Ditto.
When South park is funny, it is much funnier than Family Guy. Family Guy is almost skit comedy rather than a sitcom. It has funny moments and painfully bad momenets in every show. South Park is more likely to have a entire show go one extreme or the other.
The Simpson is definately a tired show. They have moments but they are getting rare. I think they should give up, Jump the Shark and let the kids age. Maybe up to teenage years.
Jim
Hey, Orgazmo is worse.
Well, actually there was that one special Pip episode that they only showed once. Since Pip was the main character in Dicken’s Great Expectations, they did a South Park retelling of the book.
It wasn’t great, but it did have a couple of bright spots including the Robot Monkeys and the 26 baby bunnies.
You are aces in my book for use of the Chandleresque “aces.”
For some reason, the “Hello. I’m a British person,” introduction of the narrator cracked me up.
Family Guy and South Park both suffer occasionally from beating a horse to death, continuing to beat the dead horse, trying to ride the dead horse, trying to argue the dead horse into walking, pleading with the dead horse, whining at the dead horse, trying to bribe the dead horse, then finally collapsing in exhaustion next to the body of the dead horse.
South Park is consistently funnier and more intelligent than Family Guy. The characters have at least some depth. It can get too preachy for my tastes sometimes. Lord knows Matt and Trey can make asses out of themselves when they get on their soapboxes, but at least they make an effort.
Family Guy is bordering on being a Simpsons rip off. Someday the writers for the Simpsons will put a lock on their dumpster. On that day, Family Guy will go off the air.
I will confess to no longer watching the show. I had been disappointed in it before, and saddened by what passed for “intelligent humor” on several occasions, but the transgender show was the unforgivable breaking point. Prior to it, I had seen every episode.
What they claim to be satire is simplistic and ham-fistedly portrayed at best. Their social commentary is as nuanced as a broadside attack, and about as precisely aimed or coherent. Their political views are a testament to just what degree someone can miss the point in a debate. It’s not so much that they argue strawmen–no, its too transparent to grant even that–they glibly rage against loose piles of cut grass with a snide Euthyphro nametag tossed on top.
And that’s really their main offense. It’s not that they’re mindless, for there’s nothing intrinsically wrong about mindless or low-brow humor; it’s that they show an absolute disdain for intelligence and objective thought while promoting an image of witty superiority. It comes off as neither funny nor poignant. If they want to play Champion of Truth, it’s not enough to simply take sides on topical issues. A critic has to be critical, not just sourly proselytizing to the already converted, picking the nits off the backs of complex issues.
I say I have seen most of the series, and I have. Why? Because there is humor in there, but at times it can be so overshadowed by crass observation and contrived morality play that it’s hardly even a glimmer. When the focus was less topical, and before its creators came to be seen and see themselves as modern day philosophers, the show genuinely succeeded in establishing itself as a vulgar comedy. Indeed, perhaps its success stems from forerunning the genre; in its day, it was new and different and that worked heavily in its favor.
When it took to moralizing, even then it could be counted on to at least offer some of the absurdist, irreverent banter that had made it what it was. It could at once be offensive but then again fair by speaking through a young, rural, otherwise-innocent child. It was this malapropos dialogue and setting that gave it license to venture further and further out without stirring controversy. And in truth, its outlook was reduced to such childishly naïve levels that there was little by which to be offended. Even when issues close to yourself were negativly handled, it was an easy matter to understand their differing opinion and forgive whatever might appear as ignorance to you. But, at some point, it lost its way.
Though everyone can name which episode lost them, the exact moment it changed direction is difficult to pinpoint. The cross-over from simple-minded humor to two-bit commentary and contemptuous slander in the name of the apologists’ “equal opportunity offense” was gradual, and it had long lost its immunity to discrimination before many of us realized, and went well beyond the point where what humor was left was too deeply burried under their embarrasingly haughty brand of perverse social justice to see.
I no longer watch the show, new or old, nor will I again, but I don’t dismiss it. It’s grown too confident with success for its own good, and what made the early runs great now suffer from “Kane-ism”, leaving their sparse storylines and one-dimensional characters all too obvious, but it was a milestone, and I can’t in good conscious deny it that.
I’m a big fan of both shows. IMHO, Family Guy has way more potty humor, although certainly not the actual language (it is on network TV, after all). I appreciate the sometimes obscure references and the nonlinear storylines. But let’s face it, generally, it really is just a string of slapstick gags; not hard to do well fairly consistently. South Park, on the other hand, can be much more offensive. But that’s because it’s more in line with satire; I think part of the offense many people feel is the lampooning of things they hold dear. Or the treating of certain subjects in a casual manner. Difficult to do well each and every time. And SP does have an awful lot of episodes that don’t make the grade.
I think of it this way: speaking broadly, things that make me laugh in FG are generally single scenes; with SP, it’s the entire episode. FG is a string of loosely tied together bits in the Three Stooges vein, sometimes getting so far as to reach Monty Python silliness or Douglas Adams’ odd perspective. SP (not always, but often) takes on a single topic, and takes it to an extreme, sometimes reaching Swiftian “poop-flinging Yahoo” heights. But if you don’t like the idea of 6-year olds swearing, portraying Bush and Kerry as a douche and a turd (literally), the idea of Jesus as a wussy who has a Sunday morning call-in show, or Disney-like forest animals as minions of Satan…well, SP won’t appeal to you.
Perhaps a better way of determining whether you could appreciate SP is to watch specifically recommended episodes. Like the one with the story of Joseph Smith and the Mormons (dum, dum, dum, dum dum).
Oh, yeah. You might want to add their portrayals of transgendered people to that list as well. Something to offend everyone!
Isn’t that all American comedy?
Just kidding (well, mostly). I like both and I’m British (sort of).
South Park does go a little bit too far occassionally - the episode with the two guys by the wharf who look after the dead grandmother and allude to having done things with the dead grandmother’s orifices that made the sound of a fist going into a jar of mayonaise - was a little too much for me!
The only South park I’ve ever seen was the movie, and I have to say it’s the most offensively intelligent laugh-out-loud-until-I-cry experience I ever had in my life.
That made me laugh. 
To the OP: I dunno. I have tried it several times based on input from good and intelligent friends. There was a kid vomiting and eating his own vomit. Next there was a kid jacking off a dog. Also there were kids peeing in the pool. Excrement that talks. I am definitely in the “I just don’t get it” category.
I know all the episodes you’re talking about, an only a couple of those are particulary good. The “Kind jacking off a dog” episode actually was about sex ed, so I’m suprised you only remembered that one little bit.
And “Summer Sucks” is a bit more then kids peeing in the pool.
The “Krazy Kenny” think was a bit much, I agree. The best thing about that episode was the Prostitute Song. And I can only take so much of Mr. Hankey, but in general he’s still better then most christmas specials out there.
Could the South Park episode that had Butters glue balls on his chin be a shot at Family Guy? The FG dad looks like he has balls on his chin.
I tried watching FG again last night. I get the jokes…they’re not really funny though. I’ll take the worst Simpsons or South Park episode over FG.
I think South Park is OK, but fuck can those guys get annoying. Attacking Michael Moore? I fucking hate Michael Moore and I think these guys were way out of line. And any claims of “witty, smart social commentary” went out the window with “Film Actors Guild.” Ha ha, they called Ben Affleck a fag. What wit.
That said, the show itself can be funny, but it’s not anywhere near the grand, intelligent commentary that some people make it out to be.
I may not always find it funny, I may not always agree on their takes on subjects, and I can’t claim to have seen every episode, but from what I have seen, I’d have to say that I can’t think of another TV show that is as consistently fearless as South Park.
I think you are referring to that unfunny peace of Crap, Team America. I watched it last week and I wanted my time back. It was not funny.
South Park on the other hand if often very funny and occasionally profound. Who can forget the life lesson learned in the PETA camp?
“Every Election comes down between a Shit Sandwich and a Giant Douche”. What could be timelier for the last Presidential Election?
I am, but it further lowered my opinions of SP’s creators.