Was South Park Right About Family Guy Jokes?

This video essay analyzes South Park's criticism of Family Guy's joke writing and storytelling. In 2006, South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone said that Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy was poorly written as the jokes were interchangeable. This deep dive uncovers the truth about both comedy shows writing style and the merits on both sides of the argument.

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Sources:

Music used:
Night on Bald Mountain by Human Symphony Orchestra (Shutterstock)
Check the Meter by Flash Fluherty (Shutterstock)
The Thieving Magpie by Human Symphony Orchestra (Shutterstock)
Ponchielli Dance of the Hours by Human Symphony Orchestra (Shutterstock)
Blue Dream by Cheel
Gymnopedie no 1 by Satie
Take Me Down to the Fashion Show by Nombe
Blue Danube by Strauss
Ratatouille's Kitchen by Carmen Maria and Edu Espinal
Bright Idea by Geographer
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afraid of expressing myself by Babasmas
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Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
3:23 Family Guy's Style of Comedy
7:22 South Park's Style of Comedy
10:08 The Cutaway Gags
18:05 Similarities and Comparisons
26:06 Better Storytelling

#southpark #familyguy #sethmacfarlane

[trevertravis]

Family Guy - you remember jokes.
South Park - you remember episodes.

[NecroxProduction]

I remember when I first re-watched South Park in my 20s and realized how clever of a show it is. Suddenly I understood all the jokes that didn't make any sense when I watched them as a kid.

[zuno]

Another huge issue with the cutaway gags in Family Guy is that if you don't understand the reference, the joke doesn't land. In South Park, even if you don't understand the reference, it's still funny as it plays of the context of the story. Since Family Guy's cutaways are completely random and almost never have anything to do with the story, they are entirely reliant on you understanding the reference.

[FelixRosas]

As a kid I definitely liked Family Guy more. As an adult, I can’t stand to watch Family Guy post like 2005, but South Park still lives up and even gets better with time.

[randy]

I think there should be a contest. Seth makes his own south park episode, Matt and Trey make their own family guy episode. I bet both would be hella funny

[nickp]

This might be unpopular but Randy Marsh > Peter Griffin

[selinameres]

I think one thing worth mentioning is South Parks plot nearly always centers around some recent social issue or people in real life. It’s relevancy and satire on events that most of us may have opinions on makes it hit a little deeper than family guys often entirely made up plots.

[digitalsquid]

I think the funniest thing that could ever happen to family guy is being divided into two compilations of absolutely no cut aways versus only cut aways and see what is longer

[troysimmons]

the reason I love south park. is because it's a time machine you can Pick a seasons episode and have a real feel of a point of time in American society year by year.

[a-lie-n]

My favorite thing about South Park is when I remember a single part, I’m flooded with a dozen other funny things all related to that single part. Entire episodes are extremely memorable and impactful

[meganswaine]

Family Guy always seemed to me to have the rapid-fire, "throw it at the wall, see what sticks" approach, in that if one joke fails there really isn't time to dwell on it before the next one.
For South Park, it's all or nothing: every episode (past a certain season anyway) has something to say, and there's always the risk that the audience will HATE what is being expressed. I still watch it, despite its problems, because I dunno there's just something mesmerizing about the level of detail being put into the satire. Love it or hate it, there's a lot of effort on display and I find that oddly fascinating.
I've never liked Family Guy, but ironically I love American Dad, which is very different show. But to each his own.

[ryanc]

I always say Family Guy is funniest in random, out of context clips that are perfectly cut. Watching full episodes is never as funny.

[ellicel]

Even in standup comedy, I really appreciate the sets where the jokes are tied to the theme. I love it when the comedian takes you down a side story and then at the end it all ties together. It’s like there’s an extra layer to each of the side jokes once you can see the complete mosaic…I think this makes you appreciate all the individual pieces more.

[Aeirion]

I think Southpark's style of comedy helps establish an episode's identity, helping it as a show and as a comedy in separate ways.

[markusmarkus]

The fact that I can remember specific south park episodes I haven’t seen in years and only gags from family guy says a lot

[Gredran]

Family guy was good for time and lots of us know this.

But as an old Family Guy fan, it’s funny how accurate the South Park parody eventually became lol

[PumpkinPie__]

I think a big part of this too is the fact that these other shows hate family guy but they don’t hate American dad. American dad is so different from family guy and deserves more recognition and it sucks that it gets thrown in with family guy and people miss out on a really good adult animated show

[leonvalentine]

Both can be enjoyed.

Southpark is generally sharper and more biting satire.

Slapstick is more family guy's style. Trey and Matt are right that most cutaways can happen in any episode.

[namelesintelect]

Matt and Trey were dead on balls accurate with their description of family guy. I never thought it was a bad show, but it is definitely a bit disjointed and random at times. Simply the fact that it's so Random is more of what made me laugh rather than the jokes themselves.

[noodlezebt]

I fell like something people don’t talk about is how consistently characterized the characters are in South Park like the jokes make more sense because you can believe that they would do those things (like Randy fighting dads at his kids games)