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!"
Does anyone remember the episode where Peter got injected with the gay gene that changed him into a gay guy, then Lois tried to make him straight again, but eventually gave this speech about how Peter is gay and nobody can change that? Then the serum wore off. So he became straight again. Seth McFarlane forgot his own point he was trying to make.
ReplyFamily Guy is supposed to have a point?
That Setch MacFarlane brainstorming session explains the awful religious jokes on Family Guy.
ReplyOh goddamn it! I just watched an entire f*****g advertisement for south park makes fun of family guy only to find that metacafe has removed the damn video.
ReplyFUUUUUUUUUUUUU
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.
Thumbed up South for speaking truth. Look at the thumbdowns from "city folk"m lol.
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?
ReplyBecause fire isn't good enough a punishment.
One 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
ReplyWrong.
American Dad > Family Guy > New Simpsons > Cleveland Show > Classic Simpsons
I don't know why,but I just don't think that most old Simpsons episodes are all that funny.
No, 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.
ReplyActually,the more recent episodes of FG have a real plot and rely less on cutaways.The newest episode,where Stewie and Brian time travel back to the first episode,is extremely funny and even makes fun of how relient the old ones were on cutaways.
The ep is called Back to the Pilot,if you want to check it out.
Whatever. 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:)
Reply Hide All See All 4 RepliesTHANK 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.
CAPS LOCK IS AWESOME!!!
Watch a newer episode,there's less cutaways and an actual plot.