Moments ago on Real Time with Bill Maher, Seth MacFarlane took the opportunity to respond to Sarah Palin's outrage over the fact that Family Guy made an implied dig at her mentally disabled son, Trig.

After playing a clip of The O'Reilly Factor that featured the controversial Family Guy scene (see it here), Maher called Palin "the queen of fake outrage" and gave MacFarlane a chance to respond to her attacks against him.

MacFarlane was quick to point out that the actress who voiced the character with Down syndrome—and who has the disorder herself—came to his defense and noted that Palin lacks a sense of humor before reiterating those points to Maher. MacFarlane also said that he believed Palin's outrage was unfounded, a result of an attempt to inspire "phony pity" for someone who didn't ask for it (and doesn't need it).

MacFarlane and Maher also opined on Palin's hypocrisy—for example, her defense of Rush Limbaugh for using the word "retarded" derogatorily because she believes him to be a "satirist" while she criticized others (e.g. Rahm Emanuel) for doing the same thing—before describing how the country's vernacular has shifted and allowed the word's meaning to transcend.

Maher summed the situation up with the following:

Ironically, because of people like Sarah Palin, the country has become so stupid [that] we need the word retarded to constantly describe what is going on in America.

No word yet on whether or not Palin has updated her Facebook status or "poked" MacFarlane (it's not like she understands what that means) in response.