I was pretty busy today. I helped my buddy move in to his first apartment and for the most part it was a pretty complete day, what with going to the gym and doing some paper work. I got home at about 1:30 AM and turned on the television whilst I doing some work on my laptop. Eventually, Family Guy started. I started to watch it more closely since I haven’t watched it in a while; because I have only been watch DVD’s of The Simpsons. Suddenly, with out warning, I had an epiphany. This show totally shits the bed.
Watching the brilliant show that is The Simpsons and then changing to a horrible rip off of it is completely unsatisfying. South Park slammed it a while back and did a good job, but it still doesn’t reach the heights of how bad this show really is.
I know you’re angry reading this right now. I would be too a couple years ago when I smoked pot and had no goals in life. It’s okay, I’ll allow you to grow and realize you’re mistakes. The fact is this show takes what The Simpsons have perfected and spun it in to a horrible mess. The Simpsons take popular culture and incorporate it in to the story. If you have seen the episode with the “McRib” that takes a sandwich phenomenon from McDonalds and made a brilliant episode combining inspiration from “Requiem for a Dream” you will understand. They took the drug inducing images from the movie and animated it on The Simpsons when Homer takes a bite of the sandwich. I remember sitting around with my brother a few weeks ago watching it and laughing, then at the same time receiving text messages on our phones declaring, “Dude, that’s totally what it’s like with the McRib!”
Family Guy, however doesn’t do this. Nay, they take a popular culture reference and use it as a throw away joke that has nothing to do with the plot. This is called a cutaway joke. The Simpsons did it a few times, and when they did it, it worked. It worked because the character in the show references the memory of something in the cutaway that has something to do with the scene and is relevant to the plot. Family Guy just jumbles words together to make a bullshit story. I can honestly write one on the spot.
Example:
INT - THE GRIFFINS HOME DAY
Peter walks in and notices Meg eating cereal. Meg looks up at Peter and gives him a strange and somewhat confused look. Peter squints his eyes and then looks away from Meg.
PETER
Jeez, this is more awkward than time I was urinating next to Senator Larry Craig.
CUTAWAY:
INT - BATHROOM DAY
Peter is standing at a urinal and relieving himself when an older man comes up and stands at the urinal next to Peters when there are clearly more private urinals farther away. Peter looks over and pays him no mind. An unzipping sound is heard from the older man. The older mans right foot starts sliding over to Peters left foot. The older man starts tapping his foot against Peter’s multiple times. Peter looks at him at him in horror. He slowly backs away as a big creepy smile begins to grow on the old mans face.
END.
That had absolutely nothing to do with anything at all. Nothing at all! If you take a stop watch and time only the parts of the show that had the family and the “plot,” I’m sure it would be five minutes max.
People say how similar Peter and Homer are also. If you analyze the characters you can deduce many things. First off, Peter is a fat stupid asshole who doesn’t care about his son, doesn’t recognize his baby, and hates his daughter. He treats his wife like a piece of shit even managing to beat her up a couple of times.
Homer, however, is also an idiot. The difference is that he tries. He loves his wife, and he loves his kids. With the occasional strangulation of Bart and forgetfulness, he still does the best he can for his family and his family knows this. He would also be a genius if not for the crayon lodged in to his brain.
Family Guy lacks jokes like The Simpsons. Just take a looks at the differences in dialogue. The Simpsons has witty lines that creep up on you and make you laugh. Family Guy is just…I don’t even know what they’re trying to do.
The set up here is that Homer and Bart are at the airport passing all the religious people offering information on their religion. Homer ignores all of them until he happens upon a new intriguing religion.
The Joy of Sect [9.13]
Movementarian woman: A new and better life awaits you on our distant home planet, Blisstonia.
Homer: Hmm. makes sense.
Movementarian woman: We're having a free get-acquainted session at our resort this weekend.
Homer: How much is this free resort weekend?
Movementarian man: It's free.
Homer: And when is this weekend?
Movementarian man: It's this weekend.
Homer: Uh-huh. And how much does it cost?
Movementarian man: Um, it's free.
Homer: I see. And when is it?
Movementarian man: It's this weekend.
Homer: And what are you charging for this free weekend?
Bart: Come on, Dad, the team's arriving!
Homer: [being pulled away by Bart] It's free, right?
This is just hilarious. The calm and peaceful cult member tries to invite Homer to a brainwashing session but Homer is too stupid to combine the details to understand it. Let’s see what Family Guy has to offer. Peter is pretending to be a redneck for some reasons and god dammit this show is fucking horrible.
Airport '07 [5.12]
[Peter has the couch out on the front lawn. Meg walks by]
Peter: Hey, Meg, come here. Have a seat. [She sits down next to him. Peter then does a fake yawn, stretches his arms out, and puts one around Meg]
Meg: Dad...what are you doing?
Peter: Meg, I'm a Redneck. Which means I am about to do something to you that you will not remember until you're 40.
Meg: [runs away] AAAAAAHHHHHH!!
Peter: Meg, come back here! I meant sex!
Fail. Not only is Peter pretending to be a redneck, he also wants to have sex with his underage daughter. Wow, that is hilarious! It reminded me of this one time I watched Family Guy and didn’t laugh. Trying to be shocking by exploiting taboo subjects is just a scapegoat way of not being clever enough to think of something amusing.
I found this quote on a website a while back and just had to share it because it sums of Family Guy so well:
“A golden rule of bad comedy is that if people recognize the reference, they'll laugh even if the joke's not funny. Family Guy goes beyond that; it doesn't even try to have a joke half the time -- it just assumes that making a pop culture reference is inherently funny.”
Family Guy doesn’t just rip off the concept of The Simpsons, it rips off the jokes from The Simpsons. But the difference is again that one is funny and original, while the other is a failure.
There is a reason Family Guy has been cancelled a whopping 3 times. The reason is that it’s horrible. It’s a poorly written show with a hint of a plot compiled with recyclable attempts at offensive popular culture “jokes.” I plead to you, the reader; stop watching this half an hour of garbage. Do something else, hell, watch an episode of fucking Matlock! You will be more entertained taking drugs and hanging out with Jeffrey Dahmer than watching this sewage.