The random cutaway gags from Family Guy translate well to memes, and one of the most popular jokes is a scene featuring Peter telling his family that he “did not care for The Godfather.”
The scene is a bit like Family Guy’s version of the iconic “Steamed Hams” sketch from The Simpsons, having been remixed endlessly in meme culture, used as a template for unpopular (or popular) opinions.
Images of the scene have been used for basic meme templates, and the dialogue has become a popular audio meme on TikTok, with creators lip-syncing the words and replacing The Godfather with whatever grinds their gears.
Recently, the scene re-emerged on X (Twitter), sparking unexpectedly heated discourse, prompting Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane to chime in and explain the true intent of the scene.
What Happens In The ‘Family Guy’ Godfather Scene?
The scene sees the Griffin family on the verge of drowning, and Peter chooses this moment to reveal his darkest secret—his distaste for The Godfather, often regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.
The entire family is outraged, but Peter insists that the film is slow, boring and essentially, overrated. When Lois asks Peter why he didn’t like The Godfather, Peter says, “It insists upon itself.”
As the sketch continues, Peter reveals he hasn’t really watched the entire film, and his family becomes even more outraged, before being saved from the floodwaters.
The scene sounds like a real-life debate about a possibly overrated movie, and the conversation becomes hilariously heated, despite the near-death situation.
Plus, the line “it insists upon itself” is amusingly nonsensical.
At least, that’s how most viewers saw it.
Seth McFarlane Explains The Origin Of “It Insists Upon Itself”
A since-deleted post from a X user ignited mild controversy, after their post praised “it insists upon itself” as a perfect, succinct description of pretentious media.
Commentators quickly pushed back, insisting that “it insists upon itself” was meant to be meaningless word salad, a typical faux-intellectual take from Peter Griffin.
Others insisted that the phrase made a certain sense, despite not literally making sense, and that it was indeed a good description.
Even the Urban Dictionary features an earnest interpretation of “it insists upon itself,” describing the phrase as, “Something most think is profound but in reality is pretentious and ostentatious.”
The only man who could provide the real answer, Seth McFarlane, posted about his inspiration for the iconic scene.
“Since this has been trending, here’s a fun fact,” MacFarlane wrote. “‘It insists upon itself’ was a criticism my college film history professor used to explain why he didn’t think The Sound of Music was a great film. First-rate teacher, but I never quite followed that one.”
There you have it—the line was always supposed to be baffling.
Many were amused that the scene had been misinterpreted to the point where McFarlane had to clarify.
One commentator wrote, “pretty funny that the creator of Family Guy had to release a public statement to remind people that Peter Griffin is an idiot.”
Despite the clarification, some still insisted that certain films do, in fact, insist upon themselves.
Perhaps McFarlane’s music teacher had a point.
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