So the world and its wife may already know which Family Guy character was controversially killed off earlier this year, thanks in no small part to a massive spoilery obituary on the front page of the Guardian's website the day after, but we're still going to tread carefully and warn you that if you still haven't heard yet, it's best that you look away.
Seth MacFarlane knows that his fans were utterly fuming with the decision to kill said character off, so when revealing why they'd done it he most certainly didn't hold back.
SPOILER ALERT: Seriously, if you don't get it by now lads, we suggest you look away now.
Y'see, Brian the dog was just about as popular as Seth and the producers thought he was, so they decided to kill him off to teach us all a little lesson apparently. "And thus endeth our warm, fuzzy holiday lesson: Never take those you love for granted, for they can be gone in a flash", MacFarlane tweeted yesterday.
Except of course, in the Family Guy universe, they can also come back just as quickly. Sure haven't the brought everyone's favourite talking dog (sorry Wishbone, we still love you) back to life already? Stewie finally got that time machine working and managed to bring his old friend back from the beyond, as was always the plan, apparently.
"I mean, you didn't really think we'd kill off Brian, did you? Jesus, we'd have to be f**king high" MacFarlane tweeted. "Oh and hey... thanks for caring so much about the canine Griffin. He is overcome with gratitude."