual assault allegations
Of particular note is the joke’s success in the room full of Hollywood insiders. They clearly understand the punchline:
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Well in light of Sunday’s explosive allegations that Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey sexually assaulted a then-14-year-old Anthony Rapp, many have pointed out that Spacey’s sexuality, as well as his attraction to younger guys, was hardly a secret.
Strangely, MacFarlane once addressed this, too.
Related: Kevin Spacey faces many more claims he “routinely preyed” on young men
In a 2005 episode of his popular animated series Family Guy, Stewie runs through what appears to be a shopping mall yelling, “Help! I’ve escaped from Kevin Spacey’s basement! Help me!”
Family Guy with the Kevin Spacey reference twelve years ago… creepy. pic.twitter.com/bVbEOLlAwz
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) October 30, 2017
Twitter users were quick to connect the dotted lines:
2005: Family Guy does Kevin Spacey joke
2013: Seth MacFarlane roasts Weinstein
2017: allegations against bothWhat else do you know, Seth?
— andrés ? (@prqls) October 30, 2017
Re: Kevin Spacey — so… how many more “open Hollywood secrets” has Seth MacFarlane and/or Family Guy put out there for folks to see? Starting to wonder if we need a tally.
— Jonathan H. Gray! ? (@jongraywb) October 30, 2017
Family Guy did a spoof on Kevin Spacey involving Stewie.
Twelve years ago. 2/2
— Mike Murphy (@oneofmanymikes) October 30, 2017
Related: “Sex and the City” actor Gilles Marini: I was “a piece of meat” for Hollywood execs
Ari Gold
Family Guy has been making jokes based on rumors / “open secrets” for years now. Look at how many times they’ve made cutaways and jokes about Bruce Jenner being a woman.
DuMaurier
Yes, but unless Seth says differently I’m thinking this was just a standard ‘gay celebrity joke’. Family Guy did an episode where Ted Turner impregnated a dog. I think that more a generic “He’s a weirdo” joke than a literal bestiality thing.
Ummmm Yeah
They also did an escaped from Tom Cruise gag.
Xzamilloh
Cartoons have been doing this for years. Long before the Cosby allegations, the animated show Drawn Together called him out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nswzg4Zzo0E
DCguy
Scan down in the Buzzfeed article where it shows the pictures of the people that were in the play. You can See what Rapp looked like when Spacey attacked him. He looks like a baby, Spacey’s a Monster.
NateOcean
I’m a little iffy here.
He apologizes for an incident that he doesn’t remember, but he remembers that he was drunk when the incident he doesn’t remember happened?
dean089
This ‘secret knowledge’ is probably not exclusive to Seth MacFarlane, he just has no qualms against bringing it to light. Yes, of course, making jokes about these things isn’t quite the same as reporting to the police, but we’re talking about an industry where you’re entire career can be ruined simply because you snubbed the ‘wrong’ person. An industry that spends a lot of time lauding its own self-righteousness, where double-standards and hypocrisy are “just part of the business.” That doesn’t make Seth a hero, it just means his balls are functional.