Family Guy is an unoriginal piece of writing as, not only, did they spoof stories already written such as movies like Star Wars and a variety of TV Shows and popular culture but they also took the dirty, raunchy and rude concept of South Park and tried to mix it with the family backdrop of a fat dad, a mum and three kids, which was already taken by ‘The Simpsons’, and failed miserably in my honest opinion. You can’t blame them; I mean The Simpsons have done everything, as depicted in a South Park episode.

The only piece of ‘originality’ in this would be the flashback moments, which in themselves, aren’t funny either. An example of this flashback would be when Peter would say something along the lines of, “This is like the time…” It would then flashback to a quick 5 second scene which is completely irrelevant to the plot and is not to mention incredibly unfunny. The flashbacks are what the current teen generation would call ‘random’. Answers.com defines random as “having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective”. Over the years this word has lost all meaning as our generation is getting more and more stupid. Family Guy is not helping this cause.

When South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone created a 2 part episode to deliberately put down Family Guy, Matt Groening and the writing staff of The Simpsons sent both of them flowers and a greeting card. When Parker and Stone were interviewed and asked about what the meanest thing ever said to them was, they were quoted as responding with, “when people say to me, ‘God, you guys have one of the best shows on television. You and Family Guy.’ That … hurts so bad”. The episode depicts Family Guy writers as two manatees floating in a fish tank picking out ‘idea balls’ for the next episode.

South Park are known for being quite controversial but they hardly ever go over the legal and moral threshold. Family Guy goes way too far and has been sued on countless occasions which is what gives them the spotlight. The Simpsons never do this and is simply the best and smartest cartoon. Its staying power is obvious as it has been around since 1989 with no signs of slowing any time soon.

Another thing I have to point out about Family Guy are the unlovable characters. Seriously, what is there to like about the main character, who is a stuttering, stupid, fat, rude man with an annoying voice. Then there’s the baby, Stewie, with his stupid English accent and psychotic intentions to kill his mother. I have to give them one thing though, that Quagmire character is the only highlight for me. He is your stereotypical sleazy, womanizing sex addict. It’s not his one-liners though, that makes me laugh – it’s his amazing resemblance to a friend. So without that friend… he’d be just another unlovable character.

Sadly, McFarlane decided to create the sister show of Family Guy, American Dad. It is exactly the same thing with a different backdrop. They repeat the exact same jokes and the exact same one-liners. It’s similar to when The Knacks had success with their one hit wonder, ‘My Sharona’ and then later made their second song which sounded exactly the same, but only the lyrics were different. They were never heard from again. I certainly hope that’s the case here.