tom cruise family guy reaction

Inside Tom Cruise's Peculiar Reaction To Seth MacFarlane After Being Ruthlessly Parodied On Family Guy

• Tom Cruise laughed off Family Guy's harsh parody, praising Seth MacFarlane's comedic talent.
• Despite South Park's controversial portrayal of him, Cruise backlash resulted in halting subsequent episode reruns.
• Tom Cruise rejected a role on The Simpsons, leaving fans to wonder if he disdained being parodied.

Tom Cruise is one of the most famous stars in the world. In his decades-plus career making some of the most iconic films ever, Cruise has been publicly parodied numerous times. This includes a brutal satirization by Seth MacFarlane on Family Guy.

During a joint interview on The Graham Norton Show, Cruise had the chance to confront MacFarlane about his parody. In this article, we will take a look at just how Tom Cruise responded when he came face to face with Seth MacFarlane, as well as Cruise's response to being satirized on South Park and The Simpsons.

How Did Tom Cruise Respond To Seth MacFarlane After He Roasted Him On Family Guy?

Tom Cruise faced one of his most pointed parodies in an episode of Family Guy that depicted him as a tiny, homosexual kidnapper. While Cruise has been the butt of many jokes, this Family Guy bit was easily one of the most pointed. But unlike many celebrities who have been satirized on the Fox show, Cruise got a chance to look the creator in the eye.

Alongside his Edge of Tomorrow co-star, Emily Blunt , Tom Cruise sat with Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane on The Graham Norton Show.

Sitting alongside Cruise and Blunt were other A-list celebrities, Charlize Theron and Seth MacFarlane, who were there to promote their movie A Million Ways to Die in the West. During one particular segment, the show's host brought up Family Guy. This gave Cruise the perfect opportunity to confront the man responsible for his brutal parody. But he didn't take it...

One might suspect that Tom Cruise (known for his short temper when he feels disrespected, for example, the time he lost his temper when someone touched him ) would have harbored some form of animosity towards Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane for his constant jokes about him. But surprisingly, there was nothing but love between the two stars.

During another segment on the Graham Norton Show, Norton brought up the topic of voice impressions, for which McFarlane is famous. Not to be outdone, Cruise started by revealing his near-perfect interpretation of Donald Duck, which left the host, the guest, and the audience in a fit of laughter.

Why Twitter Hasn't Canceled Family Guy, According To Seth MacFarlane

Seth MacFarlane later mimicked Kermit the Frog as he recited a monologue from the film Taken. At that point, Tom Cruise laughed hysterically at McFarlane 's spot-on interpretation of the fictional character. The Vanilla Sky actor commended Seth MacFarlane on his superior voicing skills, adding that he was a "funny guy."

Tom Cruise Was Livid After South Park Parodied Him During An Episode

Family Guy isn't the only animated series that made fun of Tom Cruise. The actor also infamously appeared in a 2005 episode of South Park. The episode in question, titled 'Trapped in the Closet', portrayed Tom Cruise as a homosexual man who was hiding in a closet . The episode also made fun of his Scientology beliefs .

According to a report in Indie Wire , the South Park episode was written using the consultation services of author Mark Ebner, who wrote a book entitled "Hollywood, Interrupted," a criticism of Scientology.

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Due to the graphic nature of the South Park episode, Tom Cruise threatened not to do a promotional tour for his film Mission: Impossible III due to the fact that Paramount Pictures ' parent company, Viacom, had been responsible for re-running the South Park episode on Comedy Central.

Although Paramount and Viacom agreed to cease subsequent re-running of the South Park episode and justly complied, a report in Fox News noted that Paramount Pictures' later signed a deal with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for additional movies.

Tom Cruise Flat Out Rejected A Voice-Over Role in The Simpsons

In Season 4 of the widely popular animated series The Simpsons, Tom Cruise was parodied in an episode entitled "Brother From The Same Planet."

In the episode, Homer Simpson and his son Bart are at odds because of the latter's sudden popularity. Due to their rift, Bart applied for a surrogate father via a Big Brother program and was assigned a military pilot specialist known as Tom, with whom Homer Simpson later engaged in a fight.

Tom's voice was spoken by the late actor Phil Hartman , who had voiced many characters on The Simpsons since its inception.

The Simpsons Recruited Lady Gaga To Guest Star But The Result Was A Complete Nightmare

While the Tom character was a reference to Tom Cruise in his role in the film Top Gun: Maverick, the actor would have been an obvious choice to speak in the role. In fact, many celebrities on The Simpsons have been voiced by many stars, playing themselves, in the past.

According to a report in the editorial Screen Rant , The Simpsons producers initially approached Tom Cruise to voice the character of Tom. However, Cruise declined the opportunity seemingly without reason. But many fans have since debated whether the actor was too busy to take on the role or just disdained the idea of being parodied.

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), better known by his screen name of Tom Cruise , is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and won three Golden Globe Awards.

He was mentioned in " If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin' ". In " Ready, Willing, and Disabled ", Stewie Griffin ponders if he is a teen idol.

Stewie Cruise is a parody of him, when his profession of love for Holmes is greater exaggerated as seen in " Deep Throats ".

According to " Meet the Quagmires ", he always runs in his movies allegedly to get away from his gay thoughts.

After having a sweet moment with then-wife Katie Holmes , her ankle bracelet falls off and she hits him with daughter Suri Cruise , runs free and then frees all of Tom's gay prisoners when Stewie shuts off the power in " Lois Kills Stewie ".

In " Mr. and Mrs. Stewie ", Stewie notes that he may have finally found a soul-mate in Penelope and wonders if this is how Tom Cruise's character Maverick felt when he met Goose in Top Gun . A cutaway replays a scene from the film, with Maverick pushing Tom Cruise's Scientology beliefs when Goose declines.

In " Fresh Heir ", Chris watches the Mission Impossible V director's cut with the step-stools for Tom Cruise left in.

When Chris and Pam admit to each other that they are inexperienced at sex in " Baby Got Black ", Chris considers that even Maverick from Top Gun must have been inexperienced once. A cutaway shows Tom Cruise as Maverick at a " glory hole " thanking the "pretty lady" on the other side and winking at the camera.

When Dr. Hartman tells Stewie that he’ll only grow to be 5’1” in " Papa Has A Rollin' Son ", he hangs out with "Tiny" Tom Cruise to understand what it’s like to be short. But when he later finds out he will be normal, he tries to stop their relationship, angering Tom who starts stalking him. Stewie and Brian set a trap in a park, sealing Tom up in a cardboard box and sending him to Zappos , a clothing retailer, where the clerk notes he lasted two weeks before being sent back in.

Tiny Tom Cruise rescues Brian and Stewie when their house is fumigated in " Big Trouble in Little Quahog ". He also gets trapped under George Townsend 's helicopter in " Short Cuts " as he notes he was doing one of his own stunts by hanging onto the landing gear. When he extracts himself, he tries to get Stewie to take a personality test with him but is declined.

Tiny Tom Cruise is voiced by Sean Kenin .

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Papa Has a Rollin' Son

• Episode aired Oct 4, 2015

When Joe learns his father hates handicapped people, Peter pretends to be Joe; Stewie becomes friends with Tom Cruise after learning he will grow up to be only 5'1. When Joe learns his father hates handicapped people, Peter pretends to be Joe; Stewie becomes friends with Tom Cruise after learning he will grow up to be only 5'1. When Joe learns his father hates handicapped people, Peter pretends to be Joe; Stewie becomes friends with Tom Cruise after learning he will grow up to be only 5'1.

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• Trivia Tom Cruise destroys the mailbox belonging to "M. Lauer", an obvious reference to Matt Lauer . During an interview in 2005 the two of them had a heated television debate about antidepressants and psychiatry.
• Goofs Stewie spends the day depressed and hanging out with Tom Cruise because Doctor Hartman has told Stewie he will grow up to be short. Stewie has, however, met his future self and should know that he will grow up to be of average height.

Stewie : [at playgroup] So, are you going to the gerbil's funeral on Friday?

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9 most controversial "Family Guy" scenes

Microsoft is only the latest group to find the sitcom’s biting parody too biting. Here are nine more.

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With the news that Microsoft is withdrawing its ads from Fox’s “Family Guy” because “the content was not a fit with the Windows brand,” the animated sitcom continues its long streak of raising hackles. Since its 1999 post–Super Bowl debut, the show has pursued recklessly irreverent comedy that’s earned its producers consistently high ratings—and a lot of headaches. Here are nine other groups who’ve protested its testing of social limits.

The 2008 John McCain Presidential Campaign

Objection: Hints that McCain and Sarah Palin are fascists

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Last year, many questioned whether the show had ventured “into uncharted territory” by appearing to liken the McCain/Palin ticket to the Nazi Party. In the episode, the family’s talking infant and talking dog find themselves transported to WWII Europe. When the baby notes a McCain/Palin campaign pin on his Nazi uniform, he remarks, “Huh, that’s weird.”

The Parents Television Council

Objection: “Perversion”

The advocacy group took special exception to an episode that aired in March, initiating a complaint campaign to the FCC: “Should a Sunday night cartoon show YOUR children bestiality, gay orgies, and babies eating sperm?” the PTC asked. “Fox thinks so.”

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Carol Burnett

Objection: Her portrayal as a porn-store janitor

Comedian Carol Burnett filed a $6 million lawsuit against Twentieth Century Fox over a scene that depicted her as a custodian in an adult-film store, claiming it “disparaged” her and ripped off trademarked elements of her act. Burnett ultimately lost the suit.

Objection: His depiction as a gay kidnapper

In one provocative episode, Cruise is shown literally trying to run away from his gay thoughts (represented by a thought bubble). In another, he’s depicted keeping Katie Holmes and an array of what appear to be male concubines prisoner at his home with electronic ankle bracelets and a “forcefield.”

Bourne Company

Objection: An anti-Semitic parody of “When You Wish Upon a Star” from the 1940 film “Pinocchio”

Parodying Walt Disney’s alleged anti-Semitism, Peter Griffin sings lyrics such as “Though by many they're abhorred, / Hebrew people I’ve adored, / Even though they killed my lord, / I need a Jew!” Though Fox chose not to air the episode, the owners of the original song sued anyway.

First Lady Laura Bush

Objection: Gratuitously rehashing a personal tragedy

A 2008 episode made repeated and—to many observers—gratuitous reference to a tragedy from Laura Bush’s distant past (at age 17 she ran a stop sign, causing an accident that took the life of a friend). Lois and Peter Griffin attend a Halloween party dressed as, respectively, Laura Bush and “a bleeding man crisscrossed with tire tracks.”

AIDS advocacy groups

Objection: Glib treatment of the AIDS epidemic

When a 2005 episode featured a jaunty musical number about the disease, groups such as AIDS Project Los Angeles protested that “joking about a disease that affects more than 40 million people worldwide, most of whom will die of the ailment, is reprehensible and serves only to worsen AIDS-related stigma.”

Letter-writing viewers

Objection: A depiction of John F. Kennedy as a Pez dispenser

A disturbing scene (since deleted) featured a miniature version of the 35th president of the United States with a bullet wound in his head from which candy popped. In a panel discussion, creator Seth MacFarlane cited the sequence as one of the most offensive in series history.

Fox network executives

Objection: An abortion-themed episode

Focusing on the question of whether Lois would terminate a pregnancy, this boundary-pushing episode—which Fox declined to air—featured a number of jokes that “caused audible gasps and demonstrated the episode is not TV-safe” when the script was read aloud to a live theater audience earlier this year.

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20 Celebrities Who Spoke Out About Their ‘South Park’ Parodies

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“South Park” has royally pissed off its share of celebrities in the show’s decades-long run. The hit Comedy Central animated series, co-created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, debuted in 1997 and has most infamously mocked Barbra Streisand, Kanye West, Jennifer Lopez, and more recently, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

While the viral parody of the royal couple stirred rumors that the show may be sued by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, this isn’t the first time A-listers have spoken out about getting parodied on the notorious cartoon. Stone and Parker admitted during the “Basic!” podcast in February 2022 that they “can’t even remember” every celebrity feud from over the years. The duo has crossed everyone from Sarah Jessica Parker to Al Gore, and even teed off with entire religious organizations.

“We were considered counterculture,” Parker said on the series’ irreverent style. “The Catholic League are always on our arse.”

“Everyone knew Scientology was so litigious,” Stoned added, citing the Tom Cruise “Trapped in the Closet” episode from 2005. “People in Hollywood were scared of Scientology at the time because they would just sue you. I think that got us going. The Tom Cruise episode was really about getting sued. I mean, poking openly litigious people and seeing where the line is and what you can say. They picked a fight with us and we just went with it.” (Notably, Scientologist and “South Park” cast member the late Isaac Hayes left the series following the debacle.)

But for other celebrities, appearing on one of TV’s longest running, most provocative cartoons is an honor. Paris Hilton, Russell Crowe, the late Bob Saget, Lorde, the cast of MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” and YouTube’s most popular dog trainer César Millán have all praised the series publicly. Millán even filmed his complete reaction for YouTube, gushing, “They did an incredible job of representing exactly,  exactly  what I do.”

Check out every celebrity who has spoken out about their “South Park” portrayal below — listed in no particular order.

Note: The specific episodes in which each celebrity appears have been listed below. This excludes the two-part Season 14 event, in which a large group of public figures file a class action lawsuit against the people of South Park.

Meghan and Harry, Duchess and Duke of Sussex

Episode: “The Worldwide Privacy Tour” (2023)

The most recent “South Park” episode parodies the controversy surrounding Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s feud with the press and their step back from the British Royal Family. Although the two aren’t named, the episode focuses on “The Prince of Canada” and his wife, who claim to want privacy while ruthlessly promoting themselves.

Meghan and Harry haven’t made an official response or statement to “The Worldwide Privacy Tour,” but reports have come out claiming Markle was “overwhelmed” and distressed by the parody. Rumors of the couple potentially seeking legal action have popped up, but they were shot down by representatives.

Episode: “Trapped in the Closet” (2005)

Tom Cruise was the center of the infamous Season 9 episode “Trapped in the Closet,” with the title in reference to the R.Kelly song. Cruise’s character is implied to be grappling with his homosexuality while being trapped in the Church of Scientology. Investigative journalist Mark Ebner, the author of Scientology exposé “Hollywood, Interrupted,” served as a consultant on the episode. 

Cruise threatened to back out of the “Mission: Impossible III” promotional tour because parent company Paramont Pictures had aired the Comedy Central episode. The infamous closet scene was later parodied at the 58th Emmy Awards.

Barbra Streisand

Episode: “Mecha-Streisand” (1998)

Barbra Streisand did not think a star was born during Season 1 of “South Park.” The famed actress-singer-songwriter spoke out against being portrayed as a mechanical dinosaur called “Mecha-Streisand” in the episode.

“I wasn’t even aware of this show until I read in Time magazine that they had used me in a very negative way,” Streisand told  Mirabella in 1997. “Let me say that I enjoy satire and parody and I loved the movie ‘In & Out.’ It made me laugh. It wasn’t mean-spirited. But I wonder if shows like ‘South Park’ and ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ don’t add to the cynicism and negativity in our culture, especially in children.”

She continued, “These youngsters are formulating their attitudes and maybe they come away feeling that any woman who dares to accomplish something is the incarnation of self-centeredness and greed. And that would be very unfortunate, especially for young girls.” 

“South Park” continued to parody the “Star Is Born” actress with another episode called “Spookyfish” with her face framing each scene. Streisand ultimately forgave creators Stone and Parker and later attended a Broadway performace of their Tony-winning muscial “Book of Mormon.” 

Sarah Jessica Parker

Episode: “The Tale of Scrotie McBooger Balls” (2010)

“Sex and the City” icon Sarah Jessica Parker is no stranger to her looks being mocked onscreen, as in “Ed Wood.” But a Season 14 episode of “South Park” seemed to be the last straw for the actress.  

“Personal criticism I find distasteful,” Parker told Stylist , without naming the Comedy Central series. “We think it’s funny to be mean. It’s so uncivilized and vulgar; it’s not good for our souls.” 

Parker was also put down in an episode of “Family Guy.” 

Jennifer Lopez

Episode: “Fat Butt and Pancake Heaad” (2003) 

Jennifer Lopez did not respond lightly to the Season 7 episode featuring her “taco-flavored kisses” to Ben Affleck. Allegedly, Lopez was already frustrated with “South Park” co-creator Parker after he wore a replica of her famous green Versace Grammys gown to the 2000 Oscars, where Parker and Stone were nominated for Best Original Song for the “South Park” movie. (Stone donned a pink dress in ode to Gwyneth Paltrow’s 1999 Best Actress winner look.) Parker and Stone later alleged that members of a Lopez movie were fired after quoting the episode on set.

Mama June Shannon and Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson

Episode: “Raising the Bar” (2012)

Reality stars “Mama June” Shannon and daughter Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson reacted to a 2012 episode in which Honey Boo Boo receives a heart transplant from a pig due to her unhealthy diet. Mama June told TMZ that the episode was “kind of trashy.” 

“Me being a big person, I didn’t take offense,” she clarified. “That show is just not a show that I would want to be on in the first place.” 

Episode: “The Ring” (2009) 

During Season 13, the Jonas Brothers’ teenage purity rings were mocked by “South Park.” Nick Jonas revealed in a Reddit thread that he didn’t see the humor in the episode at the time, but has since rewatched it years later.

“When it first came out, I didn’t think it was funny to be honest,” he said. “But probably because I was actually living all of that in real time and so it just made it harder to come and live your life as a young person and have all that going on,” the “Jumanji” actor wrote. “But years later and once the purity rings were no longer around, it was very funny to me and I’ve actually watched the episode a few times.”

Terri Irwin

Episode: “Hell on Earth” (2006) 

Terri Irwin, the widow of late adventure star Steve Irwin, was said to be “devastated” following the 2006 episode “Hell on Earth” in which Steve is portrayed with a stingray’s barb sticking out of his chest in hell. The episode aired two months after Steve’s untimely death from such an incident. 

“Terri is devastated Steve is being mocked in such a cruel way,” a friend of the family said (via Metro UK ). “Her worry is that [kids] Bindi and Bob will see it and break down. Steve had as big a sense of humor as anyone, but this goes too far too soon.” 

Kanye “Ye” West

Episodes:  “Fishsticks” (2009) and “The Hobbit” (2013)

The Season 13 episode revolving around Kanye West’s love of “fish sticks” led the rapper to admit that the show hurt his feelings in a lengthy blog post. 

“‘SOUTH PARK’ MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT’S PRETTY FUNNY,” West wrote in all caps. “IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM ‘SOUTH PARK’! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH.” 

West continued, “AS LONG AS PEOPLE THINK I ACT LIKE A BITCH THIS TYPE OF SHIT WILL HAPPEN TO ME. I GOT A LONG ROAD AHEAD OF ME TO MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE I’M NOT ACTUALLY A HUGE DOUCHE BUT I’M UP FOR THE CHALLENGE. I’M SURE THE WRITERS AT ‘SOUTH PARK’ ARE REALLY NICE PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE.” 

He also referenced the episode in track “Gorgeous.” 

Episode: “Ginger Kid” (2005) 

“South Park” didn’t specifically parody Ed Sheeran, but the British singer-songwriter took serious issue with “Ginger Kids”: a 2005 episode mocking redheads. 

“Having red hair in England was always a thing that people took the piss out of you for, but it was never something in America,” Sheeran told Slam Radio (via The Independent ). “I was going to America and everyone was like, ‘I love your hair, dude.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God, people like my hair?’ And then I remember that episode coming out and that was just it worldwide for the rest of my life.”

“That episode of ‘South Park’ fucking ruined my life,” he said.

Russell Crowe

“South Park” poked fun at actor Russell Crowe and his reputation for volatile behavior and public altercations in 2002’s “The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer,” which shows the Aussie actor as the star of a children’s show “Fightin’ Around the World with Russell Crowe,” where he travels the world and randomly beats people up.

In DVD commentary for the episode, Parker and Stone  admitted the parody was instigated by a bad personal experience they had with Crowe at a party — as much as it was by a desire to poke fun at his public controversies.

Crowe addressed the episode in a later interview with “60 Minutes,” claiming that they didn’t ask his permission. Still, he praised Parker and Stone as “very, very funny men” and said that he wishes “them godspeed, and I hope they continue to do what they’re doing.”

Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi

Episode: “It’s a Jersey Thing” (2010)

Few celebrities took their “South Park” appearances with more good humor than Snooki and her castmates from MTV’s “Jersey Shore.” Released when the reality series was at its peak as a national phenomenon, 2010’s “It’s a Jersey Thing” portrays the show’s cast — as well as Teresa Giudice from “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” — as a violent group attempting to conquer “South Park,” while Snooki was portrayed as a literal gremlin.

But the episode went over as a hit with the reality stars. Snooki, Vinny Guadagnino, and “The Situation” all  expressed their appreciation  for the episode on Twitter, while Giudice proclaimed that it was an “honor to be mocked” by the long-running series.

Episodes: “ManBearPig” (2006) and “Time to Get Cereal”/”Nobody Got Cereal?” (2018)

Al Gore holds the rare and illustrious honor of being the only public figure to receive a real apology from Parker and Stone. After the 2006 episode “ManBearPig” mocked Gore and his activism for climate change — represented as the titular and seemingly fake monster —  “South Park” corrected the record in 2018 with a two-part sequel episode that saw the boys realize the monster is real and apologize to Gore.

Although the former Vice President didn’t speak publicly about the initial 2006 episode, he broke his silence in  an interview with Trevor Noah  on “The Daily Show,” saying he was “impressed” by the show’s apology: “I thought it was a hell of a statement by ‘South Park’ and I appreciated it a lot.”

Paris Hilton

Episode: “Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playlist” (2004)

In a parody of early aughts tabloid culture, the 2004 episode “Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playlist” saw the girls of “South Park” (minus Stan’s girlfriend Wendy) grow obsessed with emulating Paris Hilton on the heels of her infamous 2003 sex tape. Hilton responded to this episode — which repeatedly calls her degrading terms and sees her dog die by suicide to escape the misery of being owned by her — with indifference: “I haven’t seen it, but when people copy you, that’s like the most flattering thing, so whatever people can say, I just laugh about it.”

“It doesn’t matter to me,” she told blackfilm.com at the time.

Brian Boitano

Movie: “South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut”

Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano made his “South Park” debut in the 1995 short “The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa” (a follow-up to the earlier “The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Frosty.”) The two projects would inspire the basis for “South Park” proper, and Boitano would return in the franchise’s first feature film, “South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut.”

In the movie, Stan, Kyle, and Eric sing a song titled “ What Would Brian Boitano Do? ” and use his career as inpiration to carry on with their adventures. Boitano has been a friend of the show ever since, and filmed a parody video congratulating the “South Park” team on their 200th episode in 2010.

“It’s been great being a small part of your journey on ‘South Park,'” the athlete said. “I want to wish you another 200 episodes. You guys are the greatest.” 

Episode:  “Cartman’s Mom is a Dirty Slut” (1998) 

The late Bob Saget was the canonical host of “South Park” smash hit “America’s Stupidest Home Videos.” The stand-up comedian and “Full House” actor generally took the appearance in stride, responding to a question from a Reddit AMA in 2014 , “I liked that their grandfather found their version of me so hilarious while he watched me on that video show. It hurt and felt good at the same time. Like most of my relationships.”

Sally Struthers

Episode:  “Starvin’ Marvin” (1997) and “Starvin’ Marvin in Space” (1999) 

One of the earliest “South Park” episodes was also its earliest brush with celebrity controversy. In the eighth episode of the series, “Starvin’ Marvin,” “All in the Family” star Sally Struthers is portrayed as an obese, greedy scam artist who hoards all the food from the Christian Children’s Fund’s Ethiopian fundraiser for herself.

Back before it became a badge of honor to be mocked by the show, Struthers was reportedly offended by the episode, according to Parker and Stone’s commentary on a DVD track. Neither was undeterred, however, and later portrayed the actor as a Jabba the Hutt rip-off in the Season 3 sequel “Starvin’ Marvin in Space.”

César Millán

Episode: “Tsst” (2006) 

In response to the 2006 episode “Tsst,” César Millán (aka TV’s most well-known dog trainer) filmed his complete reaction to the “South Park” parody in which he domesticates Cartman. Millán posted it on YouTube in 2019. 

“They did an incredible job of representing exactly,  exactly  what I do,” he beams at the start of the video, complimenting the episode’s attention to detail. “Even the clothes that I’m wearing are exactly what I used to wear: a navy blue buttondown and khaki pants.” 

George R. R. Martin

Episodes:  “A Song of Ass and Fire” and “Titties and Dragons” (2013)

George R. R. Martin saw his fair share of animated parodies across eight years of “Game of Thrones” fervor. On “South Park,” the author appeared in a two-part epic involving Kenny, Cartman, and a Black Friday battle for gaming consoles. 

“It’s surreal what’s happened in my life in the last few years,” Martin said in 2014 at the Nacogdoches Film Festival . “I think part of me was always tickled by the idea that someday I would create characters that people would do parodies of… I love ‘South Park.’ They were relatively gentle with me.”

“But they got one thing wrong, really badly wrong,” the author added. “‘South Park’ me has this obsession with weeners. And anybody who knows me or has watched my show knows my actual obsession is with boobies.” 

Episode:  “Gluten Free Ebola,” “The Cissy,” and “#REHASH” (2014)

In the “South Park” universe, Lorde didn’t rise to fame as a teenage singer from New Zealand. Her true identity is that of Stan’s dad, Randdy Marsh. In a since-deleted Instagram post (via LA Times ), Lorde reacted positively to the parody, writing, “This is actually surprisingly cute, and from what I can tell also has a message of transgender acceptance. (I’m still very new with this type of humour so I’m not sure if it was actually genuine but it seemed so to me.)”

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Tom Cruise’s 2005 appearance on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ was an iconic episode of television—and a turning point for how we discuss and understand celebrities

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In the spring of 2005, an unknown 20-something in California uploaded a 19-second video of himself to the internet. “Me at the zoo,” the first YouTube video, featured cofounder Jawed Karim rambling about animals. “The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long trunks,” a man said, gesturing toward an elephant enclosure. It was boring, but it was the beginning of something.

That same spring, Karim’s YouTube quickly found one of its first hits. Its origins were far less obscure than a tech guy on a field trip. At the time, Tom Cruise had a more-than-reasonable claim to the title of biggest celebrity in America. He was the movie star, a leading man with mom-approved handsomeness, a nimble physicality, and a gung-ho intensity that played on the big screen as magnetic instead of disturbed. He counted Top Gun , Jerry Maguire , and two Mission: Impossible movies among the idol-making roles under his small belt. Meanwhile, Oprah Winfrey had already established herself as not only the biggest celebrity on daytime television, but the biggest celebrity in media. She’d made the careers of Drs. Phil and Oz. She’d debuted O, the Oprah Magazine . She’d hollered “You get a car!” to a euphoric crowd. Cruise’s May 2005 interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show seemed destined to be yet another fluffy meeting of monstrously famous minds. Instead, traditional media’s powerhouse duo was about to provide the new video-uploading service with a clip that would demonstrate the format’s growth potential far better than a rinky-dink recording of a random dude musing about zoos.

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Before Cruise came out on stage that day, the crowd at Chicago’s Harpo Studios had already hyped itself into an ecstatic frenzy, whooping and clapping and jumping in overwhelmed pleasure at being in the presence of Winfrey, in her space, living their best lives. By 2005, Oprah had transformed her daytime talk show from a variation on Phil Donahue’s talk theme into something new, something that took the voyeuristic thrills of seeing televised confessions and elevated them with the language of self-help seminars and the polish of Hollywood. “Oprah is sitting in the throne of American pop culture,” said WBEZ anchor Jenn White on the podcast Making Oprah , describing Oprah’s cultural cachet in the early aughts. “She commands a regular worldwide audience of tens of millions. She can turn a book into a bestseller, a product into a trend, and people into stars.” At that point, Christianity Today had identified Oprah as “one of the most influential spiritual leaders in America.” Her audiences resembled gaga congregants.

Cruise was in Chicago to talk about his upcoming movie, Steven Spielberg’s remake of War of the Worlds . Instead of sticking to the promotional script, though, the compact action star gushed about his new girlfriend, actress Katie Holmes. “You’re gone,” Oprah said, searching for words to describe Cruise’s over-the-top infatuation. Within 15 minutes, Cruise had leapt onto Oprah’s couch in a spontaneous outburst of enthusiasm for his personal life. Cruise’s offbeat showboating was memorable in part because of its unusual setting; The Oprah Winfrey Show was where celebrities traipsed to shine up their reputations and get a warm embrace from a sympathetic fellow star. Oprah would polish, not grill. But Oprah, usually so masterful at empathizing with her guests, appeared to be at a loss. “You’re gone,” she repeated. The charismatic preacher had been sidelined by an even more earnest proselytizer.

People hated it. More importantly, they loved to hate it. Most importantly, they loved to talk about hating it. Divorced from its context and remixed into YouTube clips and GIFs, Cruise’s couch outburst looked far more bizarre than it had during the episode, when at least the studio audience had been equally hyped up and Oprah had encouraged him to talk about his personal life. Within the context of the episode, Cruise’s behavior was strange but not outrageous. On the internet, isolated and amplified into a single furniture-leaping moment, it looked like an A-list meltdown . The most popular spoof was called “Tom Cruise Kills Oprah,” where Cruise appeared to kill Oprah with lightning. Family Guy parodied it. Even Sesame Street eventually parodied it. But the couch clip went beyond launching parodies and viral videos. The response to the Cruise episode signaled a changing of the guard in Hollywood media, from a pecking order where publicists and studios could strike deals with access-hungry press toward a more democratic and chaotic media landscape. Even though Cruise had been in a terrific mood during his Oprah appearance, it was appropriate that his tomfoolery was reframed to look far more aggressive than it was. The internet and the media were about to get much sharper.

“Tom’s couch-jumping coincided with the rise of gossip blogs,” Matt James, who runs the celebrity gossip site Pop Culture Died in 2009, told The Ringer . “The entire incident became a testament to the way public opinion could form online in the pre-Twitter era, and how damaging it could be in the long run.”

Longtime Hollywood gossip blog Lainey Gossip also credited Cruise’s leap onto Oprah’s couch with galvanizing the media landscape. “This rise of the gossip blog quickly accelerated,” site creator Elaine Lui wrote in 2015. “Celebrities were not being contained the way they used to be. And the PEOPLE and Entertainment Tonight coverage just wasn’t cutting it anymore. Not when these illusions were so quickly being destroyed. This incident became one of the most critical chapters in the Origin Story of Internet Gossip.” The intense online response to Cruise’s convention-breaking presaged a shift in how celebrity freakouts were covered, as it was one of the first major entertainment-world meltdowns to saturate the blogging world. “There was something so personal, so oversharey, so necessarily engaged with the audience in Cruise’s couch-jumping that it set the tone for the kind of one-person media circus we’d expect and enjoy in the years to come, to varying degrees of sadness (Britney Spears), amazement (Charlie Sheen) and despicableness (Chris Brown),” Gawker ’s Rich Juzwiak wrote in 2012. While the word “meme” hadn’t yet entered the mainstream lexicon, Cruise’s furniture leap went viral. “Culturally, it was, in my mind, one of the first celebrity memes,” Brandon Ogborn, the writer behind The TomKat Project , an excellent play examining Tom Cruise’s reputation, told The Ringer . “That clip was reenacted so many times. It was kind of a watershed moment for internet culture.”

Along with memes came a cascade of internet commentary on Cruise’s behavior, most of it overwhelmingly negative. While Oprah’s studio audience had been pleased with his effusiveness, the story line soured in the digital world. “Now, whenever something happens in the news, we can go online and quickly find the tide in which public opinion is turning. In the early days of the internet, it wasn’t that distinct,” James said. “That changed with Tom. The people who watched Tom’s appearance and felt it was maybe even the slightest bit heartwarming went online to find that the majority opinion was Tom had lost his mind.”

It was an exciting time for bloggers, and terrible timing for Cruise. He had fired his longtime publicist, Pat Kingsley, in March 2004. Kingsley was a powerhouse with a viselike grip on the dicks of traditional outlets. “She was adamant about keeping Cruise out of the tabloids. At press junkets, she demanded that journalists sign contracts swearing not to sell their quotes to the supermarket rags,” film critic Amy Nicholson wrote for LA Weekly in 2014, arguing that internet culture was to blame for Cruise’s fall from grace. “Then Kingsley expanded her reach and insisted that all TV interviewers destroy their tapes after his segment had aired.” Without Kingsley, Cruise didn’t have his usual PR fixer at hand to tell him what not to do, to tell him how to course-correct once the backlash began, or to tell the press to lay off. Instead, Cruise had replaced the flinty Kingsley with his sister, Lee Anne DeVette, a fellow Scientologist. The public reaction to his romance with Holmes was no good even before The Incident. According to a People poll, the majority of respondents saw the relationship as a publicity stunt . “We can’t get enough of the TomKat show because eventually the paint will start to chip and we will hopefully see all the ugliness as openly as we’ve been shoved the lovey-dovey bullshit,” Perez Hilton wrote. Cruise’s past habit of keeping his private life to himself and manicuring his public image had given him an idyllic but distinctly artificial sheen, one that may have counterintuitively exacerbated the response when he finally stepped out of line. “He had never done anything publicly wrong before,” Nicholson told The Ringer . “He’d always been so perfect.” Cruise’s over-the-top display of hyper-public affection, possibly made more intense by his desire to prove that his love was real, backfired. Instead of making people think he was a romantic, Cruise just made people think he was weird.

He quickly got weirder, and darker. Shortly after his couch leap, Cruise started a feud with Brooke Shields by dismissing her experience with postpartum depression. He went on Today to go even further, insisting that psychiatry and psychiatric medicine were dangerous. While Cruise was a longtime Scientologist, he had never openly advocated for the abusive group’s more controversial beliefs so publicly before. “It was a time when he really just let himself go, and let his freak flag fly. And it was also a time when he was really proselytizing for Scientology. I think it was a huge explosion of press that was bad press, because the Tom Cruise machine just stopped,” Ogborn said. “He said, This is who I am, I’m going to jump on that couch, I’m going to tell Matt Lauer he’s glib. ”

In less than a year, Cruise contorted his reputation from a hard-working, eccentric leading man into Hollywood’s premiere guileless kook. “Cruise: I will eat the placenta,” a 2006 Daily Mail headline , is a good example of the sort of news he generated. When California banned the sale of ultrasounds for personal use that year, it was known as the “Tom Cruise law” because Cruise had publicly purchased an ultrasound machine to view his daughter in the womb. South Park went for the jugular, as expected, but ridicule came from all over. Noah Baumbach wrote a New Yorker piece where the joke was that his dog was stupid and enthusiastic … just like Tom Cruise. Even Lauren Bacall dissed him to reporters. People still showed up for Cruise movies. War of the Worlds had a huge opening , but studios feared that Cruise’s bankability was tainted after Mission: Impossible III made nearly $150 million less worldwide than its predecessor. Cruise’s reputation was undeniably threatened. His Q rating, used to measure celebrity appeal, dropped 40 percent. “From that point on, we all accepted Tom Cruise was crazy,” James said. “It was a done deal.”

Cruise’s uninhibited media blunder bender cost him a lucrative, long-term production deal with Paramount. His behavior was blamed for the deal’s destruction. “His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount,” Viacom chairman Sumner M. Redstone told The Wall Street Journal . The Oprah Winfrey Show , meanwhile, continued on as an unstoppable cultural force. From all accounts, as much as the couch-jumping episode yoked Oprah and Cruise together for eternity as a punch line, it also ruffled feathers at Harpo. “She was not invited to his wedding, and he was not invited for a very long time to come interview with her,” Ogborn pointed out, noting that Harpo employees would frequently come talk to him after the Chicago run of The TomKat Project to discuss that period of time. “They said she was fucking pissed when it happened.”

Regardless of Oprah’s personal opinion of Cruise’s behavior, the interview didn’t hurt her professionally. A mock set from the show is now on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture as part of an exhibit on Winfrey. There was no lasting damage to her legacy. (Curators declined to comment on the role of the interview in her cultural history.) If anything, the couch-jumping episode only provided a bolstering example of Oprah presiding over must-watch TV. The show’s guiding ethos focused on going big and doing the best, resulting in ever-more-elaborate gift giveaways and surprises for the audience. While Cruise’s antics might have thrown off the dynamic between guest and host that Oprah preferred, his interview ultimately fit the bill for the gripping, unexpected, and wholly memorable. “Tom’s televised freakout was just another notch in her belt,” James said. Talk-show hosts now manufacture segments specifically to do well on YouTube and other online platforms, but it was Oprah who generated the first viral talk-show clip.

The incident certainly did not kill Cruise’s career, either. In 2008, his comic turn in Tropic Thunder helped undercut his reputation for unrelenting self-seriousness. (The same year, Cruise reunited with Oprah for a much calmer interview.) Cruise maintained his career throughout his reputational turmoil by sticking with Mission: Impossible and thematically similar films. “He’s always done such great work with this franchise, but he’s almost clinging to it nervously, like he’s afraid to let go and take a real risk,” Nicholson said. “He’ll take risks inside the film with stunts, but he’s not taking risks inside his own career, like doing the dramatic work that marked a lot of what he did in the ’80s, or by chasing an Oscar, which is something he gave up on.” Although he never quite regained his status as a Hollywood golden boy, he has mellowed into an aging statesman of action flicks—and anyway, his divorce from Katie Holmes and continued association with Scientology have left a longer-lasting stink on his name than his exuberant talk-show appearance. In 2015, GQ heralded “Cool Tom Cruise.” This summer, he is starring in the sixth Mission: Impossible movie. The critical response to both the film and Cruise’s performance has been overwhelmingly positive. “What’s always been so ironic to me about the Tom Cruise quote-unquote backlash is that it seemed to me that audiences still really loved him, even if newspapers were telling them that they didn’t,” Nicholson said. “I feel like he’s proving something that never needed to be proven.”

The real legacy of the couch-jumping incident has almost nothing to do with Cruise or Oprah specifically and everything to do with how people reacted online to the moment. Tom and Oprah’s strange conversation, and the reaction it provoked, is now preserved as thousands of digital artifacts, emblematic of how information traveled in the early aughts. Rewatching the episode and the viral videos it spawned feels quaint now. The bloggy media cycle that produced Cruise memes has been replaced by a cesspool of broken newsfeeds smushing conspiracy theories and branded content against real news and irrational presidential tweets with such velocity that it seems deeply unlikely that Cruise’s hop onto a loveseat would provoke much at all in 2018. However, it’s even less likely that Cruise would’ve been able to make it so far into his career without finding his kooky personality exposed as he did in 2005.

Up-and-comers have learned to respond to a different and less controllable form of media attention. There is a whole brand of celebrity in which the famous are expected to engage with fans on social media. Celebrity PR disasters don’t often happen in such glossy settings anymore; instead, they are frequently facilitated by social media and accelerated by fans and detractors who dig up old tweets . The last time a daytime talk-show guest created a media supernova after their appearance, it was Danielle Bregoli, a.k.a. Bhad Bhabie, a.k.a. “Cash Me Ousside” Girl, who parlayed a viral moment shit-talking on Dr. Phil into a viable rap career . I doubt Bregoli knows about Tom Cruise’s Oprah appearance, but her own twist on the daytime meme underscores how much has changed since Cruise took his happy hop. Performative, contrived freakiness in front of a live studio audience can be an asset now. The big leap is figuring out how to navigate internet criticism without spinning out—a frequently impossible mission.

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How Does Tom Cruise Feel About Those Viral Deepfakes Of Him Getting Up To Shenanigans?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Since the deepfakes of Tom Cruise have gone viral on TikTok, the technology involved has been a great source of discussion. While the videos made with Cruise’s likeness are all one in good fun and accompany an incredible impression of the actor, some have posed questions about the merits and drawbacks of such tech. Of course, one also has to wonder what the A-lister himself thinks about the clips. Now, the creator of the viral content is sharing how Cruise himself feels about the stream of attention-grabbing clips. 

Miles Fisher, the creative mind behind the videos, originally started making the deepfake videos of Tom Cruise as an art project under the TikTok account DeepTomCruise . Now, Fisher is the co-founder of a growing artificial intelligence software company. When it comes to the Cruise videos, Fisher reached out to the Mission: Impossible actor once the videos garnered widespread attention online. And as the tech-savvy content creator explained to CoinDesk , there don't seem to be any hard feelings from the actor when it comes to the digital recreations:

[It] was begun with the purpose of generating awareness for manipulated media, and the potential for what could happen. Obviously [deepfake] Tom Cruise is kind of irreverent, fun, entertaining content. When it suddenly blew up we contacted Tom Cruise’s team and ultimately they didn’t have an issue.

For those unaware, “deepfakes” are created when someone uses artificial intelligence to put a person's face on someone else’s body so it appears that someone is performing an action that they never participated in. Miles Fisher’s videos have proven to be harmless and have depicted him (with Tom Cruise’s face) playing golf or giving himself a pep talk in the mirror. The technology is so advanced that many can’t tell that Cruise isn’t actually the one in the video . 

The Risky Business star isn’t the only celebrity who has been inserted into deepfake technology either. Videos of a deepfake Keanu Reeves have also gone viral on TikTok, confusing fans in the process. Another clip showed Bill Hader ’s impressions taken to the next level, with Hader digitally added to scenes from The Terminator . It's hard to say if Hader and Reeves are as cool with all of this as the Top Gun actor is. The tech is becoming more and more advanced and, while many of these videos are just silly and fun, some have questioned if this technology could be dangerous . 

While the potential pitfalls continue to be evaluated, Miles Fisher is just having fun with his Tom Cruise videos, and it’s pretty cool that the movie star is fine with the content. While the actor doesn’t have a TikTok account himself, the deepfake version of Cruise is more than enough to provide users with entertainment that simulates what the actor might share if he was on the platform. However, I’m still holding out for a collaboration between him Fisher and the real Cruise, as I’m sure they would come up with something fun together.

You can catch the real Tom Cruise in the 2022 smash hit Top Gun : Maverick , which is currently streaming with a Paramount+ subscription . He's also doing more death-defying stunts in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One , which opens in theaters on July 14, 2023. For more information on other films hitting streaming and cinemas this year, make sure to consult CinemaBlend's 2023 movie release schedule .

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Tom Cruise Poses with Kids Bella and Connor for First Photo in Almost 15 Years — See the Rare Shot!

The actor shares his two older kids with ex-wife Nicole Kidman

Derrick Brooks/Instagram

Tom Cruise stepped out with his two older kids in a rare public appearance.

The Mission: Impossible actor, 61, made one of his first public outings with daughter Isabella "Bella", 31, and son Connor, 29, in almost 15 years in a picture posted to former NFL player Derrick Brooks' Instagram on December 27.

In the photo, Cruise has his hand in his pocket and stands in the front next to Brooks, who is in between the star and his son Connor. Towards the back of the group photo, Bella peeks their head over the shoulder of another woman, smiling as she looks into the camera.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Cruise shares his two older kids with ex-wife Nicole Kidman . The actor also shares 18-year-old daughter Suri with ex-wife  Katie Holmes .

In October 2021, the star and his son Connor made a rare public appearance together when they attended a Los Angeles Dodgers game.

Cruise was photographed sitting next to Connor in the stands , where he leaned down to take photos with fans while watching the game. He kept warm in a navy jacket while his son opted for a black-and-white baseball hat and a black hoodie.

Before the baseball game, the father-son duo was last publicly  photographed  together in October 2019 in London. At the time, the two were seen walking to a private helicopter.

Although Bella isn't often photographed in public, she often share artwork on Instagram . In 2021, Bella shared a photo on Instagram of an eerie abstract-looking portrait .

"Ready for spooky season," she  captioned  the post.

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