The Simpsons-remixed and 10x funnier by its pervasive [savagely-bold, NSFW] pop culture reference cutaways and rapid-fire sketch comedy on sick, twisted, hard-R politically-incorrect themes, FG is epic satire & the best 18+ animated sitcom. 9/10.

…

Plot Synopsis: Sick, twisted and politically incorrect, the animated series features the adventures of the Griffin family. Endearingly ignorant Peter and stay-at-home wife Lois reside in Quahog, R.I., and have three kids. Meg, the eldest child, is a social outcast, and teenage Chris is awkward and clueless when it comes to the opposite sex. The youngest, Stewie, is a genius baby bent on killing his mother and destroying the world. The talking dog, Brian, keeps Stewie in check while sipping martinis & sorting through his own issues.

*Possible spoilers ahead*

CLC’s Official Best #FamilyGuy Episodes: 1. PTV, 2. Road To The Multiverse, 3. And Then There Were Fewer, 4. E. Peterbus Unum, 5. The D In Apartment 23, 6. Stewie Kills Lois, 7. Hell Comes To Quahog, 8. Back To The Pilot, 9. The Simpsons Guy, 10. I Dream Of Jesus, 11. Disney’s The Reboot, 12. Petarded, 13. Three Directors, 14. Patriot Games, 15. Long John Peter, 16. Brothers And Sisters, 17. Episode 420, 18. Tales Of A Third Grade Nothing, 19. A House Full Of Peters, 20. No Meals On Wheels

…

Official CLC Review

On January 31, 1999, the world of comedy TV tilted off its axis. Though the TV American Family had undergone various reincarnations of satirical, analytical, paean, and sitcom origins all the way back from the 1950’s in live-action: I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Good Times, The Brady Bunch, Full House, Modern Family, etc. and ’60’s in animation with The Flintstones, perhaps none was as definitive and pop-culturally relevant as The Simpsons. Nearly ~10 years after the premiere of The Simpsons broke preconceptions and new ground on not-for-kids animation, the concept was remixed and fueled with carnivorous wickedness that further evolved the concept: a family of New Englanders like nothing TV had seen before. Many challengers have come-and-gone for decades in the subgenre The Simpsons and Family Guy proof-of-concepted, but the two 1989 and 1999 legacy survivors reign supreme – a rivalry that has raged for decades, even crossing over with each other and packed with tons of references/jokes in both good and bad nature. Despite popular preference for The Simpsons, we’re here to tell you: Family Guy is the king of TV adult-animation family sitcoms, and we’ll explain why. The Simpsons-remixed and 10x funnier by its pervasive [savagely-bold, NSFW] pop culture reference cutaways and rapid-fire sketch comedy on sick, twisted, hard-R politically-incorrect themes, Family Guy – despite erratic animation early-on and characterization-paradoxes – is an epic masterclass of satire & the best 18+ animated sitcom.

The creator of the series is now one of the biggest names in TV, Comedy, and Hollywood: Seth Macfarlane. Ted, Johnny Bravo, Star Trek, Gilmore Girls, American Dad!, The Orville, A Million Ways To Die In The West, Dexter’s Laboratory, and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey are amongst some of the famous movies and TV series he played a role in by his quintuple-threat talents: actor, producer, director, and musician – but Family Guy is his baby. The booming, classic tinsel-town voiced prodigal son of animation with legacy everlasting in the genre came from humble beginnings at the Rhode Island School of Design and lackey for Hanna-Barbera in which he first got his start in the industry. Since, he has become an Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning, studio-album releasing, TV Hall Of Fame-inductee TV mogul worth $300M+ – and it all stemmed from his [herculean] ability to simply make you laugh, nowhere more seeable than in the twice-cancelled but cult-revitalized and now 369-episode/21+-season Family Guy and its patriarchal bad-dad taking real-world inspiration from his life and growing up experiences: Peter Griffin.

A lovable oaf for the ages, Peter Griffin is one of, if not THE funniest lead character ever made. Childlike energy and mannerisms, pudgy New Englander charm, duncelike incompetence/ignorance, and breathtakingly-funny & wacky hijinx make the ball-faced protagnnost a better-capitalization on the Homer archetype – one taking roots from MacFarlane’s coming-of-age in Rhode Island and rocking TV history without the need for any D’Oh!’s or [Doh]nuts and trascends his tragic backstory deprived of parental love by a hyper-religious Catholic family he rebukes any trace of later on to supply endless laugs. Voiced by Macfarlane amongst the insane roster of antithetical characters he voices on the show to epitomize his talents: Brian, Quagmire, Stewie, Dr. Hartman, Seamus, Carter Pewterschmidt, Tom Tucker, Ida, Kevin Swanson, Jasper, & more, Peter Griffin perfectly-captures the Boystonian fun-loving manchild blue-collar worker it paints – with hilarious weekly hijinx from becoming a pirate ransacking British maritime goods to buying a tank and destroying Superstore USA to meeting Jesus to becoming a pro athlete to fighting man-sized chickens to making his own energy drink to buying a moat to going back to third grade to opening a restaurant to forming his own country.

The indescribable pleasure and presence Petah brings to the show every episode from his idiosyncratic woodpecker-giggle is easily the biggest reason for the show’s success – but he’s just one of many great characters that join his light-hearted antics, with dark underlying motifs and themes behind the laughs. Much of its cast take cues from The Simpsons: Nasily-voiced, sex-weaponizing, inheritance-rejecting housewife Lois is more libidinous and unfulfilled/compensating than Marge she clearly is based on, diabolical and matricidal infant evil genius Stewie feels like an exacerbated Bart at first before getting reframed into a hilarious homosexual-masquerading, vaudeville presence that wildly-differentiates him and surpasses him, and many characters in the overworld, but are reframed and fueled with alternative [darker and more bawdy] prospectus that almost satirizes it for dual-layered satirization of America that somehow corrects it back to realism-feel beyond the more idealized reality of Springfield – that’s also way funnier. Social pariah and eldest daughter Meg, alcoholic failed-writer and bleeding-heart liberal anthropomorphized dog Brian, and clumsily awkward masturbatory Chris round out the family that’s far more dysfunctional and relatably-flawed than its cousin.

Sex-crazed [gig]golo pilot Quagmire, paraplegic and godly-Warburtonized cop Joe, and goofy velvetized African-American deli owner Cleveland comprise the boys of Peter’s social-circle perfectly-balanced with one-of-a-kind chemistry in the boys is a magnificent experience [tempered with tragic undertones in how they waste away their lives drunken in The Clam] to watch get into all sorts of havoc and trouble. Pedophilic Old Man Herbert [one of the funniest characters in TV history in CLC’s vote], neurotic jewish pharmacist Mort, monotonic Japanese news correspondent Trisha Takenawa, one-word blaccuweather meteorologist Ollie, newsanchor Tom Tucker, capitalistic father-in-law Carter Pewterschmidt, murderous coanchor Diane, convenience store filmbro Carl, sea-chenteying wood-puppet Seamus, no-maid Consuela, and jovial mayor eponymous with its voice-actor Adam West [1960’s Batman] are amongst the phenomenal side-characters in the overworld that hold no punches in savage racial exposition/satire and funnily social-commentate on many of the dark corners and archetypes of real American society. They’re also magnificently voice-acted [+ cameoed] by a cast of A-listers like Mila Kunis, Robert Downey Jr., Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Lauren Conrad, Adam West, Ryan Reynolds, Liam Neeson, and more – of course, led by Seth MacFarlane.

Themes like alcoholism, paralysis, matricide, abortion, pedophilia, bullying, family dysfunction/dynamics, life failures, bad parenting, abuse, giggolos, and every NSFW trope and theme beyond are expositioned and somehow reaped for [crass, savage, R-rated] comedy that exploits our darkest psyche corners to make us laugh at topics political correctness tells us aren’t supposed to be funny – both through its structure, overworld, characters and its greatest achievement: cutaways. A Monty Python for the 21st century and 10x funnier, the brilliance of its structural motif gives it limitless freedom to fit in any funny idea of any kind any time and place it wishes too – most of the time, taking a sniper’s rifle to pop-culture, history, and the world’s biggest celebrities. Have you ever imagined the Cheetos Cheetah snorting coke? Or Alan Rickman’s answering machine? Or swapping vocal chords with Patrick Stewart to narrate your own life? Or a rehab Cookie Monster? Or Mr. Sulu masquerading as heterosexual in Star Trek? Or a cancerous truth to Popeye’s arms? Or a Miley Curtis android? Or an Asian Trix Rabbit exploiting cultural rigidity? Or a late-Michael J. Fox Zoro insignia disaster? Or an Iraq Lobster? Or Darth Vader as a meter-maid? Tyra Banks reveal her true monstrous self on ANTM? Or a fire-breathing Cybil Shepherd? If the answer is yes to any or all of them – Family Guy has them and thousands more for quite arguably the funniest TV show ever made.

Literally almost every celebrity and topic you could imagine is fair-game and lampooned in what has amounted to dozens of lawsuits and complaints of offensive content by conservative TV councils and celebrities by how autocratic and sui juris they are. Family Guy, instead of being a traditional cartoon or TV series by any stretch of the imagination, is more of a rapid-fire AR-15 of sketch comedy in dark, edgy motifs by its cutaways of such prevalence they fill up half the half-hour – ones that pushes the boundaries of its genre and makes each and every episode and line of dialogue a wildly-unpredictable experience that fuels season-renewals and fulfills its driving existential purpose of making you laugh as good or better than any other comedy project, and certainly more so than any other animated one [especially The Simpsons, which is dry, safe, and boring comparatively]. There are even self-referential meta comedy jabs at its own networks like Fox for its mediocre lineup and Disney for its antisemitic roots, competitors, and self – breaking the fourth-wall constantly and more often than the vast majority of shows while satisfying even critics who don’t like the characters or story by its reference portfolio.

That’s not to say the storytelling in Family Guy sucks – the inherent DNA of the show lets it balance conventional character-driven family stories, drama, buddy comedy with the boys, satire, sci-fi adventure stories, and more [oftentimes even featuring meaningful themes of social consciousness for intelligent discussion like vaccines, drug legalization, abuse, vigilantism, etc.], but one of its flaws is that its self-contained arcs being ~always limited to a half-hour robs it of stakes and overarching lore while constituting a weak story-structure that does pale in comparison to The Simpsons and a few other like-brethren its lacks the magic of. This is with exceptions like its phenomenal two-parters, Road To adventures, sci-fi explorations, murder-mysteries, and fan-projects that do show its writing room prowess often subjugated by the shackles of its sitcom structure. Its brutalistic savagery in themes and topics sometimes goes too far into tastelessness to misuse its platform to spread hatred and bully minority groups – like Quagmire’s Dad’s malicious anti-LGBTQ gags to Ida like Brian vomiting for 30 seconds [sic] on the revelation he slept with a trans woman and Peter & Lois laughing at her being called a ‘real woman’, Road To India’s offensive tapeworm imagery [not as destructive and unfunny as Apu, but still], and Turban Cowboy’s stereotypification of the one Muslim guy on the series as – of course – a terrorist.

Stewie’s original evil diabolical/matricidal genius angle didn’t work, Meg gets bullied too much, it masks an inferiority complex by how much it rolls over and eulogizes The Simpsons at its own expense [for some bizarre reason, if they won’t say i, we will: Family Guy is better], and the animation plus gag-quality early-on pales in comparison to The Golden Age S3-8/9 and beyond wherein they retooled and fixed early shortcomings to round out the flaws. Even withstanding these cons, the show is still the best animated comedy and one of the funniest shows on television: a masterclass of satirization that fills up almost every episode, and sometimes trades in the seconds-worth of cutaway references for full-length parody/spoofs on cinematic scale. The Star Wars Saga [expressly-approved by Lucasfilm themselves, being huge fans of the show], Disney Movies, Terminator, Willy Wonka, Rear Window, Pulp Fiction, The American Family, & endless more are put under the microscope and spun for maximum-capitalization of comedy for legendary pieces.

Another hallmark of the series has become Stewie and Brian’s science-fiction adventures – ones that spawned inspiration for many modern series like Rick & Morty and parody the Road To comedy films of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in addition to sci-fi/fantasy films and themes for phenomenal hour-long specials. The chemistry of the two is the best of the series, a vaudeville antagonistic-while-brotherly dualization that wasn’t even imagined by MacFarlane when he created the characters and is thus a testament to the creativity of writers able to find potential and splashy magnetism beneath the exteriors of shows. The musical panache and showmanship of the show deserves special exposition – a canvas of old-fashioned orchestral magnificence so deftly-constructed, a TV show won a Grammy for them. A 50-to-90 piece orchestra is used for every episode of the show by mandate of the purist music-lover Seth MacFarlane, one who rocks a richly-decadent set of pipes to serenade many of the songs himself. Genres and motifs of Acapella, Folk Music, Jazz, Swing, Acoustic, Barbersop Quartets, Ragtime, Soul, Classic Hollywood, and Showtunes class up the show, nostalgically homage the Golden Ages of Hollywood and cartoons, and are extrapolated to savage comedic heights just like the rest of the show from down syndrome, AIDS, 420 marijuana legalization, politics, The Middle East, and more outrageous topics.

…

Conclusion

Overall, Family Guy is The New American TV First-Family. If you’re looking for purely storytelling and chararacterizational prowess [though FG’s is certainly not bad by any stretch, even tackling social-commentary themes with intelligence like antivax and drug legalization, just lacking some magic], there are better options – but we go to comedy to laugh, and we at CLC would argue there might not be a funnier show on television. A masterclass of satirization and perverse, raunchy, X-rated, sick, twisted, and crass humor, Family Guy evolved the medium by its lawsuit-clad savagery in pop-culture references by its brilliant structural motif of cutaways: a modern-day Monty Python of rapid-fire AR-15 sketch comedy on darker and more realism-grounded themes applicable to true American 21st-century life, reframed in a hilarious, airy brushstroke canvas of shenanigans, hijinx, and gags. Peter Griffin is the Homer archetype 10x funnier, and the rest of the overworld of characters are fantastic as the show humorizes everything from pedophilia to race to giggolos to disaibilities and every other NSFW trope/theme imaginable. The DNA of the series’ backbone lends it diversity in being ale to tell conventional family stories, drama, buddy comedy with the boys, sci-fi adventure stories, lampooning spoofs, and much more – all with fantastic voice-acting led by its multi-talented comedic genius Seth MacFarlane and a 50-to-90 piece Grammy-winning orchestra of old-fashioned musical class extrapolated to as wide-spanning messed-up themes as its jokes. Just because something came first doesn’t automatically mean it’s better – not that The Simpsons was even first; The Flintstones did the concept 30 years earlier in animation and dozens of TV series did it in live-action from the ’50’s onward, but whatever the now-overpopulated canvas: other competitors make you chuckle maybbe 1-2x every episode where Family Guy provides a chainsaw all-out assault of comedy whose existential drive is to make you laugh as often and loudly as possible, one in which it succeeds better than any other animated TV series [and perhaps: comedy one]. The Simpsons-remixed and 10x funnier by its pervasive [savagely-bold, NSFW] pop culture reference cutaways and rapid-fire sketch comedy on sick, twisted, hard-R politically-incorrect themes, Family Guy – despite erratic animation early-on and characterization-paradoxes – is an epic masterclass of satire & the best 18+ animated sitcom.

…

The Simpsons-remixed and 10x funnier by its pervasive [savagely-bold, NSFW] pop culture reference cutaways and rapid-fire sketch comedy on sick, twisted, hard-R politically-incorrect themes, FG is epic satire & the best 18+ animated sitcom. 9/10.

…

Plot Synopsis: Sick, twisted and politically incorrect, the animated series features the adventures of the Griffin family. Endearingly ignorant Peter and stay-at-home wife Lois reside in Quahog, R.I., and have three kids. Meg, the eldest child, is a social outcast, and teenage Chris is awkward and clueless when it comes to the opposite sex. The youngest, Stewie, is a genius baby bent on killing his mother and destroying the world. The talking dog, Brian, keeps Stewie in check while sipping martinis & sorting through his own issues.

*Possible spoilers ahead*

CLC’s Official Best #FamilyGuy Episodes: 1. PTV, 2. Road To The Multiverse, 3. And Then There Were Fewer, 4. E. Peterbus Unum, 5. The D In Apartment 23, 6. Stewie Kills Lois, 7. Hell Comes To Quahog, 8. Back To The Pilot, 9. The Simpsons Guy, 10. I Dream Of Jesus, 11. Disney’s The Reboot, 12. Petarded, 13. Three Directors, 14. Patriot Games, 15. Long John Peter, 16. Brothers And Sisters, 17. Episode 420, 18. Tales Of A Third Grade Nothing, 19. A House Full Of Peters, 20. No Meals On Wheels

…

Official CLC Review

On January 31, 1999, the world of comedy TV tilted off its axis. Though the TV American Family had undergone various reincarnations of satirical, analytical, paean, and sitcom origins all the way back from the 1950’s in live-action: I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Good Times, The Brady Bunch, Full House, Modern Family, etc. and ’60’s in animation with The Flintstones, perhaps none was as definitive and pop-culturally relevant as The Simpsons. Nearly ~10 years after the premiere of The Simpsons broke preconceptions and new ground on not-for-kids animation, the concept was remixed and fueled with carnivorous wickedness that further evolved the concept: a family of New Englanders like nothing TV had seen before. Many challengers have come-and-gone for decades in the subgenre The Simpsons and Family Guy proof-of-concepted, but the two 1989 and 1999 legacy survivors reign supreme – a rivalry that has raged for decades, even crossing over with each other and packed with tons of references/jokes in both good and bad nature. Despite popular preference for The Simpsons, we’re here to tell you: Family Guy is the king of TV adult-animation family sitcoms, and we’ll explain why. The Simpsons-remixed and 10x funnier by its pervasive [savagely-bold, NSFW] pop culture reference cutaways and rapid-fire sketch comedy on sick, twisted, hard-R politically-incorrect themes, Family Guy – despite erratic animation early-on and characterization-paradoxes – is an epic masterclass of satire & the best 18+ animated sitcom.

The creator of the series is now one of the biggest names in TV, Comedy, and Hollywood: Seth Macfarlane. Ted, Johnny Bravo, Star Trek, Gilmore Girls, American Dad!, The Orville, A Million Ways To Die In The West, Dexter’s Laboratory, and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey are amongst some of the famous movies and TV series he played a role in by his quintuple-threat talents: actor, producer, director, and musician – but Family Guy is his baby. The booming, classic tinsel-town voiced prodigal son of animation with legacy everlasting in the genre came from humble beginnings at the Rhode Island School of Design and lackey for Hanna-Barbera in which he first got his start in the industry. Since, he has become an Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning, studio-album releasing, TV Hall Of Fame-inductee TV mogul worth $300M+ – and it all stemmed from his [herculean] ability to simply make you laugh, nowhere more seeable than in the twice-cancelled but cult-revitalized and now 369-episode/21+-season Family Guy and its patriarchal bad-dad taking real-world inspiration from his life and growing up experiences: Peter Griffin.

A lovable oaf for the ages, Peter Griffin is one of, if not THE funniest lead character ever made. Childlike energy and mannerisms, pudgy New Englander charm, duncelike incompetence/ignorance, and breathtakingly-funny & wacky hijinx make the ball-faced protagnnost a better-capitalization on the Homer archetype – one taking roots from MacFarlane’s coming-of-age in Rhode Island and rocking TV history without the need for any D’Oh!’s or [Doh]nuts and trascends his tragic backstory deprived of parental love by a hyper-religious Catholic family he rebukes any trace of later on to supply endless laugs. Voiced by Macfarlane amongst the insane roster of antithetical characters he voices on the show to epitomize his talents: Brian, Quagmire, Stewie, Dr. Hartman, Seamus, Carter Pewterschmidt, Tom Tucker, Ida, Kevin Swanson, Jasper, & more, Peter Griffin perfectly-captures the Boystonian fun-loving manchild blue-collar worker it paints – with hilarious weekly hijinx from becoming a pirate ransacking British maritime goods to buying a tank and destroying Superstore USA to meeting Jesus to becoming a pro athlete to fighting man-sized chickens to making his own energy drink to buying a moat to going back to third grade to opening a restaurant to forming his own country.

The indescribable pleasure and presence Petah brings to the show every episode from his idiosyncratic woodpecker-giggle is easily the biggest reason for the show’s success – but he’s just one of many great characters that join his light-hearted antics, with dark underlying motifs and themes behind the laughs. Much of its cast take cues from The Simpsons: Nasily-voiced, sex-weaponizing, inheritance-rejecting housewife Lois is more libidinous and unfulfilled/compensating than Marge she clearly is based on, diabolical and matricidal infant evil genius Stewie feels like an exacerbated Bart at first before getting reframed into a hilarious homosexual-masquerading, vaudeville presence that wildly-differentiates him and surpasses him, and many characters in the overworld, but are reframed and fueled with alternative [darker and more bawdy] prospectus that almost satirizes it for dual-layered satirization of America that somehow corrects it back to realism-feel beyond the more idealized reality of Springfield – that’s also way funnier. Social pariah and eldest daughter Meg, alcoholic failed-writer and bleeding-heart liberal anthropomorphized dog Brian, and clumsily awkward masturbatory Chris round out the family that’s far more dysfunctional and relatably-flawed than its cousin.

Sex-crazed [gig]golo pilot Quagmire, paraplegic and godly-Warburtonized cop Joe, and goofy velvetized African-American deli owner Cleveland comprise the boys of Peter’s social-circle perfectly-balanced with one-of-a-kind chemistry in the boys is a magnificent experience [tempered with tragic undertones in how they waste away their lives drunken in The Clam] to watch get into all sorts of havoc and trouble. Pedophilic Old Man Herbert [one of the funniest characters in TV history in CLC’s vote], neurotic jewish pharmacist Mort, monotonic Japanese news correspondent Trisha Takenawa, one-word blaccuweather meteorologist Ollie, newsanchor Tom Tucker, capitalistic father-in-law Carter Pewterschmidt, murderous coanchor Diane, convenience store filmbro Carl, sea-chenteying wood-puppet Seamus, no-maid Consuela, and jovial mayor eponymous with its voice-actor Adam West [1960’s Batman] are amongst the phenomenal side-characters in the overworld that hold no punches in savage racial exposition/satire and funnily social-commentate on many of the dark corners and archetypes of real American society. They’re also magnificently voice-acted [+ cameoed] by a cast of A-listers like Mila Kunis, Robert Downey Jr., Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Lauren Conrad, Adam West, Ryan Reynolds, Liam Neeson, and more – of course, led by Seth MacFarlane.

Themes like alcoholism, paralysis, matricide, abortion, pedophilia, bullying, family dysfunction/dynamics, life failures, bad parenting, abuse, giggolos, and every NSFW trope and theme beyond are expositioned and somehow reaped for [crass, savage, R-rated] comedy that exploits our darkest psyche corners to make us laugh at topics political correctness tells us aren’t supposed to be funny – both through its structure, overworld, characters and its greatest achievement: cutaways. A Monty Python for the 21st century and 10x funnier, the brilliance of its structural motif gives it limitless freedom to fit in any funny idea of any kind any time and place it wishes too – most of the time, taking a sniper’s rifle to pop-culture, history, and the world’s biggest celebrities. Have you ever imagined the Cheetos Cheetah snorting coke? Or Alan Rickman’s answering machine? Or swapping vocal chords with Patrick Stewart to narrate your own life? Or a rehab Cookie Monster? Or Mr. Sulu masquerading as heterosexual in Star Trek? Or a cancerous truth to Popeye’s arms? Or a Miley Curtis android? Or an Asian Trix Rabbit exploiting cultural rigidity? Or a late-Michael J. Fox Zoro insignia disaster? Or an Iraq Lobster? Tyra Banks reveal her true monstrous self on ANTM? Or a fire-breathing Cybil Shepherd? If the answer is yes to any or all of them – Family Guy has them and thousands more for quite arguably the funniest TV show ever made.

Literally almost every celebrity and topic you could imagine is fair-game and lampooned in what has amounted to dozens of lawsuits and complaints of offensive content by conservative TV councils and celebrities by how autocratic and sui juris they are. Family Guy, instead of being a traditional cartoon or TV series by any stretch of the imagination, is more of a rapid-fire AR-15 of sketch comedy in dark, edgy motifs by its cutaways of such prevalence they fill up half the half-hour – ones that pushes the boundaries of its genre and makes each and every episode and line of dialogue a wildly-unpredictable experience that fuels season-renewals and fulfills its driving existential purpose of making you laugh as good or better than any other comedy project, and certainly more so than any other animated one [especially The Simpsons, which is dry, safe, and boring comparatively]. There are even self-referential meta comedy jabs at its own networks like Fox for its mediocre lineup and Disney for its antisemitic roots, competitors, and self – breaking the fourth-wall constantly and more often than the vast majority of shows while satisfying even critics who don’t like the characters or story by its reference portfolio.

That’s not to say the storytelling in Family Guy sucks – the inherent DNA of the show lets it balance conventional character-driven family stories, drama, buddy comedy with the boys, satire, and sci-fi adventure stories, and more that oftentimes even feature meaningful themes of social consciousness for intelligent discussion like vaccines, drug legalization, rape/abuse, vigilantism, and more. but one of its flaws is that its self-contained arcs being ~always limited to a half-hour constitutes a weak story-structure that does pale in comparison to The Simpsons and a few other like-brethren its lacks the magic of, with exceptions like its phenomenal two-parters, Road To adventures, sci-fi explorations, murder-mysteries, and fan-projects that do show its writing room prowess often subjugated by the shackles of its sitcom structure. Its brutalistic savagery in themes and topics sometimes goes too far into tastelessness to misuse its platform to spread hatred and bully minority groups – like Quagmire’s Dad’s malicious anti-LGBTQ gags to Ida like Brian vomiting for 30 seconds [sic] on the revelation he slept with a trans woman and Peter & Lois laughing at her being called a ‘real woman’, Road To India’s offensive tapeworm imagery [not as destructive and unfunny as Apu, but still], and Turban Cowboy’s stereotypification of the one Muslim guy on the series as – of course – a terrorist.

Stewie’s original evil diabolical/matricidal genius angle didn’t work, Meg gets bullied too much, it masks an inferiority complex by how much it rolls over and eulogizes The Simpsons at its own expense [for some bizarre reason, if they won’t say i, we will: Family Guy is better], and the animation plus gag-quality early-on pales in comparison to The Golden Age S3-8/9 and beyond wherein they retooled and fixed early shortcomings to round out the flaws. Even withstanding these cons, the show is still the best animated comedy and one of the funniest shows on television: a masterclass of satirization that fills up almost every episode, and sometimes trades in the seconds-worth of cutaway references for full-length parody/spoofs on cinematic scale. The Star Wars Saga [expressly-approved by Lucasfilm themselves, being huge fans of the show], Disney Movies, Terminator, Willy Wonka, Rear Window, Pulp Fiction, The American Family, & endless more are put under the microscope and spun for maximum-capitalization of comedy for legendary pieces.

Another hallmark of the series has become Stewie and Brian’s science-fiction adventures – ones that spawned inspiration for many modern series like Rick & Morty and parody the Road To comedy films of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in addition to sci-fi/fantasy films and themes for phenomenal hour-long specials. The chemistry of the two is the best of the series, a vaudeville antagonistic-while-brotherly dualization that wasn’t even imagined by MacFarlane when he created the characters and is thus a testament to the creativity of writers able to find potential and splashy magnetism beneath the exteriors of shows. The musical panache and showmanship of the show deserves special exposition – a canvas of old-fashioned orchestral magnificence so deftly-constructed, a TV show won a Grammy for them. A 50-to-90 piece orchestra is used for every episode of the show by mandate of the purist music-lover Seth MacFarlane, one who rocks a richly-decadent set of pipes to serenade many of the songs himself. Genres and motifs of Acapella, Folk Music, Jazz, Swing, Acoustic, Barbersop Quartets, Ragtime, Soul, Classic Hollywood, and Showtunes class up the show and are extrapolated to comedic heights from down syndrome, AIDS, 420 marijuana legalization, politics, The Middle East, and more in whhat is one of thhe most impressive soundtracks on TV.

…

Conclusion

Overall, Family Guy is The New American TV First-Family. If you’re looking for purely storytelling and chararacterizational prowess [though FG’s is certainly not bad by any stretch, even tackling social-commentary themes with intelligence like antivax and drug legalization, just lacking some magic], there are better options – but we go to comedy to laugh, and we at CLC would argue there might not be a funnier show on television. A masterclass of satirization and perverse, raunchy, X-rated, sick, twisted, and crass humor, Family Guy evolved the medium by its lawsuit-clad savagery in pop-culture references by its brilliant structural motif of cutaways: a modern-day Monty Python of rapid-fire AR-15 sketch comedy on darker and more realism-grounded themes applicable to true American 21st-century life, reframed in a hilarious, airy brushstroke canvas of shenanigans, hijinx, and gags. Peter Griffin is the Homer archetype 10x funnier, and the rest of the overworld of characters are fantastic as the show humorizes everything from pedophilia to race to giggolos to disaibilities and every other NSFW trope/theme imaginable. The DNA of the series’ backbone lends it diversity in being ale to tell conventional family stories, drama, buddy comedy with the boys, sci-fi adventure stories, lampooning spoofs, and much more – all with fantastic voice-acting led by its multi-talented comedic genius Seth MacFarlane and a 50-to-90 piece Grammy-winning orchestra of old-fashioned musical class extrapolated to as wide-spanning messed-up themes as its jokes. Just because something came first doesn’t automatically mean it’s better – not that The Simpsons was even first; The Flintstones did the concept 30 years earlier in animation and dozens of TV series did it in live-action from the ’50’s onward, but whatever the now-overpopulated canvas: other competitors make you chuckle maybbe 1-2x every episode where Family Guy provides a chainsaw all-out assault of comedy whose existential drive is to make you laugh as often and loudly as possible, one in which it succeeds better than any other animated TV series [and perhaps: comedy one]. The Simpsons-remixed and 10x funnier by its pervasive [savagely-bold, NSFW] pop culture reference cutaways and rapid-fire sketch comedy on sick, twisted, hard-R politically-incorrect themes, Family Guy – despite erratic animation early-on and characterization-paradoxes – is an epic masterclass of satire & the best 18+ animated sitcom.

…