Family Guy kills off beloved cartoon character in 2020 premiere
By Paul Zuniga
Family Guy has never held back when it comes to jokes and their 2020 premiere wasn’t any different. Keep reading for a breakdown of who died in “Connie’s Celica.”
As most of us are aware, Family Guy has featured all kinds of pop-culture references and tie-ins over the years. To kick off 2020, the animated series’ writing staff decided to give a beloved cartoon pig a shout out, albeit in a rather grisly manner.
To quickly recap, most of “Connie’s Celica” revolves around Lois and Connie’s ongoing spat. At one point, Connie fakes her death by placing a dead pig in her car and then crashes it. The pig’s identity isn’t immediately broached, but we learn at the episode’s end that the victim was none other than fan-favorite Peppa Pig.
In an aside at the end, Joe Swanson explains the situation to Peter and talks about how difficult the conversation with Peppa’s parents was. A cutaway then shows Joe wheeling himself up the signature hill to Peppa Pig’s home where he begins telling Daddy Pig and Mummy Pig about their daughter. They don’t get into the nitty-gritty, of course, it’s safe to say both Daddy and Mummy broke down in tears following the news.
As grim as it was, the Peppa Pig tie-in made for quite the hilarious exchange. There’s nothing funny about death, but for a children’s cartoon that’s always been super upbeat in tone, having Peppa die in a grisly accident turned out to be quite the punchline.
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The surprising aspect is that Peppa Pig is owned by Entertainment One, a production company unaffiliated with Fox or Disney. Family Guy’s writing staff using the property in one of their episodes implies that Fox brokered a deal with eOne or an affiliate of theirs to use Peppa Pig, but that’s unclear.
There is a small possibility that Seth McFarlane and his writers didn’t bother to ask eOne for permission to use Peppa Pig at all. It’s possible they made their version of Peppa different enough to avoid copyright infringement, but similar enough that people will recognize the reference.
Mind you, we still have to wait and see if Fox will receive a cease and desist notice. The episode featuring Peppa Pig only recently aired so it might take some time for eOne to realize what’s happened with one of their properties.
Was the death of Peppa Pig on Family Guy too grim? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.