I can't believe you just posted a big honkin' thread about Family Guy without mentioning Stewie. He's the best thing about that show -- an infant Evil Genius. Plus, that show is gut-bustingly hilarious at times: the one where Peter totally ruins a community-theater version of The King and I was great, as was the Brian/Stewie episode The Road To Rhode Island.

Everyone I know has tried to sell me on this show, but I won't watch it.

I have a rule about talking babies. They aren't fucking funny and they never will be. I don't care what the premise is.

Put it on my tombstone.

Talking babies aren't fucking funny.

I had the same experience with Family Guy. But some scenes are just so over the top funny, like "Christians don't believe in Gravity" that make it worth while.

Stewie, to the dog Brian, who is changing his diaper (and also to whom he is super-glued): "... Don't forget the taint."

How can you not piss yourself at that?

I don't mind Stewie all that much. And I like the fact that Brian, the talking dog, is the most realistically human character on the show.

American Dad, OTOH, from exactly the same wonderful people, is just pure concentrated evil. It's a ripoff of Family Guy (which, as Ace noted, is already a ripoff of "The Simpsons"), and throws in a few buckets full of utterly moronic moonbat snark. I can picture Michael Moore tuning in every week and laughing his ass off. Then hiring a forklift to hitch the ass back into place.

You know, it just occurred to me that everyone has done a parody of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Simpsons did one, Futurama did one, and Family Guy did one.

Of them all, I think Futurama's was the funniest.

Professor: Who are those horrible orange creatures over there?
Glermo: Why those are the Grunka Lunkas. They work here in the Slurm factory.
Professor: Tell them I hate them.

I miss Futurama. At least King of the Hill is still on the air.

Twenty years from now the number of people who were supposed to be on one of those flights, but missed them, for whatever reason, could fill Yankee Stadium.

(Damn I'm in a foul cynical mood today.)

Lisa is, and will always be, the lamest cartoon character in the history of the universe, worse even than Grape Ape or Jabberjaws.

Ace,

Curmudgeon that I am, and TV-hater too, I recently watched Family Guy in my hotel room.

NB: I have to really hate where I am staying or working to turn the TV on.

But...

Family Guy was hilarious!

Really.

It was outrageous, stupid, smart, insulting, and surprising.

So good was it, that I ordered one of the DVD collections.

Highly recommended.

I still think Aqua Teen Hunger Force is funnier than Family Guy, but only because ATHF is completely insane.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force is a riot.

Hey, I just thought of something else that's never funny - a man wearing women's clothing.

Not. Fucking. Funny.

Unless, of course, it's in a Monty Python sketch where it's totally incidental to the gag.

Otherwise not funny.

I watched the first episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, laughed my ass off, and then enthusiastically screened it for my friends.

Who sat there in cold cold silence. It was truly painful.

(I haven't much cared for seasons two and three.)

worse even than Grape Ape or Jabberjaws

Sometimes, dude, you go too far. Too damn far.

Here's some family fun: Create your own Family Guy episodes using some construction paper, magnets and glue. Just cut up the construction paper into small pieces and write on them every pop culture reference you can think of. (Lindsay Wagner! Gigantor! Modern English! Yugos!) Then glue the pieces on the magnets and toss them randomly on the refrigerator. Add some verbs, and you're done!

I've tried watching it a couple of times, I just don't get it.

I've tried watching it a couple of times, I just don't get it.

It's ok, man. Some people just don't get comedy, you know?

I'm sure that you're in tune with other things.

*Channelling the spirit of FrankJ*
You fools know Aquaman is the lamest ever. Of course he has to talk to Willis' gut if he wants to talk to his friends anymore.

Just for the record, I'm with Wuzza on this one.

Watched the premiere, but little funny to be had. I've seen snippets since, but they seemed low-brow and tired. - nothing to pull me back in. Maybe it's the times - y'all remember those ludicrous articles after 9/11 about the impact on comedy?

And it would be a close call with "Speed Buggy"

Speed Buggy was a giant, a collosus standing astride the world of animated mystery solving automobiles compared to the B-Grade ripoff that was 'Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch."

Sure 'Speedy' had his problems - the enormous speech impediment leading to his 'outsider' status amongst other talking cars - but Wheelie couldn't even talk. Just a bunch of moronic car horn bleats.

Furthermore, his supposed dangerous nemeses, the Chopper Bunch, were nothing more than a low functioning collection of mentally underpowered two wheelers (though geniuses to Wheelie in that they could speak) and posed no threat to anyone with a functioning brain stem.

No my friends, after that admittedly kick ass theme song played, the suckitude commenced. Speedy was god-car compared to the reconditioned lemon that was Wheelie.

It's Just Shoot Me funny--

Yeah, that was a pretty funny show but not too memorable except----

there is a single episode that ranks IMO as one of the funniest half-hours ever televised:

Slow Donny

Those who've seen it know what I'm talkin' about.

Chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot piiiiiiie

Tongueboy I remember it well. Everytime I did not want to listen to my girlfriend I sang Chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot piiiiiiie You would think it would get me in trouble but alas just the opposite.

My #1 Just Shoot Me episode was when Elliot continually tried to meet Tyra Banks something always happened to cause him to look like a psycho spaz.

So, the topic is: "Off Topic: Family Guy Is Really Funny".

Riddle me this: how can the topic be off-topic? Isn't that a paradox?

Woah, man. Like, there is no spoon.

Oops. Forgot to sign in, yet again. That last post was me.

- at

I guess I meant that today is officially Able Danger/Gorelick's Wall day.

"Hey Brian! My Alphabits are telling me something! They're saying 'Oooooooo'."

"Peter, those are Cheerios."

----------------------------------------------------------

Lois: Here's our hotel room. My it's nice and clean.

Stewie: I'll let Mr. UV light be the judge of that (clicks on handheld UV flashlight, scans floor and bed with it)

Mmmm, just as I thought. Oatmeal stain, blood, SEMEN. This must be the place where Wilford Brimley bludgeoned Bob Crane to death.

Funniest Cartoon Show on TV, has overtaken SouthPark (but not by much).

Stewie: "What the Deuce?"

Quaqmire: "giggity giggity giggity!"

Funny Stuff.

"Oh no pal. I don't accept coupons from giant chickens. Not after what happened last time." (Segue into the funniest scene in any show, ever).

Oh man.

Family Guy and the funny are one.

I can't believe you're bitching about the out-of-left field pop cult references. Those are usually the best thing about the show.

Last night I saw one where Brian discovered he had worms, and Stewie taunts him by vividly describing the little critters growing in his gut.

Cut to interior of Brian's stomach where two worms are sitting at a table eating lunch.

Worm: You know, I'm only a lowly invertabrate, and I've only been alive for, like, 3 weeks, and I've never experienced anything except the insides of this dog, but still... doesn't Six Feet Under seem like really pretentious?

I thought it was completely outrageous that Peter used the phrase "rub out the easy one" on TV and that FOX didn't have to pay heavy FCC fines.

Musta slipped right past the ol' white guys.

Warden:

I really can't recall another talking baby character that's even remotely like Stewie. Don't think of him as a "talking baby." Think of him as Dr. Strangelove in an infant's body, with a British rather than a German accent. Maybe a hyperactive Moriarity with access to WMD?

I'm not sure it's fair to call Family Guy a Simpsons rip-off. There's a lot that either show does that the other doesn't.

But really, could either idea be considered really original? I mean, we have a nuclear family living relatively normal lives. And the father is a big fat idiot.

Yeah, the Simpsons were the first to do that. Right.

Family Guy still remains one of the funniest shows on television, because its jabs at pop-culture almost always do it right.

And really, if we're going to gripe about MacFarlane shirking originality in adding on American Dad, then Hanna-Barbara have a lot to answer for.