rant on Family Guy, The Simpsons, and The Great American Novel

[thehefner]

Finally snagging it after weeks of it continuously being checked out, I rented the straight-to-DVD FAMILY GUY movie. And I was little more than underwhelmed. I must have actually laughed (and I include "breaking a smile" as laughing) a total of seven times. It's not that it was bad, per se. It sort of... how do I put this? It feels to FAMILY GUY what THE SIMPSONS has been like for the past five years. It feels settled down into its own niche, recycling the same familiar humor and staying perfectly within its comfort zone.

At this point, let me tell you What Grinds My Gears. I keep hearing more and more people and reviewers saying how FAMILY GUY is sooooo much better than THE SIMPSONS, and they always hold Simpsons as they are now as the example. SIMPSONS has been so lame and mediocre, phoning it in with every episode (Marge is angry with Homer and runs off with another man... again; Homer comes up with another waaaacky scheme!; Hey, let's outright make Lenny and Carl gay and shove it down everyone's throats!), whereas FAMILY GUY was shocking, very well written, and pushed the boundaries of taste as well as the airtime on jokes (some were good, like the Chicken Fight, others go on way too long and especially in the new seasons, and neither would ever have happened if Sideshow Bob didn't step on rakes nine times over ten years ago).

And especially around the cult of college students, it became an absolutely ingrained must in social circles, with people throwing quotes back and forth constantly, just as we did with Simpsons for so long. In fact, when I revistited WAC for a weekend to see a play, I wasn't on campus for ten minutes before I heard somebody (Jesse Wolcott) say, "Ooh! A piece of candy. Ooh! A piece of candy. Ooh! A piece of candy!" Along with the rest of the Adult Swim lineup, I slowly moved away from the Simpsons as a thing of my past.

Then not too long ago, trying to stave off madness at the video store, I watched Seasons 3-6 of the Simpsons straight through over the course of the next couple weeks. And here is what I realized, what I once knew but had forgotten- The Simpsons, taken as a whole, is the animated serialized equivalent of The Great American Novel. It's a satire of epic scope, and just as all of humanity could be reflected in the jurors in 12 Angry Men, so even better does the town of Springfield. And even in the case that I'm just being a wanky fanboy on this matter, regardless of all this, the humor in those seasons is, in my opinion, far more intelligent, subversive, and far-reaching than the often-brilliant fart jokes of FAMILY GUY. I honestly don't think that anything Family Guy could do would ever, ever match up to "Cape Feare." Even when FAMILY GUY is "funnier", THE SIMPSONS has been better.

But not anymore, of course. THE SIMPSONS should have been cancelled not long after Season 9, and the movie should have been made around Season 7. I fear the movie currently being made will resemble something like the Family Guy movie. The really odd thing about that is I think back to BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO AMERICA and SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LOUDER, AND UNCUT and how they really were rather brilliant movies (well, I thought BABHDA was at the time; haven't seen it in years), or at least far better than they "should" have been. The Family Guy movie was sadly every bit as funny as it "should" have been, and while I'm enjoying the new seasons immensely (the FCC episode was quite excellent, but when I think about it, only because of the extended Naked Gun reference and Cobra Commander's cameo; Family Guy wouldn't be half as funny as it is without the pop cultural references and remembrances, making me wonder if it's less Simpsons and more "I love the 80's" if you know what I mean), it makes me wonder how long it's gonna last. The movie was a reminder that even Family Guy's time will come, just as it did with Simpsons, and maybe much, much sooner.

Oddly enough, it utterly amazes and delights me how SOUTH PARK still has not yet lost its edge. I would have thought, of all those cartoons, it would have settled into that niche around season 3. But god damn if South Park still cannot be the most shocking, intelligent, subversive satire on TV half the time. And unlike Family Guy, even the fart jokes on South Park sometimes have far-reaching socio-political implications (to use a big and pretentious-sounding word). Now that's funny.

Comments

[fishymcb.livejournal.com]

I can't even articulate now, but I just wanted to say: Wow. Your ideas intrigue me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Seriously though, let me say this about the Simpsons: It's not just the quoting it, although I do that quite liberally. Shit, I just did it two sentences ago. It's actually become a part of the vernacular. How many times have you said things like, "A little from column A, a little from column B", or "I tells ya", or something similar, and not even realized that you had picked it up from years of watching the Simpsons? For me, I've spent the last few years watching several of those brilliant 3-6 episodes with Molly, who in many cases was seeing them for the first time. There would be a line or a gag that would make her say, "Oh, so that's where it came from". I'd think to myself, "Oh yeah!" You don't really think about it. The Simpsons are our lives. They've been on the air since I was seven, but debuted on Tracy Ullman when I was four or five.

Yeah, so I ramble. I enjoyed the Family Guy movie more than you, but I can't help but think that you're right. FG and the Simpsons are apples and oranges. Even with all of the pop culture references, the Simpsons always had plot and character and usually heart. Family Guy uses plot to get from the Ashlee Simpson joke to the Indiana Jones parody. Yeah, the Naked Gun thing was great, but I sat and endured the Osama joke that set it up and it was BRUTAL. As off the mark or unsettling or sad as many Simpsons episodes have been recently, I've never sat through one going, "Oh God, when is this going to end? It's not funny at all. This is just the writers jacking off onto the screen." I HATED the Osama sequence more than I ever thought I could hate a segment of a cartoon...at least, one that I watch faithfully. I don't think it has the shelf life of the Simpsons, just because nothing does. Well, maybe South Park. Time will tell, although I think Trey and Matt will have the sense to bow out before it extends into eternity like the Simpsons.

Okay, now I'm done. For now.

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

Gosh, so much to agree with, so little time.

When I first saw FAMILY GUY, I shut it off. Too little worked. But I watched it because I was ill and it was the only thing in the house I hadn't seen, and some of it grew on me. I still find vast swaths of it to be extremely irritating. It's got a strong tendency towards "obnoxious humor", as in "Hey, look how obnoxious the fat guy is being, and look how uncomfortable it's making that other guy." The Simpsons often used Homer that way, and I didn't like it there, either. I shut off the extremely well received British show THE OFFICE for the same reason, and while I watched all of BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD DO AMERICA, I wish I'd shut it off.

But FG does have some things to offer, especially in the other characters. Perhaps that's ironic, because the lead was designed by and voiced by the creator of the show, and you'd imagine it to be his favorite character.

I expected SOUTH PARK to give up the ghost after its second season, and while they've always been hit-or-miss, they were still going very strong the last time I saw it (which is several seasons old at this point). I've been told, however, that it's still working and is perhaps better than ever. I'm doubtful, but I'll have to catch it.

FiveSecondDelay thinks I'm an idiot for being so fond of the SOUTH PARK movie, but I really do think it was brilliant. Which is why I find it so ironic that essentially everything else that Parker and Stone has been a mixed bag at best. CANNIBAL: THE MUSICAL and TEAM AMERICA had some great songs, but nearly everything else in each was forgettable. ORGAZMO, BASKETBALL, and THAT'S MY BUSH more or less sank without a trace. The first two had at least a few jokes worth the effort of having made them; if the third one ever got to that place, it happened after I shut it off.

SOUTH PARK does far fewer episodes per season than SIMPSONS does, and that's probably part of the reason they get to keep it up. If nothing else they don't have to put up with "already did it" quite so quickly.

Great reply, but what really stands out...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Is the very last part of what you said a reference to the South Park episode "The Simpsons Already Did It"?

Re: Great reply, but what really stands out...

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about it, but it wasn't a direct reference. But damn if Parker and Stone don't manage to go places the SIMPSONS would never think to go. SIMPSONS is, at heart, a family show (but remember the early days when Bart Simpson tee-shirts were banned?).