I am finally over 'The Simpsons'

[Old Gregg]

The Simpsons has annoyed me for ages now, it's just old, rehashed and not funny.

Family Guy is brilliant, but having seen each episode at least 4 times I'm starting to get bored of it now. American Dad I didn't really like at first but it's ok I suppose. It does sometimes raise a smile but never a proper laugh.

And thank god it isn't just me that can't see the point of The Cleveland Show - friends of mine think it's actually good, but I find it extremely boring and completely lacking in humour.



Futurama is the one that I've only seen a few episodes of. How many series of that have been made?

[Negative Creep]

The Simpsons jumped the shark at the end of the Skinner imposter episode, where they agreed they would pretend nothing ever happened. Season 1 the show was still finding its feet but it really took off after that. 2 and 3 have the most "human" elements to them, being not only funny but incredibly endearing. Through seasons 4-7 it became even funnier without losing its core appeal. Episodes such as Last Train to Springfield, Deep Space Homer and Marge vs the Monorail aren't just some of the best Simpsons episodes ever, they're some of the best tv ever. Season 8 was still great yet there were a few average episodes creeping in, something even more noticeable by the time of the Skinner episode in the next season. From then on it's been a steady decline until you got to plots so utterly stupid South Park would reject them (jockeys that live in magical trees anyone?) and 20 minutes that barely raises a smile. I have a few theories on this:


- It's become a cartoon. Before you scratch your heads, I mean that they've abandoned the human factor and gone for surrealism
- The CGI lacks the charm of the hand drawings
- Losing Phil Hartman (although that's obviously not their fault)
- Having to make all episodes the same length, thus cutting a lot of the jokes
- Relying on characters who have one joke that isn't funny, such as Ol' Gill or Crazy Texan
- Homer turning from being stupid, yet eager and loyal to nasty. An example was an episode where Flanders says "looks like you're missing [something small]" to which Homer replied "looks like you're missing a wife." That is not funny.
- Due to the length of time the show has been on they have to keep continuously rewriting the characters' pasts
- Becoming overtly left wing. In the golden years they attacked both sides with the same vigour but now the bias is obvious

[Morningside]

Negative Creep said:

- It's become a cartoon. Before you scratch your heads, I mean that they've abandoned the human factor and gone for surrealism
- The CGI lacks the charm of the hand drawings

Yes, I agree with the cartoon bit. At one time they were a normal family made into a cartoon and only used effects/surrealism during the Treehouse of horror episodes.

CGI is another thing. I look on it a a flat 3D world if that makes any sense (Just think of the fast moving camera angles).

[RV8]

Morningside said:

Negative Creep said:

- It's become a cartoon. Before you scratch your heads, I mean that they've abandoned the human factor and gone for surrealism
- The CGI lacks the charm of the hand drawings

Yes, I agree with the cartoon bit. At one time they were a normal family made into a cartoon and only used effects/surrealism during the Treehouse of horror episodes.

CGI is another thing. I look on it a a flat 3D world if that makes any sense (Just think of the fast moving camera angles).

The CGI works well in Futurama, it give the planet express ship and many other elements a much more polished and dynamic look, some of the animation of vehicles etc in early Simpsons episodes looked really clunky.

I don't have a problem with the use of surrealism, Family guy and American dad have talking animals and daft plots, sometimes it's used to good effect other times it's like seeing something that would have been left on the cutting room floor from a monty python sketch. There are recurring jokes in family guy which were possibly mildly amusing the first time around, (holding knee and going Aggghh for ten minutes) now they are annoying enough for me to mute the sound, that bird song makes me want to kill.
In family guy I honestly cannot stand the musical episodes, in most cartoons nothing has come close to Mr Burns "see my vest" When the simpsons do offensive or surreal comedy they do a much better job, mainly because you are also not expecting it. I do think there are some clever jokes chucked into Family guy sketches, I like non obvious offensive comedy, unfortunately quite a lot of it is predictable, saying that a few minutes on sickapedia throws up more laughs than most episodes of Family Guy or most other cartoons.

I feel the family guy concept was to take the Simpsons and effectively parody it but add surreal and non political correctness in the dialogue and visuals, and like the Simpsons, no swearing. IMO the characters in both family guy and american dad are not as well developed as they are in the simpsons and are very shallow. Meg and Chris for example are only around to provide limited comic relief, I don't think they have personality outside this. There are other characters which are very similar to the sort of stuff seen in Little Britain, catchphrases and silly voices, in-fact it seems they made the Cleveland show just for these reasons. The simpsons have their fare share of these types of characters but the majority of them are more likable.

I can see that the Simpsons has a Christian undertone, I'm not really fond of religious based humor unless it's poking fun at it however most American comedies focus on Jewish comedy so imo it's a welcome break - Basically I won't laugh about jokes regarding the Hanukkah or bar mitzvahs because they just aint funny, to me, or I bet most people outside of a jewish community. Some films and comedy series actually just state a character is jewish and this in itself is supposed to be part of the joke, like they expect the audience to suddenly go "yhea, I can relate to that guy" I put this type of comedy it in the same league as racial comedy where comedian points out "Have you ever noticed that X people are all like ---- and then us X guys are all like, -----" inevitably the crowd roll about laughing as obvious difference is pointed out to them.

Edited by RV8 on Thursday 31st March 11:41

[smith_oli]

Negative Creep said:

- It's become a cartoon. Before you scratch your heads, I mean that they've abandoned the human factor and gone for surrealism
- The CGI lacks the charm of the hand drawings
- Losing Phil Hartman (although that's obviously not their fault)
- Having to make all episodes the same length, thus cutting a lot of the jokes
- Relying on characters who have one joke that isn't funny, such as Ol' Gill or Crazy Texan
- Homer turning from being stupid, yet eager and loyal to nasty. An example was an episode where Flanders says "looks like you're missing [something small]" to which Homer replied "looks like you're missing a wife." That is not funny.
- Due to the length of time the show has been on they have to keep continuously rewriting the characters' pasts
- Becoming overtly left wing. In the golden years they attacked both sides with the same vigour but now the bias is obvious

Part of the issue is that advert breaks have increased noticeably during the time that The Simpsons has been on air; if I remember correctly they have lost something like 2-3 minutes of story telling. That doesn't sound like a lot but it has a big impact on the 'B' story, that runs along side the primary narrative. I think the inability to flesh out a secondary narrative properly, through time constraints, has really impacted the quality of the 'A' story.

Also, I think the writing staff was strongest through seasons 3-8, as someone said earlier, the Conan O Brian produced shows were really strong. Conan producing with John Swarzwelder as the writer produced some of the best moments in the series.

[youngsyr]

RV8 said:

...

I feel the family guy concept was to take the Simpsons and effectively parody it but add surreal and non political correctness in the dialogue and visuals, and like the Simpsons, no swearing...

Have you ever watched Family Guy?

On the TV they bleep it out, but they don't on the DVD set!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv-GhnYNvXE

[Turbodiesel1690]

Agree that the Simpsons magic is starting to wear off a bit but it will always be the original and best. Family Guy and American Dad are great, my current fave though is South Park - Cartman in particular, his character is just absolutely brilliant

[RV8]

youngsyr said:

RV8 said:

...

I feel the family guy concept was to take the Simpsons and effectively parody it but add surreal and non political correctness in the dialogue and visuals, and like the Simpsons, no swearing...

Have you ever watched Family Guy?

On the TV they bleep it out, but they don't on the DVD set!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv-GhnYNvXE

Yep, my wife watches Family Guy on the TV every evening, I figured the beep was intensional rather than dubbed, being as it's shown past the time most films are uncensored. It's unlikely I'll be buying the DVDs to find out otherwise. Still, swearing in comedy can sometimes sound like a last ditch attempt to raise some laughs from a fairly humorless joke.

[ZZGB]

Series analysis for both The Simpson & Family Guy ; early ones are unwatchable/crap, then gets better in middle, then they try too hard as they become popular and ruin it/not funny. IMO.

[militantmandy]

Simpsons has it's moments but not so many these days. Last couple of seasons of american das have been hilarious. Some good family guys too. If you're looking for more cartoons try Archer and The Venture Bros. "st season of VB is funny but it gets much better after that. Archer is hysterical though.

[vixen1700]

Turbodiesel1690 said:

Cartman in particular, his character is just absolutely brilliant

Yep, Cartman is one hell of a despicable character.

Does anybody know is the latest series of South Park is going to air on Comedy Central in April, or is that just a release date in the States?

[FellowPazzini]

Simpons - Will love it forever no matter how crap it gets
South Park - Is just hilarious
Futurama - Not too keen at first but it can get really funny, even has the kids laughing thier heads off
Family Guy - Same as above (despite having that adult humour awkwardness while watching it with your kids lol)
American Dad - Crap, annoyingly crap

[james_tigerwoods]

I've got Seasons 20 and 21 and I just can't watch them, they're not funny, not good and just painful watching - The early stuff was good, but it seems to have run out of energy and humour.

Not unlike Futurama really.

Family Guy and The Cleveland are, in my opinion, just not funny (but I appear to be in the minority)...

[militantmandy]

james_tigerwoods said:

I've got Seasons 20 and 21 and I just can't watch them, they're not funny, not good and just painful watching - The early stuff was good, but it seems to have run out of energy and humour.

Not unlike Futurama really.

Family Guy and The Cleveland are, in my opinion, just not funny (but I appear to be in the minority)...

Family Guy can be brilliant bu the cleavland show is just terrible.

[james_tigerwoods]

militantmandy said:

james_tigerwoods said:

I've got Seasons 20 and 21 and I just can't watch them, they're not funny, not good and just painful watching - The early stuff was good, but it seems to have run out of energy and humour.

Not unlike Futurama really.

Family Guy and The Cleveland are, in my opinion, just not funny (but I appear to be in the minority)...

Family Guy can be brilliant bu the cleavland show is just terrible.

Fair point - I've seen a few good Family Guys, but the Cleveland show is a world of st...

[Heskey]

Morningside said:

Am I the only one that thinks this?

I'm 22 now, I stopped finding it funny when I was still in Highschool, 'cause I'm well mature like that.

[Morningside]

RV8 said:

...
I feel the family guy concept was to take the Simpsons and effectively parody it but add surreal and non political correctness in the dialogue and visuals, and like the Simpsons, no swearing...

No Swearing. Are you sure about that? NSFW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkMfOjf5w88

Heskey said:

Morningside said:

Am I the only one that thinks this?

I'm 22 now, I stopped finding it funny when I was still in Highschool, 'cause I'm well mature like that.

Twenty two! I thought you were older than that.

[RV8]

Morningside said:

RV8 said:

...
I feel the family guy concept was to take the Simpsons and effectively parody it but add surreal and non political correctness in the dialogue and visuals, and like the Simpsons, no swearing...

No Swearing. Are you sure about that? NSFW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkMfOjf5w88

Heskey said:

Morningside said:

Am I the only one that thinks this?

I'm 22 now, I stopped finding it funny when I was still in Highschool, 'cause I'm well mature like that.

Twenty two! I thought you were older than that.

You have to love PH pedantry, yep you found a video, which appears to be filmed from someone's tv screen no less.

FFS you know what I mean.

It's hardly Monkey Dust:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLvDKI1T14Q

DEFINITELY NSW

[dudleybloke]

archer is brilliant.

[Pesty]

dudleybloke said:

archer is brilliant.

yes its is

when is season 2 coming on?

don;t tell me Ive missed it or I will kill you