Family Guy has won the courtroom battle over a past episode involving a parody of Carol Burnett’s ‘Charwoman’ character after the judge threw out the lawsuit. The judge said that although he understood Burnett was offended by the material Family Guy was protected by the First Amendment’s right to free speech. The legal effort has gone on for roughly three months although the Family Guy episode, “Peterotica”, actually aired back in April 2006. The lawsuit detailed Burnett’s objection:

“The Peterotica episode of Family Guy shows Peter entering a porn shop with several other characters, including a character named Quagmire. As they enter the porn shop, Peter comments that he expected the porn shop to be dirty. Quagmire responds that the porn shop is clean because ‘Carol Burnett works part-time as a janitor,”’ The camera then shifts to show Ms. Burnett’s ‘Charwoman’ character complete with trademarked blue bonnet, bucket and mop, mopping the floor of the porn shop in front of a row of blow-up dolls while a slightly altered version of ‘Carol’s Theme’ is playing. One of the other characters then says, ‘You know when she tugged her ear at the end of that show, she was really saying goodnight to her mom.’ Quagmire then makes a vulgar reference to Ms. Burnett and her father, responding, “I wonder what she tugged to say goodnight to her dad.”‘

Well, yeah, I can see how she could be offended, but that’s what Family Guy does every week. They make random, non-sequitur jokes often at the expense of other celebrities. I’d also think it’s safe to say that most of the FG audience would have no idea who Carol Burnett is or what ‘Charwoman’ was. Either way she won’t be getting her $2 million in sought damages. $2 million?!

Source: BuddyTV