Jolt Country

I just downloaded every episode of this show. I'm still not sure why. Married With Children ran for 11 seasons. There are 262 episodes.

I am a digital hoarder. Help me.

That's one of those shows, much like The Simpsons, and many others, that started weak, then peaked 1/3 of the way into its run, and then trailed off at the end.

That 1/3, though. Funny stuff.

As an aside, can you believe the Simpson family was on FOX the first day that Fox went on the air, and they're still on there? Man.

Yeah. I remember when Simpsons DVD box sets first starting getting released. I think I bought the first four and gave up after that.

For a long time I was pro-Simpsons and anti-Family Guy. I've swapped back and forth a couple of times. Now it just kind of depends on the mood I'm in. Same with Futurama.

Since I'm just tossing random shit out there, I should also mention that I also downloaded every episode of Quantum Leap. I know the concept of the show and I vaguely remember watching it as a kid but I couldn't tell you the plot of a single episode. Looking forward to working through those in my spare time.

I also downloaded the entire run of "My Mother, the Car" just to see if they really made a TV show where a guy's mother was reincarnated as a car. They did.

How can you switch BACK to the Simpsons after rightfully becoming a Family Guy guy? There's virtually no comparison at this point.

(The last few Family Guy episodes, though, have been pretty sub-par, and this is the first time in the show's history I've felt like that. Hopefully they stop making them before they get Simpsons-lame. (They probably won't.))

I really only watch The Simpsons when my kids are around and I don't feel like explaining adult Family Guy jokes to them.

One I feel like I should watch more and don't is South Park. I was REALLY a South Park guy the first two or three seasons and just kind of got burned out and never got back into it. I watch random episodes here and there but ... either it changed, or I did.

Seth Mcfarlan should just go ahead and get out of the closet and admit he's gay so he can quit hinting with all the damn showtune musical numbers. More farts and less singing would be great.

CO wrote:More singing and less farts would be great.

Sure!

Flack wrote:I really only watch The Simpsons when my kids are around and I don't feel like explaining adult Family Guy jokes to them.

Family Guy was nominated for a "teen choice award" on Nickelodeon. Whether the innuendo, off color remarks, and musical parodies were popular with the "tween" demographic, is still unclear.

Flack wrote:One I feel like I should watch more and don't is South Park. I was REALLY a South Park guy the first two or three seasons and just kind of got burned out and never got back into it. I watch random episodes here and there but ... either it changed, or I did.

For the first three or four seasons, there wasn't a single show or commenter that was a more poignant source on politics and the current social climate of the US: I lamented to a Kiwi friend that South Park was the only honest and relevant voice America had.

RetroRomper wrote:

Flack wrote:I really only watch The Simpsons when my kids are around and I don't feel like explaining adult Family Guy jokes to them.

Family Guy was nominated for a "teen choice award" on Nickelodeon. Whether the innuendo, off color remarks, and musical parodies were popular with the "tween" demographic, is still unclear.

May be. I flipped it on the other day and within the first minute there was a sex joke followed by a rape joke. While it may be popular in the 6 and 10 year old demographics as well, it's not in their father's (at least while all three are in the same room).

I still keep up with South Park. I find it to be more "clever" than funny. I don't LOL, but I will occasionally smile knowingly.

And some of the Family Guy musical numbers are the most brilliant things ever broadcast, so CO, u r dumb.

pinback wrote:And some of the Family Guy musical numbers are the most brilliant things ever broadcast, so CO, u r dumb.

Ok, the "you've got aids" one was funny as hell and a few others were ok. All's I'm saying is I could do with a little less of teh gay showtunes.

In my opinion the most recent Christmas special was one of the funniest things I've seen in my life. The entire thing was roll on the floor funny from the trip to the north pole to the demented santa workshop but the best part was stewie saying "this is not christmas anymore, it's a home invasion".

Guess you wouldn't be a fan of "Road to Rhode Island" ? When Seth delved into his musical tastes and presented them in a very structured, homage tinged in parody way, they felt more honest and concrete than the random sex jokes that are interlaced throughout the series (and mainly used for effect). The entire type of humor that Seth employs, is that sort of "gag a minute" reel that is meant to elicit a laugh in response, then be forgotten twenty seconds later.

The musical episodes suggest a longevity to the jokes: not only is he referencing a pedigree of show tunes, but they build upon themselves in the cartoon and in an obtuse, contrived way, have an order and punch line that actually has reason and artful flavor as opposed to once again, random rape jokes and vaguely defined shock humor that isn't shocking anymore. Which is perhaps how South Park commented on the absurdity of a recent event: they didn't illustrate an example (George W. Bush hiding in a tree house in Family Guy) but instead attacked the underlying issue of the problem (the episode where the children confront an insane Mel Gibson for their money back after seeing "Passion of the Christ," they removed the issue as it stood and instead pointed to how absurd the entire argument was).

In either event, the idea builds and references itself while taking into account outside sources, creating either a full homage (as in Road to Rhode Island) or deeper exploration of an issue (as South Park did numerous times).

Summary: Preferred the musical episodes of Family Guy to the three every other beat, fart and sex gags.

PS CO, u r dumb

You make a good point, Retro. I'll try not to use it as the tip of the Internet stiletto I'm going to then use to destroy you with.

No, just kidding, but I am on CO's side. I get that a lot of people who got into acting did musicals in high school, college, or whatever classes they took when they dropped out of college. I get it.

But it's as dumb as Stephen King making all his protagonists authors, or a text game author making his protagonists computer programmers (which I have, sadly, done, cha cha cha).

Also, holy fuck, we're all having a CONVERSATION again! It feels nice. It's been a few years.

This is nice, isn't it fellas? PS I wrote "cha cha cha" at the end of my last post so it would be In The Style Of... a show tune, the very medium I was showing disdain for.

It's like playing chess with the pieces made out of onions. Layers and layers at work here, lurkers!

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:No, just kidding, but I am on CO's side. I get that a lot of people who got into acting did musicals in high school, college, or whatever classes they took when they dropped out of college. I get it.

The fact he made musicals the subject of his homage was unimportant: Seth followed through with the idea and interwove them into a coherent statement, a development of a thought in the episodes he dedicated to them. That is, he built on the history of that medium (musicals) by including them in a different medium, as opposed to a bunch of fart and fuck jokes that don't ask the viewer anything except for five seconds of attention.

And as an aside, it is always a pleasure to see someone delve into a topic they are fascinated and have dedicated their time to, then cross it with the one they have developed a career around. Not only is the subject matter explored thoroughly, but it also required quite a bit of time, thought, and planning to execute correctly. Seth approached a problem, correlated it with a topic he knows well, and the result is an extension of the two original modes he was interested in.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:But it's as dumb as Stephen King making all his protagonists authors, or a text game author making his protagonists computer programmers (which I have, sadly, done, cha cha cha).

When were trying to understand the motivations of a character, it is natural for us to reflect upon ourselves. Seriously, who have we spent more time contemplating? Viewing alternate circumstances for?

Arguably, you could say its egocentric: not being able to explore the mind of another is a sign of lack of understanding, empathy, and banality (arguably). But besides arguments that were playing out our fantasies when writing a story, it makes sense that we place a character into a role or position were intrinsically familiar with.

RetroRomper wrote:That is, he built on the history of that medium (musicals) by including them in a different medium, as opposed to a bunch of fart and fuck jokes that don't ask the viewer anything except for five seconds of attention.

The true genius is that there are fart and fuck jokes IN THE MUSICALS!

The other thing that Family Guy does the very very very best is the comedic concept of doing something funny, then repeating it until it stops being funny, then continuing to repeat it until it becomes funny once again!

The seminal example, of course, being...

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BONUS: looolololl;olool

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I think the real crime here is that no one is talking about My Mother, The Car.

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I don't get it. His mother's a... a car?

Could you say that throughout the series, he is constantly riding his mother?

RetroRomper wrote:Could you say that throughout the series, he is constantly riding his mother?

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