Did they get permission from the Family Guy creators?
If they didn't, they are soooo sued.
Not sure :~D - But I bet they have people who would have looked into that.
It wasn't exactly an affectionate representation of the show.
I bet they didn't get permission from the Muslim Imam they showed and misquoted ;~D
FG won't sue. Satirical irreverent comedy shows don't sue for copyright infringment if they are mocked because it makes them look like unfunny prigs.
And the only bad publicity is no publicity.
Um, have you read the funny pages, lately? Use of others' characters is acceptable for satire, and "The Family Circus'" characters have appeared in all sorts of depraved ways in other strips. I'm sure its creators did NOT approve.
Recently, "Pearls Before Swine" had a fairly long sequence wherein the kids from "Baby Blues" were babysat by Rat, who had them go on a booze run, during which they crashed the family car which exploded into a fireball.
I don't think they would need to, as it would fall into the category of "fair use" as satire.
I would love to see "Family Guy" do a "South Park" spoof. Maybe Stewie decides that Cartman has to die.
Nope. There's a parody exception carved out by the judiciary in intellectual property cases. This exception is explained in the Supreme Court's decision dealing with some rap group's vulgar version of Roy Orbison's song Pretty Woman, which was OK - said the court - as a parody. Forget the name of the case, but now you have enough info to google it, if you care.
That's also why Bill Cosby can't sue over South Park's cartoon-within-a-cartoon Fat Abbott (parody of Fat Albert), which is pretty funny.