Family Guy's Most Controversial Character Was Created By Accident

If you want to compare how much darker "Family Guy" is to its animated predecessor "The Simpsons," all you have to do is look at each show's resident old character. Grandpa Abe on "The Simpsons" is considered funny because he's cranky, out of touch, easily confused, and prone to rambling. Herbert on "Family Guy" is considered funny because he's a pedophile. The joke is that Herbert really wants to molest children; not only has he molested before, but he plans on molesting 14-year-old Chris in particular. 

Granted, there is an additional layer to the character's appeal, which is his audacity. He'll often say predatory things right in front of adults who should pick up on it and alert the authorities, but it all seems to breeze right past them. Much like how the adults don't seem to understand Stewie but will still react to his general mood and behavior, adults on this show just don't seem to hear Herbert's comments. 

If you're in a charitable mood, you can say that the point of Herbert is to critique society for turning a blind eye towards the sexual predators who walk among us, or perhaps it's a point about how society will give people who make them laugh way too much leeway. As Stewie says in season 8's "Spies Reminiscent of Us," when he's asked if there are any "strange" people in his neighborhood, "Well, there's a pedophile up the street that nobody seems to be doing anything about, but it's mainly because he's so funny."

The other part of Herbert's appeal is his whistle-y southern drawl, which for his voice actor Mike Henry is where the character began. "Herbert, the old man who likes Chris, was just a character who began because I imitated these old men back in Virginia all the time," Henry explained in a 2012 interview. "I just made them dirty old men, and not necessarily pedophiles. But I pitched one joke in the writer's room about how he has a crush on Chris, and that's what catches on! So now that character's a pedophile."

It's a fascinating reveal from Henry, mainly because it shows how much of the show's early writing process was just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. If you rewatch the pilot you'll see so many elements that the show would quickly do away with, like the kindly-treated Lacey Chabert-voiced Meg, or Peter's friend group full of unfamiliar faces. So much of what makes "Family Guy" so memorable was not planned out from the beginning; it happened organically while the writers were goofing around with each other. 

If Henry hadn't pitched that one pedophile joke back in season 1, would Herbert have stuck around on the series? Or would he have been slowly phased out of relevance, lumped in with the other awkward early-show kinks? It's hard to say for sure — perhaps if he hadn't the made the joke then, he would've made the joke a few weeks later, and the debut of pedophile Herbert would've only been delayed. For better or worse, perhaps Herbert was inevitable. 

Mike Henry noted in that same 2012 interview that, although the show was scripted, he would still often improvise in those early seasons, and creator Seth MacFarlane would often let those improvisations stay in the final product. "Basically, I should have the domain name SethsClown.com, because basically I'm there to make Seth laugh, and I'm a whore," Henry explained. "So if we're in the booth and I'm making him laugh, then I'll just kind of start riffing on something and then sometimes that'll go in."