I once had a discussion with Karun about whether Simpsons was better than South Park. The fact of the matter is, it depends on what you're looking for. South Park tends to be more socially relevant and "offensive", Simpsons is more toned down but has more intellectual references. The socially relevant aspect of SP makes a number of the shows rather dated, whereas the Simpsons is able to be more timeless.
Anyway, I can't do analysis very well, but people have different senses of humor, and there are shows that cater to each of these different senses. I don't know if any of these shows are "better" than the others, and in fact I don't think the question makes any sense without a criterion: better at what?
Of course you're right, and I think that's what the first friend and I were kind of getting at. The Family Guy can be fun to watch, it might make you laugh more than the Simpsons, but I tend to completely forget it after I watch it. Which isn't really fair to say, most TV is utterly forgettable, but they both have different things they do, so evaluating them as if they do the same thing is a little strange
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I take comedy fairly seriously myself. There are things that simply aren't funny, and I think people are morons for laughing. Fart jokes = stupid, for instance. People that make photo albums and put little bubble stickers next to the people in the photograph as if the person is saying them - not funny. It's sad, and pathetic, and lame, and anyone who thinks it's funny is a moron. Photoshopping one person's head onto another's body is, by and large, completely unfunny, and the people that like it are stupid
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Why is photoshopping someone's head on to someone's body not funny? I mean, at some point it was funny, like when the first person did it. Granted now its older than dirt, but still, at some point it was probably hilarious.
True enough, there are obviously temporal elements involved. Whether the photoshop thing used to be actually funny, I'm not sure, but certainly some things were funny at some point and have since ceased to be (or are funny in a different way).
I've had this discussion with people before, and I still contend that the Simpsons is better than Family Guy. Firstly, Family guy hasn't produced the volume that the Simpsons have. Comparing a 2 season show to an 11 season show is just plain unfair. Not everything can be the finest 30 minutes of TV ever produced.
Secondly, I feel that Family Guy relies (at times too much) on pure pop culture reference and shock. This is not to say that it doesn't make it funny, because that stuff is, but thats the easy joke.
In summary where Family Guy has Kool-Aid man busting through a wall shouting "Oh-Yeah!" The Simpsons has Homer saying to the cops "I spent my evening at the Gentlemen's club, where we were discussing Wittgenstein". I find both equally hilarious, but one I value more for its creativity and wit, the other for its hilarious ability to harness something ridiculous from my Childhood that I had all but forgotten about.
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Anyway, I can't do analysis very well, but people have different senses of humor, and there are shows that cater to each of these different senses. I don't know if any of these shows are "better" than the others, and in fact I don't think the question makes any sense without a criterion: better at what?
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Secondly, I feel that Family Guy relies (at times too much) on pure pop culture reference and shock. This is not to say that it doesn't make it funny, because that stuff is, but thats the easy joke.
In summary where Family Guy has Kool-Aid man busting through a wall shouting "Oh-Yeah!" The Simpsons has Homer saying to the cops "I spent my evening at the Gentlemen's club, where we were discussing Wittgenstein". I find both equally hilarious, but one I value more for its creativity and wit, the other for its hilarious ability to harness something ridiculous from my Childhood that I had all but forgotten about.
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