Family Guy
Family Guy is the brainchild of Seth MacFarlane, who also created American Dad, and The Cleveland Show. MacFarlane is the CEO, president, and only employee of Fuzzy Door Productions. We imagine company meetings go something like this...
Just The Facts
- Seth MacFarlane really does talk to himself in the third person.
- He uses trucker slang when he does this.
- Seth MacFarlane writes, directs, produces, and does at least one voice on each of the above shows.
Plagiarismo di Plagiarismo
Cracked is certainly not the first to look at these shows and say "Hey, this looks familiar.."
Not even close. There are blogs dedicated to it. Even before American Dad and The Cleveland Show were created, Seth MacFarlane was (and continues to be) under fire for plagiarising The Simpsons.
He was also accused of stealing the character of Stewie Griffin from Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid in the World. Jimmy is a super-genius baby who hates his mother and builds crazy machines. He even looks exactly like Stewie.
South Park also called out Family Guy for its lack of originality.
South Park Making Fun of Family Guy - The funniest bloopers are right here
And that's just a taste. There was a whole episode about it. No wait, two episodes. The massive two-parter episode was about showing the image of Muhammad on TV and also about how Family Guy sucks. Guess which issue got the most people upset?
And While We're on the Subject
Either unable to resist the irony or unable to read, the good folks at Screenjunkies.com went ahead and plagiarized the main joke from this article about plagiarism.
In case you're wondering, yes that's the whole article. Stolen image, three sentences emphasizing that Seth MacFarlane is rich. We'd accuse Screen Junkies Managing Editor Col. Hans Longshanks of not giving a shit about his job if he hadn't randomly shouted WOULDN'T at us there in the second sentence.
Popularity di Popularity
If Mr. MacFarlane keeps giving us the same thing over and over, it's only because we keep eating it up. Family Guy has become one of the most popular shows on television despite the fact that it started with numerous cancellations, time slot changes, and stiff competition.
Hell, the show was cancelled TWICE and it kept coming back because the masses demanded it. People signed petitions on the internet, wrote letters to Fox, and bought the DVDs like hotcakes. That's the kind of popularity that will get you not just one - but three TV shows of your own creation.
American Dad and The Cleveland Show get good ratings too, but Family Guy is still the flagship. Seth MacFarlane controls 3/4 of Fox's Sunday evening programming and has syndicated reruns going on TBS and Cartoon Network. When it comes to the youth demographic, Fuzzy Door holds the market by the Fuzzy Balls.
To take a successful show and re-make it three different ways is either a reflection on the unoriginality of the creator, or the gullibility of the public - or both. What would Seth have to say, if you accused him of plagiarism to his face? Probably...
"Thanks for all the money, bitches!"
This is all completely true, but I still like American dad and Family Guy. The Cleveland show, however, isn't that great. To me at least.
ReplySomebody give Firesign Theatre their own TV show. They never plagiarized anybody.
ReplyIf anyone has watched any of season 8/9 Family Guy, you'll notice they have started lifting jokes, word for word, from south park episodes. Its awful. The example that springs to mind is Adams West's Aids/Aides pun. Its laaaame.
ReplySorry, but you can't claim an AIDS/aides joke as original. That was old and hackneyed back when the disease was first discovered.
At least they didn't stretch into a full episode...
Oh come on, Family Guy a plagirism of the Simpsons?.
ReplyThe idea of a dumb dad doing dumb things comes from the rednecks.
Its funny, because where I'm from, being a redneck is something to aspire to, and we are probably nicer and smarter than a great deal of city folk.
HA HA! it's amazing how many people try to preach on this shit.the Simpsons back in the early 90's - CLASSIC!
ReplyWow. WTF is Screenjunkies and why haven't you killed it with fire?
ReplyOne joke I noticed that the Simpsons had first was the "Run like the wind...I've only seen it in books" joke. I saw it on Family Guy recently. Then again, can you really blame Family Guy for making some of the same jokes as The Simpsons? I think we all know about the whole "Simpsons already did it" thing..
ReplyI know about the simpsons thing because of South Park.
Yes I don't watch the Simpsons, the yellow cartoons scare me.
Has anyone mentioned "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home" yet?
ReplyBut they are still hilarious and fun to watch anyway
ReplyOk, this article was less about family guy, and more of a Seth McFarlane rant...
ReplyAmerican Dad is MUCH better than Family Guy or the Cleveland show.
ReplyLoved Family Guy at first. Gets old quick. South Park and Simpsons are the shit.
ReplyClassic Simpsons > American Dad > Family Guy > New Simpsons > Prison Rape > Cleveland Show
ReplyNo, American Dad is TOTALLY different from Family Guy. American Dad has a plot and at least a few of the jokes are derived from the plot. Actually, AD is FG with a plot, so... yeah. I totally agree with this page.
ReplyWhatever. I like Family Guy. I can't watch it near the family cuz it's so bad at times. Like "wow O_O" but it's funny and I like how it makes fun of pop culture.
ReplyAs does The Simpsons.
He actually shouts WOULDN'T at you in the first sentence, not the second.
ReplyEVERYONE TALKING ABOUT FAMILY GUY ADDING IN IRRELEVANT JOKES IN RANDOM PLACES SHOULD PROBABLY NOTE THAT THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT AND THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT FUNNY (For some people at least, not everyone's going to think the same things are funny)I just think that if you don't like the show, just don't watch it or judge the people that do. It's great that you have an opinion and want to share it but don't bring it to the point where you offend the people that enjoy family guy, or american dad, or any show for that matter. This is a really funny article though, and I have though about this point before. But OH WELL:)
ReplyTHANK YOU!
Really? Do you still find the "HOLY CRAP LOIS THIS REMINDS ME OF THE TIME A RANDOM THING HAPPENED" bits funny, after about six per episode for 10 years? Holy fuck.
Family Guy is funny, so I watch it. American Dad is funny, so I watch it. The Cleveland show sucks.
ReplyHowever, if it was a choice between FG, The Simpsons and South Park, I'd go South Park every time. And the Cleveland Show sucks.
Did I mention how much the Cleveland Show sucks?
I agree with this statement.
He's also plagiarized a bit from Kevin Smith's 'Clerks 2' in the American Dad episode "Chimdale", where Stan Smith confuses Helen Keller and Anne Frank. I'm not even exaggerating when I say it was almost the dialog.
ReplyMaybe that was the joke?
Family Guy is Seth McFarlane's excuse to self-insert (Brian = Seth) so he can preach and b***h and sermonize and let everyone know how much 'white guilt' he has. Which is a significant part of why it's terrible.
ReplyI don't like to do this, but I'm going to shout now: THANK YOU
I agree to an extent, but he also spends time pointing out all the flaws in Brian, some of which are pretty damning and embarrassing. Of course we don't know if these flaws are just for fictional Brian, or if their actually Seth's, but I would like to think they're really his personality flaws and he makes fun of them to even everything out.
I've spent far, far too much time watching this show.