The scene, between the characters of Stewie and Brian, aired back in 2006 but was shared over the weekend by Reddit user vt31008, leaving fans in hysterics once again. It sees creator Seth Macfarlane poking fun at one relatively small mystery of the movies: why does Palpatine have a desk? Does he have paperwork to catch up on? Is he swamped in admin?
In the scene, which you can watch below, Stewie asks: “Why does Emperor Palpatine have a desk? In that scene where Yoda comes in and they are about to have that big fight? Emperor Palpatine clearly gets up from his desk.
“I’m just saying, what does he need a desk for?
“What was he doing at his desk? Like, right before Yoda walked in? Was he doing paperwork?
“Was he, like, ‘Oh, Yoda, what do you need and will it take longer than five minutes? I’m absolutely swamped. These requisition forms for new TIE fighters have to be down to Debbie in accounting by 6:00, or Nute Gunray is gonna pitch a tent in my waiting room.”
The prequels were much maligned at the time but attitudes towards them appear to have softened in recent years – something Ewan McGregor recently commented on.
“George Lucas wanted to do something very different with the prequels. That’s why people felt cheated,” he told Vanity Fair.
“Now, many years later, the prequels meant a lot to the generation that were kids then.
“So from smirking, cynical opinions, now I’m getting feedback from the kids they were made for. I’m really happy about that.”
This isn’t the only time a classic animation sequence has come back to entertain Star Wars fans.
Last month an old shot from Futurama went viral when it appeared to predict the title of Star Wars: Episode 9 – although it probably won’t be Yoda’s Bar Mitzvah, as the programme suggested.
The final instalment of the sequel trilogy is currently in production and will be released in December.
Family Guy, meanwhile, recently marked its 20th anniversary.