cheerful Oh, don’t worry Miller, my opinion of you hasn’t changed a wit.
Man this conversation’s harshing my buzz.
:: gets up and leaves couch ::
I’ve tried to watch a couple times but I’ve found:
- the lead character to be whiny and grating. I can’t relate to that guy at all.
- the robot to be not funny in an “I’m embarrased for the people who greenlighted this” sort of way.
- that Peggy Bundy’s voice makes me picture Peggy Bundy, which takes me completely out of the show in a bad way.
Granted, I’ve never watched enough consecutive episodes to get a sense of the arcing storylines, but the samples of the show that I’ve seen haven’t intrigued me enough to want to make the attempt.
Family was brilliantly funny (in that it often made me LOL) the first 2-3 seasons, but has tapered off since Seth McFarlane started spliting time between projects. American Dad has been better than Family Guy the last year or so.
For my television advertising dollar the rankings look like this:
- South Park
- Family Guy
- The Simpsons
- American Dad
- King of the Hill
- Futurama
You’ve no idea how relieved I am to hear that.
::: Moderator interjects a polite cough :::
It’s hard to find a way to read that, that’s not insulting everyone who posted to this thread. However, Weirddave retracted in the very next post, a few minutes later, with no intervening comments. Whether you think this was a sincere retraction of bad wording, or whether you think it was quick back-pedalling, it’s there. As Moderator, I’m willing to give benefit of the doubt, and we move on.
Miller and Weirddave: These little pokes, prods, and jabs are unseemly and contrary to the rules of this forum. You think the other poster is an effete and elite culture-snob? Don’t say so here, go to the Pit. You think the other poster is a ignoramus and a boor? Don’t say so here, go to the Pit. In this forum, the discussion is about the art/entertainment, and not about the other posters.
So, cool it.
I have to agree that Futurama is a better show, but it’s not funnier. It has never made me gut laugh like Family Guy, but FG never makes you think or even cry* like Futurama did.
*like you didn’t cry at the end of the episode with Fry’s dog…
I don’t like FG. The Simpsons is about more than just funny; *FG *is like what The Simpsons would be like if it was nothing but funny.
Caught an older episode of Simpsons earlier today; the family goes to Itchy and Scratchy land. It contains a flashback to an earlier vacation when the family went to “Amish country”, in a parody of the movie Witness.
Had Family Guy done it, it wouldn’t have been “remember that time we went to Amish country?” It would have been “remember that time you were an extra in the movie Witness?” i.e. no subtlety asked or granted.
You are absolutely not meant to root for or sympathize with Peter! That is probably the biggest obstacle for appreciation of FG. You still might not like it, for other reasons, but if you accept that FG is a satire on “fat, dumb, boorish husband/hot, intelligent, all-enduring wife” sitcoms, that makes appreciation at least possible. Lois, along with virtually every other character, calls Peter on his jerkishness to his face. He doesn’t care, of course, and continues rampaging on, but the point is made. He’s not a hero; he’s not even an anti-hero. You’re supposed to think he’s a jerk, because that’s all he’s presented as.
Now, I like Futurama a lot, but what prevents me from total adulation is the fact that I really don’t like Bender. He’s cruel and selfish in ways that would never even occur to Stewie, let alone Peter. There are episodes, like The Sting, and Jurassic Bark, in which Bender’s actions and remarks turn a poignant moment into a truly, and unnecessarily, painful one. In FG, there are no tender moments to ruin, so the characters can be as jerkish as they like. But I just can’t take Bender. I don’t know how anyone else can, either. But they do! No one ever calls him on his crap, the way FG characters do with Peter. It’s just “Eh, that’s Bender,” if they acknowledge his jerkishness at all.
Bryan Ekers: I, personally, don’t always need subtlety. A large part of what I like about FG is the complete randomness of the gags. Like Peter mentioning the time he fell in with a bad crowd; cut to him marching along with the Cavity Creeps. “We! Make! Holes in teeth! We! Make! Holes in teeth!” I almost fell off the couch. Who could have seen that coming? Where did McFarlane, or his crew, dig that up from? Hadn’t thought of the commercial in years, but I instantly recalled it! Maybe you have to be Gen-X; I dunno. But that’s another aspect of FG that makes it so special to me. McFarlane is my age; the gags are tailored for my generation. I don’t have to take that second to process them, as I did with early Simpsons, when the referfences were from before my time. It’s riffing on what I grew up with. Nyah.
Well, I’m gen-X, too, and I remembered the Cavity Creeps also, and I “get” the vast majority of the pop-culture references (except for musical ones). Heck, when Peter’s float idea was about a scene in Who’s the Boss?, I remembered that, too. I just don’t find them especially witty.
Peter’s “You’re all stupid; they’re gonna be looking for army guys” was comparatively brilliant because it at least wasn’t a pointless retread formed from some vapid pop-culture reference. Don’t pull that generational crap with me, MacFarlane’s only four years younger than I am.
Except maybe, “Futurama is funnier than family guy, because its humor actually requires you to think a little bit.”
A lot of Futurama doesn’t make you laugh, but instead makes you nod and go, “Ah, I get it. Very clever.” In Family Guy there is often nothing to get, just a laugh. Funny, yet boring in a way.