Subtler, perhaps. Family Guy’s characters have a bit more grounding than South Park’s, so the Family Guy writers can write funny dialogue for them that plays off their personalities. I haven’t watched South Park in a while, but I don’t recall “witty character interaction” being one of its strengths.
South Park is funnier.
Family Guy is a different kind of comedy. It might be a little more subtle and absurd, posibly more random.
South Park, like them or not, tackle some pretty big issues/flaws, even if Matt and Trey are the only ones that see them. I admire balls. That’s because mine are like a giant bean bag chair.
Family Guy really lost me during the New England Patriots episode, when Peter got to play for the Pats. So horribly unfunny at almost every second, I haven’t seen an episode since. (Not because of it, I’ve just always been busy on Sunday nights/don’t know when they play on the Cartoon Network).
Is that actually what they’re doing? (::Checks Wikipedia and sees that it probably is.:
Jesus Christ.
I’m not a fan of either show, but I won’t get into it. I have more respect for South Park because it’s more ambitious.
Family Guy is definitely better, IMHO. The episode you described, Patriot Games, was absolutely hilarious for me. I really enjoyed the Stewie / Brian subplot, because someone owed me money IRL.
Where was the funny in that episode?
I’m not trying to be standoffish, I’m really trying to see what was funny about it. The only thing i found funny about the Brian/Stewie subplot is how over the top Stewie’s beating of Brian got. Even then, it went too far.
Has Family Guy won a Peabody Award? Case closed. Closed, I say!
South Park is far better.
I believe this claim comes from their very unimformed and insulting transexual episode. Yeah, they pick on everyone and normally they have a point, but that one was just pure ignorance with not a single coherent thought on the issue other than “transexuals are just confused fags”. It was pure bigotry that really showed how ignorant they are and frankly ruined the show for a lot of people.
For me, it isn’t even close.
Family Guy.
I never really could get into South Park because it seemed like the whole show was/is created for the sole purpose to shock the viewer. I just get the feeling that they’re trying to shock the viewers any way they can.
“What can we do to get their jaws to drop this week? Come on, we got to think of something! Hurry, think of something!!”
I suspect that if South Park had to run on a timeslot and network similar to Family Guy they would have to turn the shock knob way down, and then you would see just how unfunny the show really is.
Not to say that I haven’t laughed my ass off at South Park episodes, but I just think that Family Guy pretty much blows them out of the water.
South Park, just because they are on cable and can get away with more stuff. Given the same circumstances, I’m sure Seth could make Family Guy alot funnier if he was on cable. Much moreso than South Park. Besides, I’m pissed at Family Guy for not allowing me to watch missed episodes on Youtube anymore :P.
Everyone except transsexuals. When they poke fun at gays, blacks, or Jews, it’s obvious that they actually respect those groups. When they took on transsexuals, it was obvious that they hate them and don’t understand them in the least. Whenever they take on politics, they can be funny, but their underlying message is ass-stupid.
Did you ever think that members of PETA or Scientology feel the same way. They lampoon everybody. Quite often quite harshly. Usually using a large blunt object that could be mistaken for ignorance. It is actually extreme parody in most cases. BTW: The have already lampooned themselves with the “Simpsons did it Episode”
They have a decent sense of humor about themselves and they enjoy outraging people. Apparently it works quite well.
Why would you treat a show that came up with Mr. Hanky {the misbegotten offspring of a 70’s Christmas special and Freddy the Magic Golden Flute} seriously?
Jim
I enjoy Family Guy, but it always bothered me how unfocused it is. The stories tend to go all over the place and most of the jokes have nothing to do with the plot.
Family Guy is definitely the funnier show. Parker and Stone have sold their birthright for a pot of message.
Jesus Mary & Glaven!
Comparing South Park to The Family Guy is like, I don’t know, comparing Arrested Developement to Gilligan’s Island. One is (or rather was :() a smart, clever, often uncomfortably inappropriate, writer’s show. The other, ahem, is not.
Let’s just leave it at that…
I don’t get why so many people love one show and hate the other – not necessarily people on this thread, but many people. I especially don’t get why the creators of the shows hate each other so much – and are so vocal about it. Frankly, it strikes me as petty and unprofessional. And it’s not just South Park/Family Guy; apparently The Simpsons has a beef with Family Guy too.
Personally I’m more of a South Park fan, but Family Guy’s funny enough when I see it.
I can’t speak officially for anyone but its pretty simple.
Above all else, Family Guy is an incredibly lazy show. That is, the writing is low-brow, unoriginal, lazy, um, crap.
I think The Simpsons writers and Parker & Stone are right in hating it because it gives animation for adults a really bad name. I also think they hate it because Familty Guy thinks its like The Simpsons or SP in that it attempts to appear edgey and hip and satirical, but without putting the genuinely hard work into the writing to actually make it that way.
IOW Family Guy is a complete and utter poser and I love that, to the writers of the real shows, this is incedibly, and painfully, obvious.
As it is to me… 
That’s basically how I feel.
I’m not sure that’s true. Maybe you’ve seen quotes to the contrary, but from the little I’ve read, Seth MacFarlane makes no bones about what he’s doing. He’s amusing himself (and a fair number of other people, too). If anything, it’s the show’s fans and Fox’s marketing that insist on the comparison. It’s not like they have nothing in common. But Family Guy isn’t a social satire, the other two shows often are. And not to hijack the thread, but I think American Dad is proof positive that MacFarlane can’t do satire to save his life. Randomized pop culture stuff - though it doesn’t amuse me much - he can do.
I love them both, but would say that Family Guy is a better show at the moment. Family Guy is still in its prime, while South Park started declining in quality last season. Seasons 4-7 of South Park, though, beat all seasons of Family Guy.
I think family guy is less “deep” (and I mean comically, not politically) show.
It’s sort of like… with Beavis and Butthead, there was an audience that was laughing with them, and part of the audience that was laughing at them. Not to give the show too much credit, but part of the deal was that you weren’t laughing at the “surface” of the show, but at people who actually found the show funny for what it was at the surface - sort of a meta layer of comedy. Or maybe I’m a total retard and off base with that.
In any case - it seems like when south park uses low brow humor, it’s more in that meta-comedy role. It’s like a lower layer that the less sophisticated part of the audience would find funny, and that the more sophisticated part can laugh at them and also enjoy the less low brow stuff on another level.
Whereas with family guy, the low brow humor is often the main layer, so to speak - nothing else to it. Trying to get laughs from low brow stuff. It’s not all low brow, though - just that while each show has shockingly low brow stuff, it seems to me that it’s designed with a different purpose/to be enjoyed on different levels.
For what it’s worth, I love both shows. South Park is definitely, overall, funnier though.
Rereading what I just said, it sounds snobby and unclear. Dunno how else to put it though.