Family Guy is Bottom-Feeding Cultural Sewage

Post Reply New Topic

It's unbelievably juvenile, pretentious, self-indulgent, hypocritical,
formulaic, simplistic, and puerile. Every single joke is either a random
act of violence, moronic sex reference, completely unnecessary '80s
pop-culture reference, joke blatantly stolen from some Internet meme,
racist/sexist/anti-Semitic/chauvinistic/homophobic stereotype, sorry and
incredibly obvious attempt at political commentary, lazy reference to a
lame joke from a previous episode (because, after all, why come up with new
ones?), or scene blatantly stolen from The Simpsons. It's like the animated
equivalent of bathroom wall graffiti. It's no wonder the show is so popular
with teenage slackers and potheads.

I just think it's incredibly obnoxious how Seth MacFarlane uses these shows
to vent his bigotry while simultaneously and hypocritically accusing others
of bigotry. Like making an entire episode revolving around gay stereotypes,
and then tacking on a preachy ending about acceptance. It's just extremely
hypocritical.

And how about the one where he puts "McCain/Palin" stickers on Nazis? After
all, why bother actually criticizing a politician you disagree with when
you can simply paint them as Nazis? It's just incredibly lazy and pathetic.
It's the epitome of self-indulgence. There are so many ways you could
easily make fun of McCain and Palin, yet Seth is so utterly devoid of any
comedic talent that he simply has to put them on Nazi uniforms. I'm not
saying comedy has to be smart, but it shouldn't just be an excuse for
someone to force their twisted views down the viewers' throats without ever
actually attempting to be funny.

No, I'm not saying ALL of Family Guy's fans are teenage slackers or potheads. Not at all. I
actually know some pretty intelligent people who watch it. But they mostly
watch it because everyone else watches it and they want to fit in. It's a
fad. Nothing more. Family Guy was, in its first few episodes, an
occasionally funny show that wasn't particularly memorable, but still
offered some slightly clever puns and sight gags, and at least had a
satirical point to make without resorting to ham-fisted attempts at being
edgy and relentless self-indulgence. What the Family Guy writers need to
understand is that being offensive does not automatically = being funny.
And Family Guy really isn't even really offensive. It tries so hard to be
shocking that it just ends up inducing eye-rolling and often leaves you
staring at the screen, twitching slightly, and wondering what the hell they
were trying to do and what the hell they were trying to convey to the
audience.

In short, Family Guy sucks.

Hard to argue with you there, but something tells me that the flames are about to begin...

I've got my flame-resistant armor on, so I'm not scared. I'm sure most of them will probably be something like "lol i bet u nevr git layd cuz ur teh ghey" anyways.

I love Family Guy. I admit it's become a lot more tasteless over the years, e.g. adding loads of swearing for no reason, actually showing Peter's dong in one scene, Brian eating Stewie's poo etc.

I much prefer American Dad these days

Passionately put and unambiguous in its intended meaning. Well done.

On the topic, it could be in part due to the fact that modern American culture has itself become a source of social detritus. People have become so desensitised to "Shock" culture that to put it bluntly; a show really DOES have to go to greater extremes to elicit a response. That said. What TV sitcom director doesn't use their show to get some personal bias across to the veiwer? It isn't necessarily Family Guy that is the problem, it is the TV industry in general that has dropped the ball so to speak. The are no ethical standards that can't be bent in the name of capitalism. Don't blame the idiot making trashy television; blame the company funding him and putting it on the air. Besides if a person is offended by something, they are in no way obligated to expose themselves to it. Yes it is sad that most TV comedy has been reduced to a type of lowbrow audiovisual diatribe. However if I find something particularly unwatchable I either change the channel or turn the TV off and do something else.

I would like to note that as far as trashy TV is concerned Family guy is still far from the worst in comparison to other adult themed animated sitcoms. It ultimately boils down to personal taste. Those who want to watch are going to watch.

I do realise that the OP was just stating an opinion; which is fine. Just be prepared for some people to disagree. The stronger the point made; the more aggressive the counter-point is sure to be. Although this particular online community thinks in an inherently different way than your average NT person. The assertion that you are going to get a lot of comments that lack any merit or thought; is likely to be proven erroneous. More than likely responses will tend to be a little more fleshed out than:

"U r Teh dumz!!!1!11!"

But hey, I could be wrong.

It still makes me laugh from time to time, it does what it's meant to.

Hmmm... actually, no, I wasn't claiming to be on any "high horse", nor was I "pretending" to like any "high-brow" comedy (because, after all, anyone who claims to like something you don't like is pretending).

It used to be good.

I found South Park's portrayal of Family Guy's writing staff to be completely correct. No better put-down was ever made. Family Guy just, well, isn't funny. I like randomness, but you can't just throw randomness in for randomness's sake. In my opinion, South Park is a far better attempt at being funny, random and shocking, while giving some poignant social commentary.

In all the Family Guy episodes I've been forced to watch, there has been exactly one joke I found amusing: the fake documentary of fire trucks eating a zebra on the savannah.