The worst thing about Family Guy?

[Orrex]

Poll question: The worst thing about Family Guy?

[TommyO]

1. Um, none of the above.

[Orrex]

2. Man, you're waaaay off

:evilgrin:

[TommyO]

28. What can I say, I like the show, but am not freakishly devoted

(it's one of my TiVo Season Passes, but frequently gets overridden by something else).

[tcfrogs]

3. It does steal some ideas from other cartoon shows

Like the Simpsons and South Park. But if you consider how many episdoes and themes that the Simpsons have done, I guess it can be forgiven.

[gmoney]

4. "Simpsons did it, Simpsons did it!"

Love the South Park episode where they just address the overlap... get it out in the open.

[tcfrogs]

5. That was Butters wasn't it? n/t

[gmoney]

13. no, the sidekick to Butters' superhero personna, Professor Chaos

the sidekick is one of the littler kids, who's superhero name is General Disarray, I think... Butters came up with a plan, only to have the other kid say "Simpsons did it" to every idea.

[Taverner]

6. I love it - but I can understand why many don't

It's chock full of pop culture references, some fairly known but many that are just obscure as hell. If you don't know or care about pop culture, the show could be a wash.

[Orrex]

7. That's kind of the killer for me

I don't mind pop culture references, but Family Guy just strings together a whole bunch of them, interlaced with "I can't believe they said/did that" moments, and the net effect feels like they're trying too hard to be edgy.

[Marnieworld]

8. I love Family Guy!

I cannot understand why everyone doesn't as well so there!

[unpossibles]

9. last night they showed Mayor West reading My Pet Goat to kids

when Quagmire wrecked a plane. It was actually pretty shocking to see, especially on a FOX station.

I love the show. So what if it rips off other shows - what TV show doesn't rip off everything since The Honeymooners? It's 1000x funnier than The Simpsons has been lately, and I love(d) that show. Hell, it's where my screen name comes from!

[Deja Q]

15. Hate to say it, but "Simpsons" seems to borrow more from "Family Guy" with each passing episode.

:(

[ceile]

10. "Not enough new episodes"

I love that show!

[genie_weenie]

11. The worst thing is No-Thing...

BAM! Count It!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. The worst thing about it... is that Fox keeps using it...

to promote it's crappy live-action sitcoms.

Fantastic show otherwise.

[Deja Q]

14. The writing.

Again, seasons 1 and 2 were clever in their lowbrow nature. Somewhere along the line FOX decided it's just lowbrow and not cleverness that makes things funny. Pity, they still haven't figured it out why so many lowbrow-wannabe shows fail. They're not clever, nor creative; they're just lowbrow. The language without the wit.

[Gatchaman]

16. the SINGING!

lame show tunes are just that: lame.

I did like the Barbershop Quartet version of "You have AIDS" though :evilgrin:

[Dukkha]

18. agreed! enough with the musicals already

they are NOT funny

[Mojambo]

30. The vasectomy one was pretty good as well. n/t

[bertha katzenengel]

17. What's Family Guy?

:shrug:

[bigwillq]

19. It's a cartoon on Fox

Kind of like the Simpsons.

Sometimes it's really funny and sometimes it's not.

[Miss_Strawberry]

20. Uggh...

I am almost totally unoffendable, but last night's Family Guy was really hard to watch. The whole prom-night-dumpster baby thing. I guess in some way it can be turned around on itself to illustrate the importance of legalized abortion but I'm sure that was lost on the viewers. Lousy.

[bigwillq]

21. Hi!

Welcome to DU!:hi:

[Miss_Strawberry]

23. Thanks!

I want to formally introduce myself but I don't really know the proper protocol so I figured I'd mingle in with the general population...

[bigwillq]

25. To mingle is good!

:)

[Miss_Strawberry]

27. Bravery...

goes unrewarded. I wanted to make a post introducing myself but apparently I don't have enough posts yet. So it will be forthcoming. Thanks again for the warm welcome!

[Mojambo]

29. Man, I laughed my ass off at that Prom Night Dumpster Baby song and dance.

But those musical numbers are frequently my favorite part of the show.

[tonekat]

22. I liked the episode where they twitted the FCC

Especially in view of the fact that one of the (failed) Bush Admin's silly accomplishments was to pixelize Stewie's butt! A cartoon character's butt!

I like the pop culture references too, and at the same time it gets a bit too gross. But I can always switch the channel.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

24. It has its funny moments, but it is very formulaic

in the way it uses jokes irrelevant to the plot. This was parodied in the South Park episodes "Cartman Hates Family Guy I & II"

[Bucky]

26. it's the Simpsons for the "Explain that joke to me" set.

Predictable cultural references, all the guys are lazy & horny, all the woman are misunderstood and patient, and they squeeze in every sex joke they can, even when it doesn't fit the rest of the episode. Maybe "joke" is too strong a word, unless you're the type of person who giggles whenever you hear anything about sex mentioned.

I've sat thru Family Guy twice and both times came away with a bored. The difference is that with Groening's shows, you care about the characters. The Simpsons can make the occasional lame show, but you end up seeing the characters's humanity thru it all; perhaps cause they play it straight. When you have a dog about a talking dog and a mad scientist baby--oooh it's all so zany--I'm already not caring. They just fling spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. Most of it doesn't.

But even Futurama, which is just as absurd with its hard drinking robot and talking lobster alien, the show treats its characters seriously. Family Guy uses its characters just to carry the most obvious giggles it can manage. Bo-ring.

[Danger Mouse]

31. I have to agree.

Some of the episodes of 'Futurama' were quite compassionate to the characters.

[Danger Mouse]

32. Family Guy was funny at first, but it got old fast.

I mean, half of it is pure shock value, the other half is pop culture references which, although amusing, get kind of tiring. If you don't get the joke, then it doesn't register with you. Even if you do, it's pretty much just...'oh, remember this? When we were kids? Yeah, isn't it crazy? Boy, let's laugh at it some more.'
It's like watching an animated version of those VH1 specials on the 80's, except without the Z-Grade celebrities that you wish were dead.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

33. The PJs was far better than Family Guy, and as good as Simpsons at their best.

The PJs referred to "The Projects". And it was cancelled. Claymation show (stop action 3d animation like the California Raisins) that had real black people in the projects. They were not all squeaky clean like the Cosby family, so they probably offended somebody.

It was a joint project between Eddie Murphy and Ron Howard, and it only lasted one season on Fox.
I loved it and wish they'd renewed it instead of Family Guy.

The jokes were amazing. For example, the main character, a not too bright building superintendent, was named "Thurgood Orenthal Stubbs".

For those who need explaining--3 famous black people.
1) Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
2) Orenthal James Simpson, ex football player, no introduction needed after the trial that took up most of 1995.
3) Levi Stubbs, lead singer of The Four Tops.

I'm white and consider myself well informed but it took me a while to figure out who Levi Stubbs was. Absolutely subtle and brilliant humor.


They had a crack addict named "Smokey" who wore a button that said "Lose Weight Now. Ask me How."

:evilgrin:

[FVZA_Colonel]

34. Basically, the fact that they've reduced themselves to stripmining the 80's and 90's

for the pop-culture refferences that constitute humor on the show. And this is coming from someone who would have taken a bullet for the show back during the first three seasons.