Everyone should watch programming like The Simpsons or Family Guy because of the messages that these shows satirize disguised as “all in good fun” entertainment, though both shows try to get across the same messages both shows have their similarities and differences. The Simpsons have been on television for around 28 seasons that is more than any other U. S. Television show, while Family Guy has only been on for 15 seasons which is still impressive.
Here are some of the major comparisons: both shows try to satirize what is happening in real life in order to jog audience’s minds, Family guy’s plot is all over the place while The Simpsons is more straight forward, and finally Family Guy’s characters are kind of modeled after The Simpsons characters. To Begin With, both Family guy and The Simpsons leave messages within their program that are used to get the audience to stir thoughts about how it applies in real life. In each episode of Family Guy the writers discuss many topics ranging from legalizing weed to the dangers of smoking.
On two different occasions Family Guy brings up the dangers of smoking in the first occurrence peters toy company that he works for starts to produce toys that advertise smoking onto kids at first peter goes along with the idea but at the end he sees his own kid smoking and points out the dangers that smoking can cause (“Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington”). But even with these meaningful messages parents still wanted to take down this show because of the methods to get these messages can come off as bad for children who may be watching the show.
To get these messages across to the audience Family guy uses some derogatory humor but in one of the Family Guy episodes they address what parents have said by getting defensive “Maybe you should take responsibility for what values your kids are getting. Maybe you shouldn’t be letting your kids watch certain shows in the first place if you have such a big problem with them, instead of blaming the shows themselves” (“Boys Do Cry”).
Family Guy added this within the episode because the show is considered to be very controversial on the topics they decide to discuss; the producers decided to add this poor-parenting speech saying that people shouldn’t take their values from a show and if they feel like their kid is gaining wrong views from the show, don’t blame the show they should blame themselves for letting their kids watch it.
On the other hand, The Simpsons has gone for 28 seasons ith no cancelations, this can be because The Simpsons is relatable by many American families. The Simpsons have their own way at satirizing what is happening compared to Family Guy, The Simpsons have been on way longer than any other show because they push in their jokes very subtle instead of just a quick skit. In one of their late 1990’s episode, it “contained a scene at a UN conference where the Russian ambassador is depicted as a Russian evil villain caricature, with a devious smile and maniacal laugh” (“The Globalization of The Simpsons”).
During the episode, it shows that the Soviet Union never fell, the berlin wall rises out of the ground, and Vladimir Lenin rises from the grave; this depicts Putin’s rise to power and wanting to bring Russia to its former glory. During this episode, they stick to one theme the entire time instead of the sporadic skits that Family Guy goes through all the time. Furthermore, the plot in both Family Guy and The Simpsons are drastically different. Family guy follows a random plot with each episode is more of a skit rather than episodes all building onto each other.
The Simpsons on the other hand are more straightforward with its plot with each episode being a continuation of the last. Both shows have benefitted from their style at the plot, each episode of Family Guy starts out different such as in Season 2 episode 3 the Griffin family survives the world being destroyed by nuclear blast and the whole episode takes place in the destroyed world (“Da Boom”), but the very next episode none of the nuclear blast ever happened and the plot of this episode is about Brian searching the world trying to find himself.
With no explanation on how the show made the jump it can confuse new viewers on what is happening. But with these jumps it does not take away from the comedic views that the writers are trying to get across. There are also times where Family Guy sticks with a story arc for more than the usual allotted 30 minutes, in one episode they are making a parody of the game of Clue.
During an hour episode, the Griffin family and friends are stuck in mansion where they must find out who is the killer and the reason why everyone was invited to this mansion in the middle of the woods (“And Then There Were Fewer”). While The Simpsons always stuck to one theme during the entire episode like in the Episode “Goo Goo Gai Pan” the Simpson family travels to China because one character Selma wants to adopt a child because she was unsuccessful at adopting within the united states.
In the end Selma manages to adopt a child but gets it taken away because she is not legally married to Homer who she stated she was married to. That is why The Simpsons has been able to stick around for how long they have been around, they stick to one theme therefor they can explore more within an episode compared to Family Guy where they have used so much material so far it can be difficult to think of new material to make jokes at.
Lastly, since The Simpsons is such a popular show and it has been on for 28 seasons and counting many viewers believe that the Family Guy characters are modeled after The Simpsons. When looking at the main family you can notice some major similarities and differences of the two. When The Simpsons first came out the Family was very relatable to most American families, it has a family of five with the father being drunk but he means well and loves his family, a mother who is a housewife and cares for her children.
A son who is made to be an overall image of boys, he is a rascal who gets into trouble and goes on adventures and finally the daughter who is very smart, outgoing and has big dreams for herself in the future. Peter griffin is the father in Family Guy he can be describe as a drunken idiot who has held multiple jobs getting himself fired by his mistakes, he can be viewed as sexiest with his jokes in some of his episodes but usually corrects himself by the end of the episode.
While Homer Simpsons is also a drunken idiot, he has been stable in his job working at the power plant and even though Homer might abuse his son he comes across as a caring father for his family. There are some major similarities between the two such as both characters have a bar that they like to hang out at with their friends, both are alcoholics and are fat, and both fathers abuse (verbal/ physical) one of their children. Next we have both Mothers of the families they have their similarities as both are housewives with no jobs who take care of the youngest child.
But there are some differences between the two, to begin with Lois Griffin is portrayed as a strong feminine role in her family at the beginning of the series, she wants to become a play director and then moves on to become a piano tutor. While Marge Simpson is more of a housewife and who has her moments of comedy with her husband but not too much. Next we have Bart and Chris, both are boys that attend school with their sisters. Bart is more of an overall appearance on how boys are stereotyped, he enjoys going on adventures and he gets in trouble with school and family alike.
Chris is more portrayed as a dumb child who follows in his father’s footsteps. Meg and Lisa are similar in small ways but the differences are more prominent such as Lisa has big dreams of wanting to become president and is extremely smart as compared to Meg who is hated by her family and taken down by them every chance they get. Stewie and Maggie are complete opposites in their families, Stewie acts more like an adult with cursing and being able to talk and interact with people except for his family.
While Maggie acts more of how you would expect a baby to interact with family and her surroundings. Therefore, many people believe that Family Guy ripped off what The Simpsons have established years before as a comedic family. To conclude, everyone should watch Family Guy or The Simpsons at some point in time because these shows try to satirize what is happening in real life in order to jog audience’s minds to realize what is happening around them.
Also, when comparing the two shows Family guy’s plot is all over the place while The Simpsons is more straight forward therefore making both shows appeal to a different kind of audience, and finally Family Guy’s characters are kind of modeled after The Simpsons characters because The Simpsons have been along for years before and have established a basis to have a successful comedic cartoon.
