Debunked: Boston Marathon Family Guy Prediction

[Mick West]

There's a hoax video that suggests that an episode of The Family Guy shows Peter Griffin detonating two bombs using a cell phone in order to win the Boston Marathon.

This is simply two different parts of the same episode (Season 11 Episode 15) misleadingly spliced together to make it seem like there is a connection. The Boston Marathon sequence is a short flashback where Peter wins the marathon by running over people with his car, not using bombs. The scene with the cell-phone and explosion happens much later in the episode and there is no connection to the Marathon flashback. Incredibly tasteless yes, but not a prediction of the bombing of the marathon.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-seth-macfarlane-boston-bombing-family-guy-abhorrant-20130416,0,425759.story

The edited clips came from an episode that aired last month titled "Turban Cowboy." In the edited version, the show's main character, Peter Griffin, appears to use a cellphone to trigger a pair of explosions in order to win a race.While all the clips were taken from the episode in question, which did feature a terrorism-related story, they did not appear in such a way as to suggest that this was the inspiration for or a prediction of the Boston bombing.

Content from external source

Warning: in light of actual events, some people might find the videos verge beyond tasteless into actually disturbing.

The hoax video: (since removed)





The real video (also removed)

 

[Anonymous012]

I was shaking my head as I was reading about this from Huffington Post, and they even showed a Twit message from yours truly, Alex Jones.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/16/family-guy-boston-bombing_n_3094958.html?utm_hp_ref=tv&ir=TV

All we can do is rely on Youtube to keep removing these videos; however, it won't stop the conspiracy zombies from spreading their infectious dieases!!

 

[JeffreyNotGeoffrey]

These people are malicious morons. Peter lives in Rhode Island. The bridge visible from the Clam exploded. Nuff said.

 

[Melbury's Brick]

There's a minor upside in that it makes Alex Jones' stupidity more apparent.

 

[Thomas Hughson]

One of my Facebook Conspiracy Theorist friend thinks Seth McFarlane is somehow involved with the evil globalist bankers because he was not on one of the 911 planes like he was scheduled to be on. He also posted this American Dad video saying it was aired one day before the Bombing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jI4wRv7L1JA




I think by them hitting hard with conspiracy theories so earlier with all this horrible tragedies will hopefully bring some blow back and the people will turn to reason.

 

[Oxymoron]

There's a hoax video that suggests that an episode of The Family Guy shows Peter Griffin detonating two bombs using a cell phone in order to win the Boston Marathon.

This is simply two different parts of the same episode (Season 11 Episode 15) misleadingly spliced together to make it seem like there is a connection. The Boston Marathon sequence is a short flashback where Peter wins the marathon by running over people with his car, not using bombs. The scene with the cell-phone and explosion happens much later in the episode and there is no connection to the Marathon flashback. Incredibly tasteless yes, but not a prediction of the bombing of the marathon.

Warning: in light of actual events, some people might find the following videos verge beyond tasteless into actually disturbing.

The hoax video:
​

The real video:
​

Interestingly the videos are being deleted, 'due to copyright infringement complaints', I don't understand the distinction. The video is genuine, and was aired 3 weeks before the bombing. Yes it is two parts of the same video but they both occured in the same video. The episode is being deleted now from Tivo and probably elsewhere.
Coincidence? highly likely. Fake? Not the one I saw, which clearly stated they were separate scenes from the same episode.

Coincidences: Aired 3 weeks prior to event. People killed and injured at the Boston Marathon finish line and lying in the road. Terrorist attack with two bombs going off.

​
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turban_Cowboy
Plot

As Peter, Joe, and Brian hang out at The Drunken Clam, they decide to do something to shake up their boring lives. They take Peter up on his suggestion to take up skydiving. Peter is invigorated by their jump and keeps up skydiving despite Lois' concern, even as his jumps usually result in accidents like falling on Meg at dinner, falling on a ninja that killed a woman, and falling on the castle of the Pig King from Angry Birds with only one pig not ended up killed. An accident at the Eiffel Tower replica in Las Vegas lands Peter in the hospital where he meets Mahmoud, a Muslim. He finds he gets along great with Mahmoud. Back at the Drunken Clam, Peter has Mahmoud stop by to introduce him to Quagmire, Joe, and Brian. They find he has nothing in common with them when he refuses to drink or look at other women. Mahmoud introduces Peter to Islamic culture and he becomes interested in becoming a Muslim. Lois has reservations as Peter starts studying Islam in-depth although she decides to let it pass. Joe and Quagmire also voice their suspicions about Mahmoud as Peter tries to dial up Mahmoud twice only to cause some explosions off-screen. Mahmoud later invites Peter to a Muslim get-together but finds himself unwittingly involved with terrorists intent on blowing up the Quahog Bridge.

When Peter drops that he is trying to act inconspicuous, the guys begin to suspect that he is involved with terrorists. Peter realizes that he has been duped and wants to drop out but Joe convinces him to go along since he is already on the inside. As they go over the plan, Peter finds out that he will be driving the van. Peter is caught when he reveals he is wearing a microphone when trying to scratch an itch near it. Joe and Quagmire listen as the plan is rushed into action. Peter is held at gunpoint and forced to drive the explosives-laden van to the Quahog Bridge. Peter tries to talk Mahmoud out of his plan, but fails. Joe arrives in time with the police to stop him and destroys the detonator by knocking it out of Mahmoud's hand. Joe mentions that 30 of the terrorists have been arrested and that the rest of the local Muslims are cast under suspicion. Joe thanks Peter for his involvement as Peter decides to call Horace to get a table ready for his friends and family at the Drunken Clam. As he dials his cell phone, the Quahog Bridge explodes and Peter orders everyone to run away.

Content from external source

 

[jvnk08]

Interestingly the videos are being deleted, 'due to copyright infringement complaints', I don't understand the distinction. The video is genuine, and was aired 3 weeks before the bombing. Yes it is two parts of the same video but they both occured in the same video. The episode is being deleted now from Tivo and probably elsewhere.
Coincidence? highly likely. Fake? Not the one I saw, which clearly stated they were separate scenes from the same episode.


Coincidences: Aired 3 weeks prior to event. People killed and injured at the Boston Marathon finish line and lying in the road. Terrorist attack with two bombs going off.

Just so you know, videos are routinely removed from Youtube for copyright complaints, especially a fairly high-profile franchise like Family Guy. Youtube's ContentID system notifies copyright holders(if they've set up the service) when someone uploads a video that contains their copyrighted content. It was either that, or someone at MGM noticed them given how they've been shown on various news sites.


I think it's a bit far-fetched to say the episode is being deleted "from TiVo and probably elsewhere", if you do some googling you'll find the clip on other streaming sites that don't have such a streamlined copyright complaint system as Youtube's, and the episode itself is still available for purchase on a variety of other streaming sites. In fact I'm willing to bet you can still find it on youtube, as people have no doubt edited it and re-uploaded it so that ContentID doesn't notice it.

Additionally the fact it was aired 3 weeks prior to the event is not really a coincidence(unless there's some numerology significance there that I'm unaware of, but who takes that stuff seriously anyways?).

 

[Oxymoron]

Just so you know, videos are routinely removed from Youtube for copyright complaints, especially a fairly high-profile franchise like Family Guy. Youtube's ContentID system notifies copyright holders(if they've set up the service) when someone uploads a video that contains their copyrighted content. It was either that, or someone at MGM noticed them given how they've been shown on various news sites.


I think it's a bit far-fetched to say the episode is being deleted "from TiVo and probably elsewhere", if you do some googling you'll find the clip on other streaming sites that don't have such a streamlined copyright complaint system as Youtube's, and the episode itself is still available for purchase on a variety of other streaming sites. In fact I'm willing to bet you can still find it on youtube, as people have no doubt edited it and re-uploaded it so that ContentID doesn't notice it.

Additionally the fact it was aired 3 weeks prior to the event is not really a coincidence(unless there's some numerology significance there that I'm unaware of, but who takes that stuff seriously anyways?).

Lots of clips 'that could be removed for copyright infringement', are not removed, probably because it is free advertising and they are just short clips, (like adverts).

Family guy clips are being removed due to the fact of recent events because that is not good advertising. So no I do not accept your analogy that 'videos are routinely removed' as an explanation in this case.

Family guy and many others, are defacto, in bad taste. That doesn't stop them being produced or being popular. It makes sense that they would want to remove it 'in the light of events' but it does not detract from the coincidence of 'art (if you choose to call it that) mirroring or predicting events to an unusual degree'.

I don't know about Tivo but if the guy is wrong, no doubt someone will point it out. It makes sense to remove it to me, on grounds of taste.

Airing is not a massive coincidence but it is still quite close to the event. You are probably correct when you take into account all the re runs.

 

[HappyMonday]

Lots of clips 'that could be removed for copyright infringement', are not removed, probably because it is free advertising and they are just short clips, (like adverts).

Family guy clips are being removed due to the fact of recent events because that is not good advertising. So no I do not accept your analogy that 'videos are routinely removed' as an explanation in this case.

Family guy and many others, are defacto, in bad taste. That doesn't stop them being produced or being popular. It makes sense that they would want to remove it 'in the light of events' but it does not detract from the coincidence of 'art (if you choose to call it that) mirroring or predicting events to an unusual degree'.

I don't know about Tivo but if the guy is wrong, no doubt someone will point it out. It makes sense to remove it to me, on grounds of taste.

Airing is not a massive coincidence but it is still quite close to the event. You are probably correct when you take into account all the re runs.

You realise that the attempt to create a similar incident was depicted in Chris Morris's Four Lions (Released 2010)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Lions

Following the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon, airings of Four Lions originally planned by British television Film4 for the following Monday were cancelled in light of similarities between the event and the film's contents.[34]​

Content from external source

The Wikipedia entry doesn't mention this specific of the plot, but the protaganists attempt to bomb a marathon.

 

[Oxymoron]

You realise this episode (Aired March 17) very probably draws influence from / references Chris Morris's Four Lions (Released 2010)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Lions

Following the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon, airings of Four Lions originally planned by British television Film4 for the following Monday were cancelled in light of similarities between the event and the film's contents.[34]​

Content from external source

Family Guy prides itself on referencing other media. The Wikipedia entry doesn't mention this specific of the plot, but the protaganists attempt to bomb a marathon.

I did not know that. Although I had already considered it could also be events copying 'art'.

 

[HappyMonday]

I did not know that. Although I had already considered it could also be events copying 'art'.

Any large gathering of distracted people is a target for somebody wanting to bomb a large gathering. A publicly held marathon must have been pretty high up on the list for anybody wishing to carry this out.

 

[Mick West]

It's a shame that they remove the original clip as it shows the Boston Marathon segment is entirely separate from the "accidentally setting off bombs and blowing up a bridge" segment.

Now the clips that remain will mostly be the hoax one with the two segments spliced together.

 

[HappyMonday]

It's a shame that they remove the original clip as it shows the Boston Marathon segment is entirely separate from the "accidentally setting off bombs and blowing up a bridge" segment.

Now the clips that remain will mostly be the hoax one with the two segments spliced together.

Didn't spot that fact in the OP and obviously I can't watch the vid, edited the above to reflect it.

 

[Mick West]

Since any videos will likely be removed, I've updated the top post with an image sequence from the hoax and the real videos.

 

[jvnk08]

Lots of clips 'that could be removed for copyright infringement', are not removed, probably because it is free advertising and they are just short clips, (like adverts).

Family guy clips are being removed due to the fact of recent events because that is not good advertising. So no I do not accept your analogy that 'videos are routinely removed' as an explanation in this case.

Family guy and many others, are defacto, in bad taste. That doesn't stop them being produced or being popular. It makes sense that they would want to remove it 'in the light of events' but it does not detract from the coincidence of 'art (if you choose to call it that) mirroring or predicting events to an unusual degree'.

I don't know about Tivo but if the guy is wrong, no doubt someone will point it out. It makes sense to remove it to me, on grounds of taste.

Airing is not a massive coincidence but it is still quite close to the event. You are probably correct when you take into account all the re runs.

Video clips are routinely removed on copyright grounds, but you are right that there is plenty of copyrighted content that stays up. The point of ContentID is to notify the content creator so they can take action if they wish - they don't have to do anything, thus copyrighted content still appears on youtube. In this case MGM probably took this clip down because they saw it on HuffPost or some other news site, and its not really an issue for them as copyright so much as bad publicity. Unless of course you're implying they're in on the "false flag" or whatever, and they forgot they paid for an episode that gives it all away.

I highly, highly doubt the episode is being removed from people's TiVo's or anything of the sort. You can still buy it on Amazon among other sites as well.

 

[Anonymous012]

Here's Family Guy's Season 11, Epsiode Video 15:

http://limevideo.net/og2o9mn1gzpx
You click on this link, and it will tell you to wait like 15 or so seconds. Press Continue to Video. You'll see a code of numbers; your enter it. (If a pop-up advertisement comes at anytime, just close it). After you enter the 4 digit code on the bottom, press Stream Video.

You'll see a video that in the center it has Advertisement with a little circle, on the top-right corner. Press the circle x to clear it, an annoying ad will pop-up. But it'll show the video, where you can press play, wait for it to load. There you can watch it.

 

[HappyMonday]

​

Here's the Infowar's defence of it's shameless plugging of the manipulated video, and a take on the subsequent attempts to remove it from circulation.

If you can wade through the unbelievably condescending narrative, the presenter takes issue with the use of the word 'hoax', and states that -

"...(the mainstream media) said it was a hoax, that it didn't exist,".

He goes on to sarcastically talk about the "non-existent" clip being deleted from Tivo boxes etc, and labours the point about the veracity of their claims throughout.

Here's how CNN defined the hoax, online at any rate -

A doctored version of the clip, which made fun of Monday's terrorist attack at the marathon, has since circulated online.

The online hoax spliced together two clips from the original episode. The hoax showed Griffin appearing to trigger explosions with his cell phone, while depicting the scene of bloody carnage when he drove his car through the runners.

Content from external source

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/17/news/companies/family-guy-boston-marathon/

....and here's the New York Times -

Viewed 140,000 times on YouTube as of Tuesday evening, the segment, which was re-edited and posted to the Internet by someone not affiliated with the show, juxtaposes an interview between Bob Costas and Peter Griffin following the character’s unlikely victory in the Boston Marathon.

“Peter, how did you do it?” Costas asks.


The clip then jumps to a scene in which Griffin accidentally blows up a bridge by dialing a terrorist’s cellphone, and gave many people the false impression that the sequence was made to reference Monday’s attacks.


A spokesperson for Fox confirmed to the Daily News that the network had pulled the episode, which had originally aired on March 17, from Fox.com and Hulu.com.

Content from external source

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/family-guy-bostom-marathon-bombings-hoax-provokes-outrage-article-1.1318678


He's cherry picking sources, naturally.

It's a good example of something I come across a lot, namely that many seriously conspiracy-minded people who spend a significant proportion of their free time posting and spreading conspiracy related claims via the internet can, without any apparent shame, suggest that they're posting suggestive material because they thought it was 'interesting' but NOT linked to their wider output when it suits them.

It also seems to correlate with uncertainty about airing the claim. It's just 'interesting' until everybody else agrees with you. Then it's 'proof' or 'truth'.

 

[JRBids]

I had grabbed a screen cap for a humorous Conspiracy Theory page, think it explains some of the mindset in that culture.

 

[sassygal5]

That episode did exist. It was season 11 episode 15 and both clips were in the same episode. The only editing that was done was to splice the 2 back to back instead of having to watch the entire episode to see both scenes. Watch it for yourselves from this link


http://www.pinoyanime.tv/family-guy-season-11-episode-15/


You can watch the entire episode and see that both of the references were in the "SAME 30 minute EPISODE"...in one scene it shows Peter being interviewed and being asked how he won the Boston Marathon and it shows him drive his car over the people with blood and body parts scattered about and he states that if anyone got in his way he just killed them.... a few scenes later( peter dressed like a middle eastern wearing a turban), dials the cell phone of a terrorist he befriended and unknowingly detonates a bomb... umm make that 2 bombs because we hear an explosion and he hangs up and redials and it detonates a second explosion and you can hear people screaming.


The only editing that was done on Alex Jone's site infowars.com is to place the 2 scenes in the SAME EPISODE back to back.. nothing was changed.. it was exactly how that lunatic seth mcfarlan scripted it. I am not jumping on the conspiracy bandwagon I am just saying... It's disgusting! Seth Mcfarlan can plead his case by saying it was dubbed (because the 2 scenes were spliced together) but what he doesn't say is it was exactly as Alex Jones said, both scenes were same episode ran on March 17 2013 one month prior to bombing.


There are many Family Guy episodes that are insensitive such as poking fun at 911, Jesus and the Holocaust.... Seth Mcfarlan is disgusting and so is his show. He gets his laughs at the expense of other people's pain.


BTW you better watch that link before it's pulled I had a hard time finding one still out there. Oh and if it wasn't offensive and sensitive to the bombing why did they pull it????? I will tell you why because seth flat out lied, playing like it was a hoax and dubbed and the episode didn't exist.

 

[Kimmy]

Was there really the family guy cartoon for real on the marathon bombing before it happened? I'm still unsure.

 

[Alhazred The Sane]

Was there really the family guy cartoon for real on the marathon bombing before it happened? I'm still unsure.

No. There was a FG episode where Peter has a flashback, while skydiving, of winning the marathon by driving over runners in his car. Much later in the same episode Peter has been befriended by a terrorist, and when he uses his phone, twice, you hear muffled distant explosions. However, the target was a bridge. Some sick f****r spliced the two scenes together to make it appear that the marathon and explosions were linked. They weren't.

 

[sassygal5]

The point I was trying to make wasn't about a conspiracy issue but that Macfarlane did have the two scenes and reading back it was already explained so sorry for all of my wordiness however it is strange that in one 21 minute episode shown last month included a scene where Peter runs over Boston marathon runners (graphic scene with blood and body parts flying) as well as a few minutes later includes a terrorist's bombing...so what if he bombed a bridge I don't think that was the point that Jones was trying to make, it's still mentions killing marathon runners and a terrorist bomb going off TWICE one right after the other. You have to admit that is pretty ironic and NO I personally don't think Macfarlane had any pre knowledge of the bombing. It wouldn't have even been an issue if he hadn't created a show based on terrorist, bombing and killing Boston marathon runners. Shame on him!!

 

[Mick West]

The point I was trying to make wasn't about a conspiracy issue but that Macfarlane did have the two scenes and reading back it was already explained so sorry for all of my wordiness however it is strange that in one 21 minute episode shown last month included a scene where Peter runs over Boston marathon runners (graphic scene with blood and body parts flying) as well as a few minutes later includes a terrorist's bombing...so what if he bombed a bridge I don't think that was the point that Jones was trying to make, it's still mentions killing marathon runners and a terrorist bomb going off TWICE one right after the other. You have to admit that is pretty ironic and NO I personally don't think Macfarlane had any pre knowledge of the bombing. It wouldn't have even been an issue if he hadn't created a show based on terrorist, bombing and killing Boston marathon runners. Shame on him!!

Yeah, it's pretty tasteless - infinitely more so now. But what is being debunked is the idea that the episode shows him bombing the Boston Marathon, which is what the hoax video suggested.

 

[HappyMonday]

The point I was trying to make wasn't about a conspiracy issue but that Macfarlane did have the two scenes and reading back it was already explained so sorry for all of my wordiness however it is strange that in one 21 minute episode shown last month included a scene where Peter runs over Boston marathon runners (graphic scene with blood and body parts flying) as well as a few minutes later includes a terrorist's bombing...so what if he bombed a bridge I don't think that was the point that Jones was trying to make, it's still mentions killing marathon runners and a terrorist bomb going off TWICE one right after the other. You have to admit that is pretty ironic and NO I personally don't think Macfarlane had any pre knowledge of the bombing. It wouldn't have even been an issue if he hadn't created a show based on terrorist, bombing and killing Boston marathon runners. Shame on him!!

You guys really need to see Four Lions...

EDIT - Deleted a link to the trailer in the interest of sensitivity, thinking about it.

 

[Pete Tar]

I saw it and it 'stayed with me' for a while. It's so funny, human, and incredibly disturbing.
Especially the unquestioned support of his wife and kid in his aims.
It was intelligently done, and it's hilarious. Written by writers of Peepshow too, one of the best British comedies recently.

 

[HappyMonday]

I saw it and it 'stayed with me' for a while. It's so funny, human, and incredibly disturbing.
Especially the unquestioned support of his wife and kid in his aims.
It was intelligently done, and it's hilarious. Written by writers of Peepshow too, one of the best British comedies recently.

I hadn't noticed the Peep Show link, but Morris alone is a legend.

I was really wondering out loud if some people would find it's subject matter disgusting in light of recent events, and vilify the writers as they are Seth Mcfarlane. Not that the two are in anywhere near the same league in terms of sophistication. Family Guy is often crass.

 

[Engonoceras]

The fact the two were edited together was so that the two sections could be presented together. It does not in any way imply cause and effect because that's clearly not the case. The OP is stretching or being obtuse here. Unfortunately local media ran with this non-hoax "hoax" and actually said the two bits were from DIFFERENT episodes which they are not. I even emailed the anchor and pointed this out and that he can easily find the story synopsis online to which he made a comment about them not having time to fully research it themselves. The ONLY "hoax" in this is that (1) the two bits are not from the same episode and (2) that they were edited together to infer cause and effect.

 

[samanan7]

Recently now the CTs are claiming that family guy "predicted" Bruce Jenner's transformation and a lot of other events. The Jenner thing was right in the trending YouTube videos this morning.

 

[Jeremy]

I had grabbed a screen cap for a humorous Conspiracy Theory page, think it explains some of the mindset in that culture.

View attachment 2330

MacFarlane comes from a Catholic family as far as I know, unless they have a problem with that, too.

 

[Trailblazer]

MacFarlane comes from a Catholic family as far as I know, unless they have a problem with that, too.

MacFarlane... clearly a good old Jewish name, that