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Family guy

DJ Sack

By DJ Sack
in Film, TV & Radio

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Sng

Sng

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Family Guy is awesome. Overtaken Futurama as my favourite cartoon right now.

I was watching some older ones a while ago though and they sure didn't seem very funny.

Downloaded season 1-5 yesterday so will watch them all at some point.

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Couch Corpse

Couch Corpse

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Genuine question, can somebody explain to me the purpose of talking babies, dogs and aliens (in American Dad)? Why have them over normal characters? Or is it because they have nothing and needed some kind of gimmick to differentiate from other animated adult cartoons?

It's all so fucking stupid.

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zektbach

zektbach

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Genuine question, can somebody explain to me the purpose of talking babies, dogs and aliens (in American Dad)? Why have them over normal characters? Or is it because they have nothing and needed some kind of gimmick to differentiate from other animated adult cartoons?

Lets see... anyone fancy drawing up a list of animated adult cartoons that actually have real normal characters and nothing out of the ordinary against animated adult cartoons that have ridiculous characters and situations, or would that just be a bit of overkill?

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Gabe

Gabe

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Lets see... anyone fancy drawing up a list of animated adult cartoons that actually have real normal characters and nothing out of the ordinary against animated adult cartoons that have ridiculous characters and situations, or would that just be a bit of overkill?

Where did I mention anything about situations? And it's all about context. I don't really watch many cartoons, but by and large, The Simpsons/South Park didn't need to rely on a talking baby/alien/pet etc to create situations, and were grounded in a slightly warped but still relatively 'normal' reality. From the many episodes of Family Guy I've seen I'm not sure you can really say Stewie or Brian are specifically required for plotlines because one is a talking baby and the other a talking dog, so they aren't really there because of that.

In the context of an adult cartoon based around a family, it seems to me that they felt they needed something wacky to differentiate it from The Simpsons, rather than them existing for a pertinent reason - and that was the basis of my question. I've never heard MacFarlane talk about the creation of Family Guy/American Dad, so he may have an interesting tale as to how he came up with the characters, and I was just wondering if anybody knew anything.

But meh.

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Andsom

Andsom

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Where did I mention anything about situations? And it's all about context. I don't really watch many cartoons, but by and large, The Simpsons/South Park didn't need to rely on a talking baby/alien/pet etc to create situations, and were grounded in a slightly warped but still relatively 'normal' reality. From the many episodes of Family Guy I've seen I'm not sure you can really say Stewie or Brian are specifically required for plotlines because one is a talking baby and the other a talking dog, so they aren't really there because of that.

But meh.

Hang on...

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Campfire_Burning

Campfire_Burning

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Where did I mention anything about situations? And it's all about context. I don't really watch many cartoons, but by and large, The Simpsons/South Park didn't need to rely on a talking baby/alien/pet etc to create situations, and were grounded in a slightly warped but still relatively 'normal' reality. From the many episodes of Family Guy I've seen I'm not sure you can really say Stewie or Brian are specifically required for plotlines because one is a talking baby and the other a talking dog, so they aren't really there because of that.

In the context of an adult cartoon based around a family, it seems to me that they felt they needed something wacky to differentiate it from The Simpsons, rather than them existing for a pertinent reason - and that was the basis of my question. I've never heard MacFarlane talk about the creation of Family Guy/American Dad, so he may have an interesting tale as to how he came up with the characters, and I was just wondering if anybody knew anything.

But meh.

I know the prototype for Family Guy was a cartoon about a man and a talking dog, and the expanded family came later.

I still don't get your problems with the show. Despite talking, both Stewie and Brian often behave like a baby and a dog respectively. Right from the Start Stewie was trying to kill his mother but nobody noticed because he was a baby. Hell, even Maggie from The Simpsons has had her moments, shooting Mr Burns, escaping from childcare a la The Great Escape. Babies can can do these kind of things in cartoons. Why shouldn't they?

It sounds like if you were in charge of the Transformers cartoon, you'd have it be all about making cars in a factory because 'that's what robots do'.

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Gabe

Gabe

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I know the prototype for Family Guy was a cartoon about a man and a talking dog, and the expanded family came later.

I still don't get your problems with the show. Despite talking, both Stewie and Brian often behave like a baby and a dog respectively. Right from the Start Stewie was trying to kill his mother but nobody noticed because he was a baby. Hell, even Maggie from The Simpsons has had her moments, shooting Mr Burns, escaping from childcare a la The Great Escape. Babies can can do these kind of things in cartoons. Why shouldn't they?

It sounds like if you were in charge of the Transformers cartoon, you'd have it be all about making cars in a factory because 'that's what robots do'.

I never said I had a problem with Family Guy because of Stewie and Brian, I said I don't find it funny. So no, you don't understand my problems with the show.

And yeah, that's clearly what I'd do with Transformers :huh:

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Couch Corpse

Couch Corpse

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can somebody explain to me the purpose of talking babies, dogs and aliens (in American Dad)? Why have them over normal characters? Or is it because they have nothing and needed some kind of gimmick to differentiate from other animated adult cartoons?
From the many episodes of Family Guy I've seen I'm not sure you can really say Stewie or Brian are specifically required for plotlines because one is a talking baby and the other a talking dog, so they aren't really there because of that.

In the context of an adult cartoon based around a family, it seems to me that they felt they needed something wacky to differentiate it from The Simpsons, rather than them existing for a pertinent reason

I never said I had a problem with Family Guy because of Stewie and Brian

There might be something in this lot?

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dan_tm

dan_tm

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There are people who don't like Family Guy?! That's funny in itself ^_^

Utterly this.

I actually feel really sorry for the people that don't like it (for whatever reason). Granted, I haven't watched the last 2 or 3 series bar the odd episode now and again, but the first 4 were just ridiculously good. I think out of any comedy show I've ever seen the lpm* of Family Guy can only be rivaled by Red Dwarf.

*technical term, lols per minute

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Varnsen

Varnsen

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never been a fan or much of a hater either but we tuned in recently and we were about to switch over and we thought, 'Let's give it another chance...see if it makes us laugh.' It was that bit where Peter is driving a car and for some reason starts reading a really stupid comic book about a monkey and some ice cream and it genuinely had us laughing away. Tried the same thing again when it was on BBC3 the other night and it was painful. Very patchy show for me.

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ThePinkNinja

ThePinkNinja

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It sounds like if you were in charge of the Transformers cartoon, you'd have it be all about making cars in a factory because 'that's what robots do'.

Quoted for LOLs.

Have to say I only got into Family Guy once it hit Season 3 and liked it so much I went out and bought all the seasons and just watched them back to back over the next week or 2. Like any show it has some really bad episodes but there are so many funny bits that they outweight the rubbish parts.

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Shoes

Shoes

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I think I tried watching the episode where Joe is introduced and I just cringed my way through it. I dunno, I used to like it when it was story-driven, but now I can't stand any of the characters.

I think the greatest moment in Family Guy is the bit with Randy Newman.

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dan_tm

dan_tm

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Family Guy is only "proper lol" funny the first time of watching really; as much as some people seem to hate Family Guy for it, a lot the genius comes from the utter stupidity and randomness of some moments.That's more the main focus than story-driven comedy.

I have fond memories of missing the next 3 minutes of an episode from laughter after a random flashback to a Tom Jones concert in one of the episodes... Scenes like that can only ever be really funny the first time, after that the perfect comic timing is lost because you know what's coming.

Personally, I don't care how it makes me laugh, story or no story, I just care that it makes me laugh.

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chebenski

chebenski

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To the people saying they don't see the point of the talking characters or don't like the set-up or whatever, I think it's worth pointing out: Family Guy (and American Dad to a degree) are totally different shows to, say, The Simpsons or even South Park. The Simpsons is an animated sit-com, and South Park is satire, Family Guy is more abstract, scatalogical asides strung together. At its best, the story is just an excuse for all the asides.

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moosegrinder

moosegrinder

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Utterly this.

I actually feel really sorry for the people that don't like it (for whatever reason). Granted, I haven't watched the last 2 or 3 series bar the odd episode now and again, but the first 4 were just ridiculously good. I think out of any comedy show I've ever seen the lpm* of Family Guy can only be rivaled by Red Dwarf.

*technical term, lols per minute

Bit patronising, isn't it?

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linkster

linkster

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Family Guy is only "proper lol" funny the first time of watching really; as much as some people seem to hate Family Guy for it, a lot the genius comes from the utter stupidity and randomness of some moments.That's more the main focus than story-driven comedy.

I have fond memories of missing the next 3 minutes of an episode from laughter after a random flashback to a Tom Jones concert in one of the episodes... Scenes like that can only ever be really funny the first time, after that the perfect comic timing is lost because you know what's coming.

Again, Peter's The Ring/Mannequin on the Move moment nearly got me thrown off a plane.

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