Tailkinker

13th Sep 2007

Family Guy (1999)

Show generally

Question: When the show makes jokes about scenes from other shows or movies (such as when they show TIE Fighters from Star Wars, which sound just like the ones in the movies), do they have to get some kind of permission to do the scenes or use the sounds?

Answer: Not generally, no. As long as the use isn't too extended, copyrighted material can be used for the purposes of parody. This wouldn't necessarily exclude the makers asking out of courtesy, but there's no legal requirement to do so.

Tailkinker

Answer: Star Wars loved their jokes so much early on in the series they gave Family Guy staff exclusive rights to all the sounds so they could make the best parody possible.