These Are the Jokes That Went Too Far for ‘Family Guy’s Alex Borstein

Alex Borstein, known for her role as Susie Meyerson in Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and the voice of Lois Griffin on Family Guy, hasn’t always thought the jokes on Family Guy have hit the mark. In a new interview with The Daily Beast’s podcast The Last Laugh, the veteran comic shared her thoughts on the jokes that took it “too far.”

“My gauge is, did I laugh?” she told The Daily Beast. “Even if it was uncomfortable and harsh, did I think it was funny? And if I don’t think it’s funny, when it’s time to give notes, I’ll say, ‘I just don’t think this works.’ It’s not that I’m offended, it’s that I don’t think the funny outweighs the offense.”

It’s a pretty good rule for comedy, writ large. In a time when a bunch of aging comics and young comics alike are complaining about “PC culture” and “woke” ruining comedy, it gets to the real problem with so much “edgy” comedic material beloved in the Austin comedy circuit: Are you making a joke, buddy? Or are you just really punching down?

That said, for Family Guy, Borstein has reportedly “never refused to record something.” “I would say eight times out of 10, by the time it airs, some of those ones that I was most uncomfortable with may have changed anyway, because they weren’t getting the laugh,” she continued. 

Borstein did say that she thinks the show is also able to go in the directions it does because it takes aim at everyone — not news to anyone who regularly watches the show. 

“We punch everybody,” Borstein argued. “We make fun of the right-wing; we make fun of the left-wing. You’re appealing to every side because you’re punching in all directions. And it’s more comfortable that way for me too. I’ve always been able to take a good punch and take a great verbal hit. I have very thick skin from a life in comedy. When you’ve been writing or working in comedy for so long, you don’t know when you’re burning your own skin sometimes.”