“Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane had the hedge fund crowd in stitches — and clutching their pearls — with his out-of-bounds jokes on Monday night at Robin Hood’s annual charity gala at the Javits Center.
MacFarlane performed at the gala, with a drink in hand, explaining how it’s “very strange to be the poorest guy here,” among all the Wall Street and tech titans in the room.
Lucky for MacFarlane, “Family Guy” has been running for 25 years, so he was “glad it’s still on-air,” he joked, adding of the long-running series, “it will always have a special place in my wallet.”
The TV bigwig then set his comedic sights on Keith Urban — who performed several songs, including Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” — before he hit the stage.
MacFarlane joked he had to fill 10 minutes of the show while they, “sweep Keith Urban’s coke off the stage.”
(Urban has publicly detailed how he once struggled with addiction, and went to rehab twice.)
MacFarlane also joked about Ellen DeGeneres leaving the United States for Europe after President Trump won office.
He said that the former allegedly difficult daytime host, “left right after the election, and now she’s the nicest person in France.”
(DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi actually moved to the UK last year after the election.)
As for the org’s mission to eradicate poverty in NYC, the TV mogul reminded the wealthy crowd — including Michael Bloomberg, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and philanthropist Laurie M. Tisch to, “Thank the homeless – without them, nobody would be here tonight.”
The evening also brought out the charity’s founder, Paul Tudor Jones II and CEO Richard Buery Jr., as well as Gloria Estefan, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, John Sykes, Kwasi Mitchell, Brittany Sky, Stephanie Ruhle, Michael Strahan, Colin Kaepernick, Serena Williams, Alexis Ohanian, Marc and Joey Wölffer, Republic Records founder Monte Lipman and his wife Dr. Angelina Lipman, Oz Pearlman and Giants player Russell Wilson.
The Weeknd closed the show out with an hour-long set.
After recently teasing that he may be retiring his stage persona, diehards in the crowd apparently got the memo, and chanted his real name, “Abel,” throughout the performance.
Guests took home a swag bag with Kiehls products, Equinox merch and a copy of Dr. Angelina’s book “Blocking the Noise.”
The Robin Hood foundation raised over $72 million to help fight poverty in New York City.
Read the full article here