# How hath Family Guy ripped off The Simpsons, help me count the ways **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 15, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543 "2006-11-15T16:40:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/41 "2006-11-15T21:38:06Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] So, the evidence that _Family Guy_ has ripped off _The Simpsons_ amounts to “Dad is fat and stupid,” and “There’s a wacky newscaster.” Wow. I’m surprised Matt Groenig hasn’t sued. [/QUOTE] I guess you’re right. There’s no similarity. McFarland wasn’t influenced by the Simpsons. None of the set-ups are borrowed. No simliarty in any episode premises. I am clearly set out to take down Family Guy with no good reason. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/42 "2006-11-15T21:39:48Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] “Dad is fat and stupid” [/QUOTE] and you forgot drunk. Try harder to keep your witty retorts acurate. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/43 "2006-11-15T21:43:41Z")
[QUOTE=whole bean] Quit looking for “non-matches” as they are irrelevant. [/QUOTE] Nonsense. You claimed that Family Guy ripped off Simpsons. When the bulk of the casts bear no resemblance to eachother whatsoever, and what few resemblances there are are entirely derivative examples of what’ve been sitcom clichees since the Honeymooners, then your claims of ripoff become more and more ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/44 "2006-11-15T21:50:33Z")
[QUOTE=whole bean] I guess you’re right. There’s no similarity. McFarland wasn’t influenced by the Simpsons. None of the set-ups are borrowed. No simliarty in any episode premises. I am clearly set out to take down Family Guy with no good reason. [/QUOTE] Fallacy of the Excluded Middle, my friend. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/45 "2006-11-15T22:12:35Z")
[QUOTE=Tengu] Nonsense. You claimed that Family Guy ripped off Simpsons. When the bulk of the casts bear no resemblance to eachother whatsoever, and what few resemblances there are are entirely derivative examples of what’ve been sitcom clichees since the Honeymooners, then your claims of ripoff become more and more ridiculous. [/QUOTE] I said ripped off characters and premises, not cloned (i.e. there are instances of “heavy borrowing”). Vanilla Ice ripped off Queen and Bowie, but the songs Ice Ice Baby and Presure aren’t identical and it would take an hour to rattle off the big differences. How is it you can’t see the irrelevance of dissimilarity where the argument concerns instances of similarity? Once again, ripped off does not necessarilry equal clone. Green pants!! Green Pants!!! ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/46 "2006-11-15T22:14:10Z")
[QUOTE=Lord Ashtar] Fallacy of the Excluded Middle, my friend. [/QUOTE] Knowing when I’ve been beaten and making a lame joke, my friend. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/47 "2006-11-15T22:56:37Z")
Granted, Family Guy’s creators used The Simpsons as a basis for the style of humor they use in their cartoon, but calling it ripoff is like saying every scifi movie made since 1977 is a ripoff of Star Wars, or every heavy metal band is a ripoff of Black Sabbath, etc. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/48 "2006-11-15T23:14:01Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] Granted, Family Guy’s creators used The Simpsons as a basis for the style of humor they use in their cartoon, but calling it ripoff is like saying every scifi movie made since 1977 is a ripoff of Star Wars, or every heavy metal band is a ripoff of Black Sabbath, etc. [/QUOTE] I am begining to agree with you. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/49 "2006-11-15T23:21:45Z")
[QUOTE=whole bean] both married to fat drunk guy to whom they have inordinate sexual attraction given his fat drunkeness. [/QUOTE] Bzzzt. That trope is as old as the sitcom. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/50 "2006-11-15T23:27:33Z")
[QUOTE=whole bean] Vanilla Ice ripped off Queen and Bowie, but the songs Ice Ice Baby and Presure aren’t identical and it would take an hour to rattle off the big differences. [/QUOTE] Didn’t Vanilla Ice explain it himself? _Under Pressure_ goes “dun dun dun duh-duh dun dun” and _Ice Ice Baby_ goes “ **duh** -dun dun dun duh-dun dun **chkk**.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/51 "2006-11-15T23:55:19Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] That’s not much of a difference, The Simpsons just had some restraint and writers who could make jokes without spoofing old TV shows. 😉 [/QUOTE] To me, though, it is a big difference, because I truly cannot remember any Simpsons flashbacks/cutaways off the top of my head. Flashbacks are not a novel device in any sense, of course. However, Family Guy flashbacks draw attention to themselves. I don’t think there’s a single Family Guy episode that doesn’t have a line that starts “remember the time when” or “like that time” and cuts into a flashback. I don’t believe the Simpsons ever did anything of the sort. A lot of Family Guy comedy is non-sequitor parody segued through the use of flashback (and, in my opinion, lazy writing. And I do enjoy the show). The Simpsons (almost) never forces a joke like Family Guy does through the use of a flashback. This is why I objected to cutaways in Family Guy and Simpsons being regarded as similar. I don’t think they are, and others have explained a little better than I have about why they are different. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/52 "2006-11-16T00:00:41Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] To me, though, it is a big difference, because I truly cannot remember any Simpsons flashbacks/cutaways off the top of my head. [/quote] As noted, they stopped doing it years ago precisely because Family Guy did it so much. > [@](#): > > I don’t think there’s a single Family Guy episode that doesn’t have a line that starts “remember the time when” or “like that time” and cuts into a flashback. I don’t believe the Simpsons ever did anything of the sort. I think you’ve exaggerated that, but it’s probably true in general. By the way, I was thinking about it earlier and decided that the plots of _A Streetcar Named Marge_ and _The King is Dead_ seemed kind of similar. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/53 "2006-11-16T00:15:34Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] As noted, they stopped doing it years ago precisely because Family Guy did it so much. I think you’ve exaggerated that, but it’s probably true in general. [/QUOTE] Which part? Because I honestly (no exaggeration) don’t think there is a single Family Guy episode that doesn’t have a “remember the time when…” type-line in it somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/54 "2006-11-16T00:21:23Z")
Gilligan’s Island used newscasts for exposition all the time. Granted they used a coconut radio instead of a television. I see a few superficial similarities between Simpsons and Family Guy (the lead characters, the device of the cutaway which lends itself well to animation…um that’s about it, really), but the tones, situations and humor are quite distinct from each other. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/55 "2006-11-16T00:44:40Z")
The classic British comody series [_The Goodies_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goodies_%28TV_series%29) frequently used TV news broadcasts as exposition, 20 years before _The Simpsons_- which must mean that _The Simpsons_ are… A WITCH! 😃 Seriously though, _The Goodies, Married… With Children, Dinosaurs, ALF,_ and _Parker Lewis Can’t Lose_ are all TV comedies which either predate (or aired just as _The Simpsons_ came to air) which use the “TV/Radio News As Exposition” device- and that’s without including the innumerable forgettable sitcoms which tend to air at 1:30pm in the afternoon when most people are at work or out shopping/running errands. The list would be even longer if we included TV shows that debuted more recently after _The Simpsons_ began airing. Honestly though, trying to make a serious comparison of _Family Guy_ and _The Simpsons_ is like trying to make a serious comparison of _Star Trek_ and _Red Dwarf_. There are more similarities between _Family Guy_ and _American Dad_ (“They’re the same show”, Seth MacFarlane is on record as saying) than there are between _Family Guy_ and _The Simpsons_, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/56 "2006-11-16T00:49:35Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] Which part? Because I honestly (no exaggeration) don’t think there is a single Family Guy episode that doesn’t have a “remember the time when…” type-line in it somewhere. [/QUOTE] I agree. Not that I’ve seen all of FG but it is so common that they even reference it in an episode. Stewie says “Like that time [blah blah blah]” and then it doesn’t cut away and Stewie looks around “What? No clip there? I thought we had a clip.” ---
**Author:** ![gredbioz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6a8cbe/32.png) [@gredbioz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gredbioz)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/57 "2006-11-16T01:14:23Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] To me, though, it is a big difference, because I truly cannot remember any Simpsons flashbacks/cutaways off the top of my head. Flashbacks are not a novel device in any sense, of course. However, Family Guy flashbacks draw attention to themselves. I don’t think there’s a single Family Guy episode that doesn’t have a line that starts “remember the time when” or “like that time” and cuts into a flashback. I don’t believe the Simpsons ever did anything of the sort. [/QUOTE] Like that time on _The Simpsons_: > [@](#): > > Marge: I’m disappointed in you. But it turns out I had a wonderful time > with Ruth Powers. In fact, we’re going out again tomorrow night. > Homer: Marge, that’s twice. I think you’re spending entirely too much > time with this woman. > Marge: Homer, please. You know it’s hard for me to make friends. > [Flashback to Marge and three women drinking coffee in the > living room] > Woman: Heh heh. Oh, Marge, we should do this every Thursday. > [Homer walks in wearing a “No Fat Chicks” T-shirt and Hawaiian > shorts] > Homer: Marge, I got sprayed by this skunk. Oh, look! It’s doing it > again. Or then there’s Bart reincarnated as a butterfly who burns down the school, the gigantic radioactive Curies, Bart destroying the school with giant ants, Homer the buffoonish blackjack player, Homer introducing Barney to Duff, “I am evil Homer,” etc. The Simpsons were more creative with it, but they pioneered it. As for a straight Simpsons take-off FG has indulged in, did anyone not groan when Lois developed a gambling problem? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/58 "2006-11-16T01:19:35Z")
[QUOTE=gredbioz] Like that time on _The Simpsons_: [/quote] Except the Simsons doesn’t introduce the flashback as blatantly as The Family Guy, which was part of the point of my sentence. (Hence the “remember the time when” or “like that time when” line that precedes my sentence about the Simpsons.) Also, the flashback is pretty much the primary conduit for jokes in The Family Guy. It is not on the Simpsons. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/59 "2006-11-16T01:45:14Z")
It would be hard for a live action sitcom to have a recurring secondary character like Tom Tucker or Kent Brockman. They’d have to build an expensive news set for one thing, and it would also be harder to work the character into the show on a regular basis, as live action sitcoms don’t have that many sets. If you notice, when the news is on on a live action sitcom you generally hear the audio but the camera is on the main characters as they watch the show. ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543/60 "2006-11-16T02:54:17Z")
Wikipedia tells me that Family Guy started in 1999 whereas the thing it is alleged to have copied wasn’t published until 2000. Surely this answers any allegations immediately. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hath-family-guy-ripped-off-the-simpsons-help-me-count-the-ways/380543.md?page=4)