Can Family Guy compete with the likes of The Office and 30 Rock when it comes to Emmy voters choosing the best comedy on TV? Seth MacFarlane thinks so.

Variety reports that the Family Guy creator is making a big play to get his series nominated for an Emmy this year in the comedy category, as opposed to the animated series category. This will actually be the second year Family Guy is submitted as a comedy, but last year there was a bit of a safety net – due to the Star Wars parody episode Blue Harvest being considered an independent special, that single episode was submitted for the animated category while the series itself was submitted as a comedy. With no such loophole in place this year, MacFarlane is betting it all on getting the show a comedy nomination, and explains why he thinks the show is worthy to Variety.
Says MacFarlane, "We don't produce our show the way that SpongeBob does. We're much more analogous to traditional sitcoms. Our writers don't come from animation; they come from comedies. I hear people all the time tell me that they love The Office, 30 Rock and our show. Then why are we not all competing in the same world?"

No animated series, including The Simpsons, has been able to score an Emmy nomination in the comedy category since 1961, when The Flintstones was nominated. But Family Guy came close last year, making it to the list of ten finalists over shows like How I Met Your Mother, before ultimately losing out on becoming one of the actual nominees. This year, the Emmys are allowing six shows in the final list of nominees, up from five, so Family Guy's odds are improved.

A promotional poster has been created for the Emmy run that parodies a now-famous Barack Obama poster, with Stewie Griffin in place of Obama alongside the words "Vote for Change." MacFarlane tells Variety, "The thinking behind it was somewhat allegorical to Obama. Let's break some new ground here. The goal here is to generate an understanding in the TV Academy on this."

One thing is clear here – if Family Guy can manage to score this nomination, we figure that MacFarlane and his collaborators will be truthful when they say it's an honor just to be nominated.