...American Dad was ever funny?
Honestly, though I'll admit Family Guy no longer amuses me the way it does, I still find it more fun than some of its peers like South Park who I find even more preachy and condescending.
edited 26th Oct '11 1:48:07 PM by Ghilz
I found pre cancellation Family Guy VERY funny. Heck I even laughed at it till about Season Seven, when, despite it's Sadist Show qualities, it was still a genuinely funny and witty show. After that however it seems to have gained this faux-Cerebus Syndrome, diluting the whimsy and comical aspects of the show, but maxing up all the gross out elements and offensive gags, only a few odd episodes being genuinely witty and amusing. Basically Dead Baby Comedy without the Comedy part.
At times it's like one writer said 'let's put in a disturbingly realistic scene of rape/violence/real life tragedy with no humorous undertones added and see if it's still funny'.
edited 26th Oct '11 5:52:04 PM by Psi001
There was also the bull scene in Dial Meg For Murder and at least two instances with Lois raping Peter. While admitedly they have some whimsical distortion to them, they still draw a little too close to reality than needed (the only big comical trait in the former is that the rapist is drawn as a bull). Same for scenes of graphic violence like Quagmire's beatdown of Brian or Evil!Stewie mutilating people which could have been just as easily duplicated into a live action crime drama and no one would likely tell the difference (in comparison to say 'Lethal Weapons' or the chicken fights which were ridiculously over the top and cartoony).
Family Guy's gross out humor wasn't as bad till they started using Uncanny Valley on it.
edited 27th Oct '11 3:26:23 AM by Psi001
Honesty I find the new seasons to be So Bad, It's Good, I mean the Complete Monster of a farther, the pointless cruelity to Meg and Brians pompusnoss leave the show just the right kind of stupid that it beacomes outright insane.
The smartest idiot you will ever meet.I think the problem is that Family Guy started on a high, and hyped up a huge fanbase with it's Un Cancellation, and so had a huge fanbase to piss off with it's alterations. Bad shows that started off bad people won't care about (though granted there are other similar cases of Seasonal Rot out there).
edited 29th Oct '11 4:38:54 PM by Psi001
I just wonder how much everyone will celebrate once it's cancelled or ended (I prefer cnacelled)...
Family Guy is mediocre, but it's harmless, as all cartoons are, and how exactly is it "hiding behind the first amendment?" It's never said or done anything offensive enough to be worth ANYBODY getting angry about, anyway.
As much as I don't care for the show either way, your sentiments about it have filled me with a staggering amount of bile. It actually angers me that you feel a cartoon "deserves nothing but hate." What a stupid freaking thing to be so bitchy about. And before you say "BAWWWWW what about you then!?", you are a human being, not a cartoon show. I have every right to be pissed off by the wastefully petty feelings of other human beings. This is what people like you sound like to me:
''BOO HOO THINGS EXIST THAT I DON'T CARE FOR. WHY ME, GOD? WHY WAS I BORN IN A WORLD WHERE FAMILY GUY EXISTS? I HAVE THE WORST LIFE EVER! I HATE EVERYBODY DIFFERENT!!!!"
People need to stop acting as if it's normal, acceptable, everyday human opinion to hate a work of fiction that nobody is forcing anybody to enjoy. A cartoon is a bunch of drawings and words someone put together to entertain some people during the periods where they have nothing better to do. If one of these assemblages of visuals and ideas doesn't make you laugh, get over it, grow up, and shut up. Nobody cares what you think, and if you can't think anything constructive, nobody should.
edited 31st Oct '11 4:57:42 AM by scythemantis
bogleech.com for my writing, comics and cartoons.As said, as overblown as some of the fan hate is, I think a lot of it stems from the fact Family Guy was initially, in many of these haters eyes, a good show. Likely a lot less people would be complaining about the currently disliked setup if they hadn't evolved another more likeable show into it. The same could be said for The Simpsons and Spongebob Squarepants in their current forms really. Their current forms arguably aren't that bad but they aren't nearly on par with what people expect from their initial run.
Truthfully though, reading the synopsis and reviews for the recent episode ("Screams of Silence") I already get the idea I wouldn't enjoy it at all.
edited 31st Oct '11 5:15:24 AM by Psi001
At least put in a musical number about it! Spousal abuse used to only be reserved for a joke on Family Guy! At least then, it would be less squicky.
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I could stand some of Family Guy's darker humor in earlier seasons, so long as there was some amount of genuine wit and trademark whimsy to hold it up (a crack smoking paedophile should not be that funny, right?...). Now it just seems to be solely for squick and shock value, not even for humor's sake, just cheap shock value.
Exactly. If it was another new show doing this, people likely wouldn't give nearly as much a crap about it, however with an old show being altered for it, it's a lot of fans' nostalgic memories of a once good show raped. See the recent Ren and Stimpy Adult Party thread for another example.
edited 31st Oct '11 8:41:27 AM by Psi001
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It's just whether the humor value adds up really. Instances like Lethal Weapons and Airport 07 work because they are so over the top and random ('but boy I'm angry, someone has to pay...'). The Brady abuse scene in Spies Reminiscent of Us however falls flat with a humorless abuse scene and only a crappy blackmail gag at the end.
It doesn't help a lot of newer violence scenes involve Squick and are animated and acted to feel disturbingly graphic and realistic in tone, eg. Evil!Stewie's rampage or Quagmire's beatdown of Brian, which are in a gory, non cartoony fashion with zero real humor. The new episode sounds like they are just taking this idea and rolling with it for the whole half hour.
edited 1st Nov '11 7:56:08 AM by Psi001

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Never tell your problems to anyone...20% don't care and the other 80% are glad you have them.