Simpsons, South Park or Family Guy?

south park is the most amazing cartoon ever. the writers (trey and matt) are so clever and consistent - they have managed to create a show that is a portrayal of the way America sees itself - exaggerated and somewhat hysterical.
All the stereotypes are based around peoples true prejudices, and the conclusions that they draw about society should be appreciated for how insightful they are.
Simpsons and Family Guy are both funny shows, but South Park has a whole extra dimension to it's humour - intelligence.

People are still doing the "Family Guy copied the Simpsons" routine in 2008?

King of the Hill

Stressed Eric.
Bob and Margaret.
British animated comedy has a rich and proud history.

my problem with south park is the animation i think

Do people watch "American Dad!"?

I mean, there's been like 4 seasons of that show

I think you're on you own there, burt.

No, I'm just wondering who watches that show.

Do people watch "American Dad!"?

-- burt_stanton, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 20:28 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

AD is a lot better than it should be. It's not great by any stretch of the imagination, but it works. Francine and Roger are really well put together characters, the goldfish sucks but what can you do? Also the Joe Rogan gag in the first series: top five comedy moments of the decade.

King of the Hill is boring.most of the times it doesnt work imo

I like King of the Hill, it's like the jokes take a while to hit you.

The comedy is in how ridiculously understated everything is

souf pakr

also Family Guy could improve without stewy!

The Simpsons are getting weirdly conservative now ... Christian family values, really digging into poor people and the homeless with some jokes, etc. If George Bush the First saw the show now he'd probably be praising it.

http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/Family-Guy---Stewie-Most-Wanted-Poster-C10378191.jpeg

also Family Guy could improve without stewy!

-- Zeno, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 20:33 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Wrong wrong wrong. The Brian/Stewie relationship is the whole show, Peter's pratfalls are just a support detail.

my problem with south park is the animation i think

I think it's awesome. family guy has the shitter animation

Also i did a poll like this a while ago

The Brian/Stewie relationship is good i agree, but the solo stewie stuff (and theres lots of it) is mostly annoying as hell.plus his voice.

really? i didnt found it xpost

also Family Guy could improve without stewy!

Agreed. Mind you, I never watch it. Mostly because of Stewy. So... I agree.

I used to hate him, but I love Stewie now. He's become my favourite character. He makes me laugh without even saying anything.

everything about him is wrong. even the way he is painted

He makes me laugh without even saying anything.

-- nate woolls, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 20:42 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

This basically. Naked Stewie on a long walk accompanied by "The Hurricane" really is a defining FG moment.

I've never watched Family Guy. I probably should, huh?

no, you are one of a rare endangered species.

south park

Yeah south park.

Other cartoons i also <3 monkey dust, metalocalypse

another write in for king of the hill overall, though nothing can top the simpsons from season 3-7 imo.

nothing can top the simpsons from season 3-7 imo

otm

I don't get the big deal about the simpsons, I mean it's funny but it's not like BEST THING EVAR. Maybe it's a bit before my time.

another write in for king of the hill overall, though nothing can top the simpsons from season 3-7 imo.

-- omar little, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 8:56 PM

otm x 2

Simpsons had the longest brilliant streak. I don't bother with any of these shows anymore.

And Family Guy is just garbage.

Always was.

you just don't get it

Simpsons may be kinda bad these days, but like everyone said nothing can top it's clory days.

i definitely do not get family guy.

No, I get it. It's just always been stupid and without redeeming qualities.

xp

chaki and ethan should be here any minute to crawl up my ass about it

What I liked most about The Simpsons is how it so often broke into totally hysterical surrealness, like all the weird-ass dream and flashback sequences and musical numbers. I think that's one element of the Simpsons no other TV series has managed to match.

people complain about those very same things when it comes to family guy> "OMG IT'S ALL FLASHBACKS AND NO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT".. I really don't care about character development in FG, it's totally besides the point of the show

IMO anyway

"I think that's one element of the Simpsons no other TV series has managed to match"

except family guy!

And South Park.

anyone who doesnt like south park best is a stupid

family guy will sacrfice everything (including character development) for the good joke.and i like it.

"good joke"

Family Guy needs more seven hour long diatribes against global warming.

And jokes stolen wholesale from shitty racist British sketch shows.

I love South Park and I used to love the Simpsons, but the Family Guy/Kramer vs Kramer scene is funnier than anything, ever. So Family Guy wins for that.

I don't get the big deal about the simpsons, I mean it's funny but it's not like BEST THING EVAR. Maybe it's a bit before my time.

-- The Brainwasher, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 7:59 PM (12 minutes ago)

!?!!!?!?!!

How old are you?

Seth MacFarlane is also probably the best voice actor since the Looney Tunes era as well, which is why throwaway FG lines like "It's gonna be a good old-fashioned father/son beatoff" make me giggle uncotrollably in lifts at random moments.

I've been watching 'The Critic' lately, and it's so much more subdued. Mainly in how they'll make a joke like 'THIS is worse than the time (celebrity) did (plausible action)!' but then they DON'T have a cut-to gag of celebrity doing that thing. They assumed people had imaginations!

I hate ALL the voices in Family Guy.

Seth MacFarlane is also probably the best most grating voice actor since the Looney Tunes era

Parents just don't understand.

i don't hate family guy fwiw, i just don't really see why it's so great. for every funny bit in an episode there's always ten more that are just witless pop culture references masquerading as a gag.

that said, it's still better than nu-simpsons.

Seasons 2-5 of The Simpsons are still the high-water mark of animated sitcoms to date, IMHO. Practically everything about those episodes was spot-on, not just the jokes themselves but the pacing, spirit, and overall tone of it. Too much of what they've done since, though, especially in the last 5-6 years, has been embarrassing and depressing -- not just by contrast, but on its own terms.

South Park can be funny as hell, even brilliant, and there are things they dare to do that no one would ever touch (Lemmiwinks; the episode with the Ramseys and O.J. Simpson). But too often there's a fundamental coldness and misanthropy to the show that puts me off, not to mention a strong streak of fuck-you crypto-conservatism masquerading as irreverence.

So I voted for Family Guy, which can be as funny and clever as either show, but has never made me cringe in the way that recent Simpsons episodes do, nor does it have that roofie vibe I get from South Park sometimes. Yeah, they overdo it with the pop culture references and cutaways, and yeah, Stewie can grate, but at its best, it's as warm and honest as early Simpsons, and as barbed and "holy-shit-did-they-really-just-do-that?" as South Park.

shitloads of xposts

I like new Simpsons.

WIFEY MCBEATEY TAVERN

I think the problem with the Simpsons now is ... all the stuff they did back in the early 90s was absolutely unheard of on TV. This was back when shows with jokes were required to have laugh tracks (remember when Dream On was syndicated? they threw in canned laugher for some weird reason).

Now Simpsons style humor has been beaten into the ground, so it's hard to appreciate some of it now I guess. But I think the older episodes are so well done that they're still hilarious.

Do kids now watch the Simpsons reruns?

yet another write-in vote for King Of The Hill here. It shoulda been on the poll, I think it's beating South Park on this thread at this point

but at its best, it's as warm and honest as early Simpsons

family guy is way colder and more glibly misanthropic than any of these other shows ever were.

I love them all but the Simpsons is biggest. I'd take KotH over the other 2.

And warm, honest Simpsons is the worst era.

xxp

Family Guy also better at being misanthropic than any of those shoes, though. I mean, SP tries for it with a lot of the Cartman stuff, but they'll never get anywhere close to the "Brian, wait!"/Stewie spitting through the car window scene.

South Park can be a bit too sentimental/moralistic at times.. which is why I absolutely hate Kyle. Worst character on the whole show.

Sentimental Simpsons is the worst shit, it's like they're playing to their fans who complain about more "character development". The whole fun of the show was that there wasn't any of that shit.

Mr Garrison is the worst SPark character. Token and Butters are probably the best.

xxx-post

Stewie is the one original thing Family Guy has going for it, IMO.

Mr/Ms Garrison is awesome! The whole sex change thing was unncessary, but still..

"why doesn't anyone want to pound mr slaves's butt?"

The moralism of South Park wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't usually Parker and Stone's wacky clappy libertarian bullshit. The Little League ep and the World of Warcraft ep of SP have probably made me laugh more than anything any of these series have done, but you have to wade thru a lot more meh bullshit on SP to get to gems like that.

Token and Butters are probably the best

Both great but Stan's Dad ftw.

I wouldn't say Token is one of the best, they hardly ever use him anyway.... though that episode when all of the rich black people come to town was hilarious.

Yeah, but Token is _used_ perfectly. He's never run into the ground.

the difference here is that two of these shows are garbage and one of them is not

Oh yeah, latest FG spinoff show:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/Clevelandshow.jpg

Was gonna say, a lot of top draw cartoon characters benefit from not appearing in every ep.

I am still waiting for the Poochie spinoff.

Tracer brings the cartoon rockism.

I thought Clevland and Loretta got divorced.

or is that not Loretta

Now Simpsons style humor has been beaten into the ground, so it's hard to appreciate some of it now I guess.

Sometimes I think that, but then I watch an episode like "Bart's Friend Falls in Love" or "Radio Bart" or "I Love Lisa", and find out once again that:

the older episodes are so well done that they're still hilarious

xposts Naah, there was plenty of warmth in seasons 2-5, 3-7, or whatever, and they were the funniest of all -- the show was more than just a collection of gags, but generally refreshingly free of sentimentality. Nowadays it's one or the other of those things (empty jokes, or empty sentiment). A lot of people see the Frank Grimes episode as a turning point, in that Homer really turned into an irredeemably stupid and callous dick right around then.

And Family Guy can be misanthropic, but it manages to balance it with just the right amount of warmth at the right times -- in part because you get the sense that MacFarlane has genuine affection for the characters, which keeps them from being mere punchlines.

or is that not Loretta

-- The Brainwasher, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 21:41 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

It's not Loretta. I think the plot is "Cleveland meets back with childhood sweetheart, discovers she'd had his kid"

CRN, what roald dahl daycare center did you come from where anything family guy does resembles affection?

xpost

anything approaching warmth in family guy is done with a heavy dose of 'lol ironic sitcom tropes'

A lot of people see the Frank Grimes episode as a turning point, in that Homer really turned into an irredeemably stupid and callous dick right around then.

that's one of my favourite episodes, although i can see what you're saying has happened since.

CRN, what roald dahl daycare center did you come from where anything family guy does resembles affection?

xpost

-- m bison, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 21:46 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

Anything with Stewie's teddybear, for one. Peter meeting his real father. The first series stuff with Peter's (not real) dad.

also homer is genuinely worried that frank grimes doesn't like him like that whole episode! being clueless dont equal callous dick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqRmrzT7i_M

lol affection

will grant peter+dad, but the show basically rejoices in meg being a episodic punching bag

x-post

haha exactly

interesting theory about how frank grimes is "a real person coming into the simpsons' universe":

http://youtube.com/watch?v=F2NWI7rYXw0

Let's just say that the BF in "BFG" doesn't stand for "big, friendly", and leave it at that.

xpost Uh, m bison, you did watch the end of that episode, right?

And in addition to what Dom mentioned, most of the story arcs involving Brian, who MacFarlane has admitted (I think?) is basically his proxy in the show.

xxpost LOL, I almost typed "having your characters occasionally serve as punching bags != no affection for them" a few minutes ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Ek1iawtzk

poor meg :( lol

I don't understand why people like the Grimey episode.

I mean, cripes, you wanna talk misanthropy:

Lovejoy: Frank Grimes, or "Grimey," as he liked to be called, taught us that a man can triumph over adversity. And even though Frank's agonizing struggle through life was tragically cut short, I'm sure he's looking down on this right now...

[Lovejoy's voice fades as the camera pans to a sleeping Homer]

Homer: [in sleep] Change the channel, Marge.

[the mourners laugh]

Lenny: That's our Homer!

It's funny cos Grimes represents every insufferable dick you've ever had to work with.

I don't understand why people like the Grimey episode.

-- Abbott, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 9:52 PM

'cause it's hilarious!

that was narcoleptic, not misanthropic

few xposts

South Park can be funny as hell, even brilliant, and there are things they dare to do that no one would ever touch (Lemmiwinks; the episode with the Ramseys and O.J. Simpson). But too often there's a fundamental coldness and misanthropy to the show that puts me off, not to mention a strong streak of fuck-you crypto-conservatism masquerading as irreverence.
^^^
do agree

that's the common wisdom about the show, and has been for years, right?

How did we get this far without anyone saying Boondocks?

Also, wrt King of the Hill being so much less edgy and daring than these other shoes I say to you:

Aisle 8A

Boondocks is fucking incredible.

Boondocks is funnier than all three of these shows right now.

Although nothing has freaked me out as much as the South Park Britney Spears episode, which was by alternate turns hysterical, cruel and terrifying.

I guess I should give Boondocks a look, but the last several years of the newspaper strip weren't even running on fumes. It was just completely static.

I love when both Usher and Tom sang "Sara Smile" to his wife.

I know some people read the Grimes episode as black comedy, but to me it crosses the line into misanthropy, especially with that ice-cold ending (which is all about highlighting the fact that, ultimately, no one cares about the guy -- the funeral is just lip service). It just leaves a bad taste, despite some good jokes here and there.

I like King of the Hill just fine, though I never seem to want to watch it -- but I'm usually glad when I do. It's more understated by far than these other shows, though I don't know that it's less edgy or daring. Never seen Boondocks.

Simpsons high points tower over the other poll options - one of the most groundbreaking and innovative uses of the TV cartoon format ever and iconic in a way these other shows can only dream of.

altho yeah I kinda wanna write-in vote for King of the Hill too

Both great but Stan's Dad ftw.

-- Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 20:37 (30 minutes ago) Link

^^^^^^YES. He's really come into his own over the last few seasons.

It's like they've drawn back on Cartman and upped Randy.

Boondocks is hilarious, but it does get a bit too preachy sometimes... Huey is sort of an annoying character, the constant BET IS SO EVIL shit is annoying, etc. But yeah it a great show.

I can totally forgive odd bits of overconsciousness because it makes me weep with laughter.

Plus, BET is so evil!

xpost to self. The poop/bono episode and the internet episode were fucking hilarrre mostly becuase of Randy.

Does Aqua Teens count as a suburb cartoon comedy y/n

As was mentioned on a previous thread, the humor of the shows works differently. Both shows hinge on absurdities: Family Guy has a clothesline-thin narrative just to hang jokes from, but will take any absurd scene or instance and almost immediately turn it into a joke, South Park will take an absurd situation and run with it as far as they can go. Seth Macfarlane has a love of production numbers and showtunes that is more unabashed and developed than Trey & Matt's. Hell, dude went onstage with Alex Borstein for a full song & dance revue at Carnegie Hall and later in L.A.

Where FG will have moments of ultra-realistic dialogue, SP has pitch-perfect genre and social satire, usually using an element of one to rip on the other. Trey & Matt can take a completely farcical situation, employ a pop culture reference, and use both to comment on social truth(e.g. Stan's Dad going insane in his bathrobe and briefs from a lack of internet porn, and moves the entire family west, Grapes of Wrath-style, or the Heavy Metal/cat piss/media drug-scare one).

FG's politics lean much more liberal, but Seth's political jokes fall flat with more frequency(excepting the bit where Peter address Congress and claims that anyone not gung-ho for war is gay, or the fading Kucinich '04 sticker on Brian's Prius). SP teeters on ledge of full-on nihilistic hipster contrarianism(Vice mag and Suck.com style), but are much more politically clueless and occasionally excreable(ripping on Al Gore or the WGA strike w/o actually knowing the points of contention).

FG is irish-catholic, SP wanders between atheism and judaism. SP focuses on characters(Cartman), FG on relationships(Brian/Stewie).

And on and on and on.

(SP and the Simpsons are small-town, not suburban, to be pedantic)

unordered thoughts:

I like how understated King of the Hill is. Considering each new cartoon is on some mission to be more insane and offensive than the last I think it's refreshing that one would try to be as subtle as possible. This is the same reason I loved Home Movies. It's just about the way people talk and act.

I'd probably rate it Simpsons > Family Guy > South Park. South Park suffers a lot because for the past 5 years I'd say the jokes just aren't that consistent or funny and the episodes very rarely surprise me. I think their need to bring it all back to libertarian preaching really hinders them. I enjoyed the first few seasons when the show was more willfully random and Monty Python esque. Now each week seems to be "Which news cycle item will South Park take on this week!"

Family Guy can be really funny depending on the gag. Their characters are pretty much negligible and that's all right by me, to be honest. They also have this desire to be shocking that can be seriously grating sometimes and is only alleviated by the fact that they admit this sometimes.

Going back and watching old episodes of The Simpsons I'm amazed by how well they hold up. The jokes I'm laughing at the most now that I totally missed as a child are the things Marge says, which are typically hilariously mundane.

Marge has always been the best Simpsons character. The episode where Lisa becomes a vegetarian and Marge joins in on the conga line making fun of her is one of my favorite moments from the series.

Simpsons is the original and may well technically be the best but I hate Homer so much there is no way I could ever vote for it.

home movies is so wonderful!

ugh, I hate Home Movies so much

South Park has been getting consistently better since about Season 5 or so, while The Simpsons (with the occasional exception) started running out of steam over ten years ago. I agree that SP's libertarian moralizing is problematic in its less-subtle moments, and is at its best when it mercifully skewers everything and everyone in its path.

But overall, the pointedness of wit and mastery of absurd surrealism (impromtu dream sequences, nonsequitors, etc) shared by the writers of Season 3-7 Simpsons handily trumps the pretenders to the throne listed in this poll, or pretty much any TV comedy ever (except maybe Curb).

The Family Guy is not without its moments, but: Stewie is one-note and boring; I'm all for a good poop joke and all, but they get old fast too; way to much breaking out into song going on; its narrative structure is determined by dolphins randomly dropping "idea balls" into a receptacle.

at its best when it mercifully skewers everything and everyone in its path

I've got a feeling that when you try to satirise everything you end up satirising nothing, but I haven't thought it through properly yet.

no love for Dr Katz?

xxpost: If nihilistic satire can be argued as a concept, South Park = Exhibit A. Otherwise, I guess, it is just plain mean-spirited. I still find it hilarious, though. Perhaps I should feel guilty about that.

I can't speak for the content of Dr. Katz, b/c the animation gave me motion sickness.

i thought i'd be a lonely-ish voice repping for family guy; just shows how little i know ILX.

it's the only one of these i can claim to have any kind of wide knowledge of -- i think i've seen pretty much every episode -- but the fact i've never tried to do that with south park probably speaks volumes.

and i do have a history with south park: i went to stay with a friend in NY in early 1997 and watched one episode (tom's rhinoplasty) ... i thought it was the funniest fucking thing i'd seen in my life, and came back and immediately wrote a 1000-word piece for the magazine i was then working for (weekly, sold by the homeless, isn't the english or the welsh version: you can work it out), ringing round all four (lol nineties) TV channels to see if any of them were going to show it. C4 said they were planning to; we got transparencies of the characters from the states and made cartman the cover star, with the strap "CARTMAN'S COMING TO GET YOU". unless i'm vastly mistaken, this was the first time SP had been on a mag cover in the UK; it was maybe even the first feature about the thing in a UK mag. </feeble tooting on own trumpet>

but i sorta lost interest somewhere along the line -- round about when they killed off kenny properly, i think. and i know i should go back and watch more of the later ones, but this:

a fundamental coldness and misanthropy

is absolutely right, and i think that matters to me more now, 11 years on, than it did when i was a callow youth in my early twenties.

the simpsons: so, so past its prime that i just can't bring myself to vote for it. it's like the rolling stones of animated suburban sitcommery, or something. (note to self: that metaphor needs substantial work.)

so, family guy -- if only because the scene where robot brian comes whizzing out of the cupboard saying: "i am a tool" made me laugh even more than that first south park. and still does.

just.

(also: dom totally and utterly right about the brian/stewie relationship being the absolute centre of the thing.)

It's weird, although FG is the least sit-commy of the three by far (due to the characters being ciphers and it basically being an elaborate sketch show), the Brian/Stewie relationship is the most sit-commy of anything in the three, if you take the line of thought that (classic) sitcoms are about people trapped in situations they can't escape (qf MASH, Porridge, Father Ted, Steptoe and Son, some more American shows probably). Stewie and Brian can't escape because, y'know, one's a baby and the other's a dog.

I voted South Park. It's still miles above Family Guy, a show I also regard highly. But it doesn't come close to SP. Simpsons... ah, nostalgia... nice, but not in competition.

On Family Guy: It's plusses are Brian and Stewie. I agree, they carry the show, and I love it. Peter himself... not so much. Annoying giggle, drawn appalingly, "... just like [insert past reference]" flashbacks which really are overkill and piss me off sometimes. Family Guy can be fun, but it's not 'with the times', you know?

South Park is. And amazingly, it still is. I happen to enjoy and admire the a fundamental coldness and misanthropy talked about above (and while we're on it: if you want real coldness and misanthropy, see Family Guy's Meg and her being treated that wat: It's like watching an awfull care crash, again and again. I can't stand it.)

I admire South Park for being on the money, every goddamn episode, in every twisted, misantrophic way. It's cartoon genius is without precedent.

care crash=car crash, obv.

For me, the best Simpsons years were '94 to 2000 or thereabouts. I can't bring myself to sit through an episode anymore. South Park hit a peak around 2004 or so. King of the Hill was pretty good for a couple of years, but is mostly dull now.

I actually like American Dad!

Family Guy is still hilarious, so it's the easy winner here.

KOTH's humor is easier to appreciate if you've ever lived in texas i think

There are still Simpsons episodes I think about almost every day (the Homer weight gain one, the labor union one, etc.); the glory years of that show actually impacted my life and thinking.

The 2 episodes of "Family Guy" I've tried to sit through both had throwaway "shocking" AIDS gags.

The Simpsons at it's best is just something none of these other shows can fuck with. The episode where Bart sells his soul to Milhouse was on the other day and I remembered how brilliantly wtf the moment where Bart shows up at Milhouse's only to find that dude in the astronaut suit was. That whole episode is flawless start to finish and it's not even the best Simpsons episode. I don't know the other shows as well and people are making me reconsider FG which I've always written off but:

it basically being an elaborate sketch show

seems otm. Which is maybe why I don't rate it since although FG has had some amazing gags the pace/structure of the show makes it feel like at least 1/3 of any episode is filler connecting the jokes.

You really can't write off Family Guy. Its sense of timing and real-world awkwardness are amazing, and its approach of doing anything for a gag brings out some really good jokes. Yeah, the characters and plot are a little weak, but that's not why you watch a goddamn comedy show. At least that's not why I do.

You really can't write off Family Guy.

hahaha watch me!

family guy edges SP for me because of snappiness. i'll echo adamj's sentiment on why i watch cartoon comedy- to laugh. simpsons is basically the cosby show, and has been for a decade at this stage.

I wld rather watch Cosby Show than Family Guy.

i'd rather watch moths fucking than family guy

Oh my gosh! I would watch moths.

I was at a party last week, and this guy had a few moths growing in a terrarium of sorts. One of them had emerged from its cocoon; it was big and green and beatiful. Then the guy passed around a cocoon to people. It would sort of vibrate in the palm of your hand, like a "mexican jumping bean" or something...

Were these lunar moths????

KOTH's humor is easier to appreciate if you've ever lived in texas i think

-- batwing, Wednesday, May 28, 2008 12:16 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Ya honestly I like all three of the polled shows but I think KOTH beats them all for sheer consistency.

Abbott, hmm, I can't remember what ha said they were called...but, I just looked at a picture of one on some website, and it looks like what he had.

Finally as a mature adult the Lunar Moth doesn't ever eat, instead it searches only for a mate so that it can breed and then it dies.

I still don't get why they animated that show.

xp as in King of the Hill, not Lunar Moths Fucking

Yeah, I've thought that before, that KOTH would work very well as a live-action thing.

Bobby & everyone would age.

Good point.

I don't understand how the woman does Bobby's voice without destroying her vocal chords.

Bobby's voice lady shows up in 'Grim Fandango.' It's kinda disturbing.

Family Guy is not even in the running. South Park is way better than The Simpsons is now, and has managed to maintain a high level of quality for a longer stretch than The Simpsons ever did. However, you kind of have to give it to The Simpsons for the magnificence of its glory years.

BTW, I'm sure this has been said at some point, but SP is easily at its best when it focuses on the interactions of the kids rather than trying to make a broad and usually ill-thought out point. Funny that Trey and Matt are so often spot on about what makes people tick on a personal small-scale level and so glib and clueless about larger political issues.

Wait Til Your Father Gets Home FTW!

i know no one wants to vote for the simpsons just because it's the obvious choice, the rockist choice, and it's been around forever and it sucks now, and people who point that out are as tiresome as the show's become.

but the show's best years -- i'd say about seasons 2 through 6 -- haven't aged a bit. forget the "warmth," that's a red herring -- it's there, but if you want to ignore it, cool; the show usually doesn't hit you over the head with it. there's usually a tidy moral, sure, but the characters themselves generally don't "get" it; there's no dreary "see, i've learned that..." speeches at the end like you get on south park. (chap is OTM about the small stuff being the best stuff on SP.)

what matters is that the show was consistently, AMAZINGLY consistently hilarious. virtually every single episode from the aforementioned seasons has like 15 gags that would be the "stand-out" on any episode of family guy that ppl would be quoting for years.

simpsons was also funny in kind of weird, unexpected ways -- like the george bush episode with all of bush's angry muttered asides ("probably stole a napkin!"), or marge's wonderful cluelessness (like when she tells bart he should take a potato to show and tell, or answers bart's fears that he'll get beaten up for wearing the dorky clothes she buys him by saying "well, anyone who beats you up for what you're wearing isn't your friend..."), or anything with milhouse. whereas on family guy or south park every gag feels very thought-out and deliberate, there's a nice sense of freewheeling sloppiness with classic simpsons, where there's so much stuff -- not all of it scanning as "funny" at first by any means -- that you wind up laughing at completely different things every time you see an episode.

i know no one wants to vote for the simpsons just because it's the obvious choice, the rockist choice, and it's been around forever and it sucks now, and people who point that out are as tiresome as the show's become.

but the show's best years -- i'd say about seasons 2 through 6 -- haven't aged a bit.

^^^so tiresome

whatever dude, all i know is homer being a dick in 1994 is still funny and peter griffin being a dick in 2004 is not

sorry if that makes me a luddite

Homer is never that much of a dick, you still like him

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Pointless personal anecdote: I think I was 13 when our local newspaper ran a story about South Park's pilot episode (the paper and the network showing South Park were owned by the same company). They had to air it at midnight or something due to the language and content, but that didn't stop me from staying awake until then, creeping into the living room, and sitting right close to the television with the volume as low as I could have it but still hear what was going on. The remote control was ready in my hand to flick the channel to something more wholesome should a parent randomly wander through the room...

It was totally disappointing, though. I thought South Park was rubbish then, and the episodes I've wasted time on since then haven't been any better. But then, I don't really find potty humour amusing, nor do I find their brand of comment-and-satire-on-current-events particularly clever (and I hated — absolutely fucking HATED — Team America). Family Guy is alright, but that's largely due to the aforementioned Brian/Stewie exchanges/scenes. I do think the show (at least in seasons 1-3, which I've actually seen) relies too heavily on Stewie for its more quotable, memorable lines (compared to the Simpsons, where the memorable/quotable lines have come not just from the main characters but the rest of the 'supporting cast', for lack of a better phrase). If that's at all relevant, I don't know. I like to think that certain Simpsons quotes/scenes/etc are ubiquitious enough to be used as recognisable reference points for most people of a certain age.

Anyway, I quite like King of the Hill, but for me nothing can beat the Simpsons from seasons 3-8. And before I get purists jumping on me for stretching that to season 8: it's the one with the Hank Scorpio episode. 'nuff said.

Sorry. I didn't really mean to write an entire fucking essay on the matter, esp as I didn't particularly say anything interesting.

Season 8 also has insanity peppers and Rex Banner.

The more I think about it, the more I think you can't even compare these three. I haven't seen any of these shows for a long time, but I saw the Simpsons movie recently and it reminded me that at this point it's a cultural institution more than it is a comedy show. Obviously at this point the actual product is irrelevant, but its influence is still very important and its being kept alive because not many of us can remember a time without it (I know I can't).

In its day the Simpsons changed comedy and pop-culture in general, but (or maybe 'so') I don't think it should be on this poll, because both South Park and Family Guy (among a lot of other stuff) wouldn't have existed without it. They come from very different worlds--i.e., pre-Simpsons and post-Simpsons--and it seems kind of weird to me to line them up and see which one is better.

I guess that won't stop you from shitting on Family Guy, though. Carry on.

latebloomer otm above re: family guy. i can watch it and laugh but my main problem isn't NO CHARACTERS, it's that it's so desperate to please. there's also a lot of male hetero insecurity, which is fucking retarded and hard to take.

i also like new simpsons.

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Let the whining commence.

Sorry I mean continue.

(huge sigh of relief here)

I think this kinda proves my point.

http://fotolog.miarroba.com/f/5/2/9/4231529/25.jpg

Gah! I demand a re-count!

yeah family guy rated far too high

ugh you people are so lame

justice

yeah family guy rated far too high

^^^truth bomb, or something.

i guess i do know ILX better than i thought!

oh shit i forgot to vote, would have been south park, second preference family guy, sorry ppl

i mean i always WANT to be cool and hate on family guy but every time i see it i lol uncontrollably, and that ultimately is the mark of its quality.

incredible that all three of these shows are still on the air

I have been watching the latest South Park season, it's kinda surreal given I haven't watched this show in years, last time I saw a full episode was probably 2012. on one hand it's still hypermodern, reacting pretty much in real time to the news, on the other they're still doing the exact same jokes they've been doing for 25 years now? their sense of humor hasn't evolved one bit. and the character models have stayed true to the original cardboard cutouts this entire time. even the meta self-referential shtick is something they've been doing for decades.

it's interesting because modern Simpsons is pretty much unrecognizable - I see clips here and there and a few weeks ago I watched 10 minutes of it when it came on after football, the show is just so incredibly weird now and not in a good way. it's a show whose target audience are people who were not even alive when the show was a huge cultural touchstone and nothing about the show itself resembles the glory days at all, especially since all the main voice actors are like 75 now. its not like, I dunno, Season 14 or whatever, where the show sucked but it still felt like the Simpsons.

can't even imagine what Family Guy is like now, though I can actually see that one holding up somewhat, one because every character can be described in like three words, two because all the random cutaway shit kinda resembles what social media feeds are like now. I sure as hell aint gonna watch it to find out

Feel like Family Guy and South Park have an evergreen audience in preteen boys but who is even watching the Simpsons in 2025?

I don't think I have ever seen Family Guy, and I haven't seen The Simpsons in decades. But as far as I can tell, South Park has remained remarkably consistent. I know my older daughter has recently started watching it for the first time, and she's constantly relaying things to me, like OMG, did you see the new South Park? I guess that makes it still trenchant as both satire and provocation.

It's been a very long time since I saw the first South Park movie. I was reading a review of it recently, a newer one, that pointed out a lot of its edginess has lessened a little bit because so much of pop culture has caught up to its level of coarseness.

I have actually been introducing my 11-year-old to the Simpsons, he got interested because a friend of his has a dad who's evangelical about it and turned him into a fan. Rewatching some of the classic eps I am cognizant of how many dated references there are -- they're practically constant -- and I debated watching new eps with my son that would have contemporary ones he would get. Ultimately ixnayed that though, in part because I can't imagine tolerating the abomination of 30+ seasons on Simpsons, but also because I realize I probably didn't get most of the references even when they were contemporaneous, and it didn't diminish my fanaticism at all. Like we just watched "Who Shot Mr. Burns" and undoubtedly I knew nothing about Twin Peaks at the time, heavily referenced, let alone Dallas and "Who Shot JR", which the whole thing is parodying. Didn't matter one iota, that shit is still pure gold

Also your kid will eventually absorb pop culture detritus from before they were born. I dunno if that's desirable or not, but by gum it was good enough for me growing up.

yup, like I did

frogbs, the new season is really terrible but all the little movies they did for Paramount+ are really good, especially the COVID ones

Season 19, where they wrestle with their outdated '90s humor style in the new woke landscape is really special.

which show are you talking about whiney

I did recently finish watching the classic Simpsons era with my 8 year old daughter, I was genuinely surprised at how much she liked it. and how well those episodes held up. yes some of the references are dated and I had to pause to explain certain things but that's the brilliance of the show, the references are mostly just a bonus if you get them, if you don't the jokes still work.

curious if that's the same for old South Parks, can't imagine how well episodes circa 2009 or so hold up that reference very specific things going on then that nobody remembers now, or if people even watch old South Park episodes at all anymore. I agree with Josh though I don't think the show has ever dipped in quality, admittedly I've missed the last decade and a half or so

xpost South Park

Yeah, I did a South Park rewatch recently and the late-Obama era stuff is like an absolute cemetery for memory-holed information. Like a whole episode on Alec Baldwin losing his talk show that I didn't remember he had in the first place. There's another episode where Mr. Hankey is run out of town for tweeting like Rosanne Barr

South Park's libertarian politics really got grating towards the middle seasons, like the global warming episode, which is basically just characters vocalizing Parker/Stone's views on it (namely that it doesn't exist), the Goobacks episode (which had a lot of funny moments but then essentially blamed poor countries and their citizens for their plight at the end), ManBearPig, etc.

that shit was also in there in the beginning but there was a time where it was just so oppressively in your face and annoying. obviously they haven't really stopped that but not terribly surprised they hate Trump because real Libertarians would!

Family Guy, I haven't even heard anybody talk about in public in years . I don't know anybody who still watches it.

the World of Warcraft episode is still one of my favorites

the clips I've seen from the new South Park seasons look much less annoyingly rw libertarian than the ones from the middle seasons that got me hating the show, had a hope that maybe they had matured out of it finally. also everything they are covering is stuff my kids talk about, so it may be that they have kids a similar age. tempted to download some episodes, but not very tempted

I watched some old simpsons and KOTH clips on youtube a while back and then got loads of recommendations for South Park and Family Guy stuff off the back of that

a lot of the South Park stuff was still funny to me, but obviously a lot of the racist/transphobic humour is really jarringly cuntish. a lot of it is just that a lot of the voice acting and purely goofy non-edgy humour is funny to me

Nothing in any of the Family Guy ones raised even the hint of a smile, just felt like a total relic of a bygone age, vaguely like being stuck in a room with someone in too much cocaine who thinks everything they say is funny but none of it is

Classic Simpsons still great on rewatch, kind of funny how central TV addiction was to its early satire and worldview, they never really seemed to grasp the nature of the Internet in the same way in the relatively short period between the Internet becoming widespread and the show being remotely watchable

obviously couldn't countenance wanting to watch some season 94 episode where Marge's burgeoning friendship with Bumblebee Man is threatened when he loses all his savings to Homer and Kearny's bogus cryptocurrency business or whatever

Neanderthal, Matt and Trey literally became less libertarian years ago and the show followed. They even did a whole episode basically apologizing to Al Gore for ManBearPig!

I will admit I have only seen bits and pieces of the last decade or so