The humor didn't disappear, but it matured. The jokes shifted from slapstick to character-driven moments—levity used to break tension rather than define the tone. New Horizons proved that The Orville wasn't a spoof trying to be serious; it was a serious drama that happened to have a sense of humor. It tackled topics ranging from the ethics of corrective surgery on intersex children to the horrors of totalitarianism, all while maintaining a high gloss of production value that rivaled major motion pictures.
MacFarlane has often stated that Star Trek taught him morality. He has hosted several documentaries on the science of sci-fi and has a genuine love for the narrative pacing of 90s television. was his Trojan Horse. He used his clout from Family Guy to get a network to greenlight a big-budget space opera, then coated the moral lessons in fart jokes to smuggle it past the executives. The Orville
The crew of the Orville are not super-soldiers or chosen ones. They are middle-managers, divorcees, and dads. They make mistakes. They say the wrong thing at parties. But they wake up every day trying to be better. That is the most radical message a TV show can offer in 2026. The humor didn't disappear, but it matured