The new Aqua Teen episodes have replaced Dr. Weird with the Plutonians/Mooninites “Spacatraz” schtick which I don’t really like. But the interactions between the Aqua Teens have gotten sharper. I still love the show. My girlfriend didn’t originally like it, but she’s come around.
Sealab used to be my favorite, but after Harry Goz died, it started missing an important element. They wisely don’t use Tonado Shanks as much as Captain Murphy, giving Dr. Quinn, Debbie, and Sparks more airtime, but they still miss Murphy.
Venture Bros. is my current favorite. Any word on whether they’ll be back for a second season?
Super Milk Chan is probably very funny to the Japanese oataku who instantly gets every reference to every show they’re parodying. I don’t, and I don’t care enough to find out.
As for Space Ghost, it’s still the funniest thing Cartoon Network ever did. A bright shiny new quarter for anyone who can identify my username’s connection with Space Ghost Coast to Coast!
Oh yeah, Family Guy sucks, and the Simpsons, defying all expectations, has had a strong season.
I loved Brak on Space Ghost when I used to watch that (years ago). I’v eonly seen the Brak Show maybe twice and it didn’t do anything for me. Sealab 2021 I usually chuckle at (but the Bebop Cola vending machine was sublime), but I don’t go out of my way to watch it. ATHF is hilarious.
The Brak Show was hit or miss, but the father was consistently hilarious. And the very last episode was one of the funniest of the whole series. “Clarence the boy is dead. puffs cigarette Say hello to Clarence the man!”
I’m not a huge fan of Family Guy --it often grates on me-- but I do love Stewie, and I feel obligated to support even mediocre cartoons in the hopes that it may inspire the networks to try to seek out another Futurama.
I love ATHF, Sealab 2021 and Family Guy. The Brak Show had its moments, but it went overboard a lot to the point where it wasn’t funny and more just “huh?”
As for ATHF, any show that has a criminal supergroup named “Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday” has to be absolute genius!
But Sealab has the best theme song for a cartoon I’ve ever heard. If it were longer, you could seriously rock out to it.
I think all of them are delicious exercises in post-modernism, though.
According to one of my friends, ATHF is best enjoyed while high. I don’t know if this means it’s a requirement though. I myself don’t enjoy it all that much, but do love Venture Bros, and enjoy Sealab 2021, so you’re not alone.
(BTW, another show he said your really should be high to watch was Family Guy and he gave a specific example: In the Chocolate Factory parody when Peter falls down after being told to run home, he does this sharp intake of breath in pain for … well, far too long to be funny. But according to my friend, it is one of the most hilarious scenes after you’ve been puffin’ somethin’.)
I was able to get my friend into *Venture Bros. * but he just couldn’t get into ATHF, and I don’t know why.
I used to like Sealab 2021 before they started adding all the new animation, which clashes and looks quite awful. And the jokes became so lame I just gave up once the new captain came on board.
I think Venture Bros. has the complete package – great animation, clever pop culture references, absurd stories, ridiculous super villians, smart storylines.
ATHF, while it will never win awards for animation, that’s irrelevant to the characters and the joke of a team of superheroes that mainly fight amongst each other. It’s retarded. It gets away with being retarded.
I have always disliked Family Guy. I’ve watched about five episodes and each one was completely derivative either of one or more Simpsons episodes, and I realized that making a cartoon where all your inspiration comes from another popular cartoon is not a good idea. But I know, there are people who really like Family Guy and I’m pretty sure those are the same people who complain about how bad the Simpsons have been since they stopped watching it after season three or whatever. So, the less clever people can have Family Guy so they can shut up already about how much they think the Simpsons sucks.
Meanwhile I have no idea who on earth Super Milk Chan is for.
I agree. The true descendant, or rip-off if you hate it, of the Simpsons is South Park. Both involve the cutting insight of the creators into broad cultural issues as they appear in current events. Episodes of both shows involve a strong element of story and characters playing off one another in order to both perform gags and deliver the insight. South Park differs by playing up the references and exposing the artiface of the show more often than the Simpsons.
The Family Guy is entirely an excuse to string gags together, usually with the meta-humor gobear pointed out. The reason that it looks like the Simpsons is because the sit-com format is a point of stability that allows the Family Guy to keep from drifting too far into a different form. The reason why there are similar gags? Because a lot of things share gags because they are fundamentally funny and not exhausted by a single look at it. Why do people insist they are the same because of these reasons? Because they are unwilling to spend too much time on cartoons, as they have more of a social life than I do.
Good grief. When will stoners learn that they can and will find almost ANYTHING hilarious when high? I mean, you can sit there and giggle at your refrigerator just as easily.
Hey now, the Simpsons were good through at least season seven (I’m guessing here.) The highlights for me were certainly seasons 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Like I said before, they’re two completely different styles of comedy. It has nothing to do whether you’re “clever” or not. (What a painfully elitist argument that is.) It has to do with what type of comedy you enjoy.
That said, all things being equal, Family Guy has been more consistently funny than The Simpsons over the past years. But it couldn’t hold a candle to the Simpsons in its heady heyday.
I like ATHF. Pochacco’s right; it’s not an original idea - Shake, Fry, and Meatwad are Moe, Larry, and Curly or Chico, Groucho, and Harpo. But the writers understand that in a comedy like this, plot is unnecessary. Put the characters in a situation and let them interact.
The Simpsons and Family Guy are two completely different types of comedy that both happen to be based on a suburban middle class family. You might like either or both or neither depending on your personal taste in comedy. I personally think both shows are great (and I also liked Futurama) without feeling the need to “prove” their quality by knocking other shows down.
The Brak Show on the other hand is not a personal favorite. To me, it seemed that the writers used up all their creativity in setting up the show and then just let the subsequent episodes run through. In a situation like that, I quickly found myself thinking “seen one, seen them all”.
I’ve noticed from this insightful gem of sophisticated analysis that you’re tired of people berating your beloved show, The Simpson’s. I’ve also noticed that you berate those “less clever people” who are the fans of a different show.
By spending so much time in those lofty heights of intellectual superiority, you seem to have missed that some people are fans of both shows, even past the third season, and some people, like my very strange aunt, dislike both shows. Though you, in all of your cleverness, no doubt require no further advice, might I humbly recommend that you not attack other shows when you’re being defensive because the show you like is attacked.
Though consistency in thought is perhaps extraneous in your realm, we require it in these lower reaches before we’re willing to take someone seriously.
I knew precisely jack shit about Brak as of six months ago, then my wife gets back from some theater workshop thing, with this CD full of Brak’s tunes. I was like, “Who the fuck is Brak? Does he live in salty water or something?” She had no idea, but some twentysomething loaned her the disk, and we listened.
At first, I thought it was the stupidest shit I’d ever heard in my life. Some idiot babbling about how beloved he is while other actors with absurd voices make lame comebacks and generally carry on like a bunch of irritating asshats.
But occasionally, some generally funny skits or musical numbers would come up. I think my favorite was Brak describing “Love”. Love is when the guy asks the girl on a date; and she orders something called “a salad”; and he gets a big piece of beef…that he eats. I dunno. I still think Brak is a doofus, but he’s mildly amusing in small doses.
I was very surprised to discover he’s some kind of evil orange feline space alien. WTF is up with that? I just thought he was some retarded burnout or something.