"It was funnier on Family Guy"

Kunmui

New member
I notice anytime FG does a parody or homage, I see on Youtube or another site that features the original, the comments almost always include this phrase, and it somewhat bugs me. If it wasn't for these originals, the joke wouldn't even exist. Now, I love the show, but it seems like brats nowadays instead of researching the obscure reference, don't even appreciate the original thing it's referencing. :mad:
 
A lot of supposed parodies do nothing but replace the original characters with characters from the show, but a lot of people actually laugh at it. The dance of Stewie with Gene Kelly in Road to Rupert is a great example. That also happens a lot with The Simpsons and South Park bootleg stuff.
 
One would hope it would be funnier since Family Guy is suppose to be a comedy show. And refrerences can be funny if they twist them, but much of the references on FG do little more than just pay homage.
 
So...this thread is about Family Guy's lack of unoriginality or something to that affect? People,it's comedy.Satire-esque if you will.It's made to mock.I agree some parodies on FG are better then others...what's this topic about again?
 
I don't mean so much that it's funny, but anything that's parodied, whether humorous or not, and it's assumed that the original is supposed to be seen in a humorous manner as well. It's difficult to get the point across. :sad:
 
I saw a video on YouTube of kids reenacting what they described as "the breakfast machine from Family Guy". That made me feel old.
 
Here's the thing.

"Leia's getting larger" from the Star Wars episode, is a direct rip from a Zucker brothers movie called "Airplane". The joke simply substituted the original name and stuck "Leia" in. There have also been numerous other examples where they have FLAT OUT ripped off Airplane.

Not 'paid homage' and not 'satired'. The original movie is already satire. Unless you're satiring satire. Which is getting a little silly. Sometimes they don't even disguise it very well, I'm reminded of the scene where all the characters are lining up to beat on Meg when she's hysterical, another direct rip off from Airplane.

It just strikes me as very disrespectful. It's like stealing jokes.
 
I consider these "references" with no twist, to be flat out plagiarism. Although no one will say it is, because people assume it's a "parody" just because Stewie and Peter are doing the exact same things someone else did.

That's the "joke"; The joke is that a Family Guy character is doing it instead of the original person. (and sometimes, they don't even use the main characters, they just use the same people.) Doing something exactly the same and using other characters is not a parody reference, is plagiarism, yet Family Guy can get away with this all the time because it's Family Guy.

A few examples: Electric Company, Stewie Pinball, "Ding Fries are Done", and Peanut Butter Jelly Time.
 
This kind of thing happening really bugs me, and I too have noticed a lot of it on Youtube. Part of why it bugs me is that Family Guy is getting credit for somebody else's cleverness. It also bugs me because the show is so successful and popular, and they're making so much money doing this. I don't mind the Simpsons people being rich, nor the South Park people (although I'm not sure if they're as wealthy as the makers of the Fox shows) but people getting tons of money and recognition for blatantly stealing people's jokes really frustrates me.

In the first three seasons, I don't recall them doing this straight re-enactments as much (although they may have, I'm not sure), and I did enjoy the show a lot then. Since it came back though, I've really grown to dislike the show, largely because of their lazy writing and joke-stealing.
 
The worst case I've experienced of the phenomenon being mentioned here is some kid going "Ooh, Family Guy!" after I made a "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" joke. Can you honestly tell me that Family Guy is better than Monty Python?
 
Can you honestly tell me that every Family Guy viewer...okay, maybe they do think that Family Guy did the jokes better, despite it sometimes being a rip-off of the original line. But they should at least show some appreciation for the first joke.
 
Actually, the characters were lining up to beat up Stewie.

I certainly see the problem, though. One would think that this would inspire people to try and seek out the originals.
 
That is more of a matter of opinion and taste from what I recalled. Though I can't be a fair judge of that since the only Monty Python I have watched was "The Holy Grail", which had it moments for me. Infact there was some little loathing for FG joke in which Brian's son forced Meg into watching Monty Pyhton skits, and some little debate between a few poster about FG thinking highly of themselves, and MP not being as funny as people claimed, (I'm not giving out names, you know who you are, and you should know who I am refering to.)

As for the Topic at hand... I think the joke is funny if it is a satire of it rather than a copy of the whole thing, with a few exception like the "Ding Fries are Done"
 
I've always spoken out against FG copying scenes down to the littlest detail, such as Peanut Butter Jelly Time and Twelve. The show is certainly capable of making jokes that don't involve regurgitating something famous; it's better than that.

That said, I thought "Airport '07" was one of the better parodies since the revival. Aside from the music cues and the scene where Quagmire is inspired to do his duty (which wasn't word for word anyway), it wasn't a scene-for-scene copy and had its own identity.
 
Back
Top