So are we in the era of Seth McFarlane-type cartoons?

That's why I find it funny when Homer makes a reference to the 70's/80's on The Simpsons...instead of just being a mindless wallow in nostalgia, it's used to illustrate just how lame and outdated Homer's grasp on pop culture has become since he became a father ("I never thought I'd find a replacement for my 'Where's The Beef?' bumper sticker. Heh-heh-heh, 'Where's The Beef?'...."). Naturally, these jokes don't work anymore continuity-wise, because it's 20 years later, so now when they do a flashback to Homer and Marge's high school/college days, it has to be set in the mid-90's or later :eek:).

The constant riffing on 70's/80's stuff in Family Guy wouldn't be so irritating if Mac Farlane found a way to insert it in a way which felt organic. Peter and Lois are old enough to have experienced things like Star Wars, The Goonies and Knight Rider back in the day, but it makes no sense whatsoever when he has a cutaway of Chris walking out of a theater showing 1987's No Way Out and complaining "How does Kevin Costner keep getting work?" Even when the show premiered a decade ago, Chris wasn't even born when that movie came out. :shrug: MacFarlane is sort of like Quentin Tarantino, in a way...every character he writes is essentially a thinly-veilled version of himself, so every character, regardless of age, race, or gender, has the exact same taste in movies, music, and TV esoterica and riffs on said pop culture stuff incessantly (like in Death Proof, when a gaggle of twentysomething women mysteriously have seen obscure 70's car movies like Vanishing Point). The only difference being, Tarantino has talent, and uses his handle on stuff he liked as a teenager simply as frosting on a well-built cake. With MacFarlane, the cake is made entirely out of frosting, so after two or three bites, you're already getting kinda sick.
 
Are you honestly saying a little throw a way joke like that bothered you enough to analyze it, when this series has shown on multiple occasions that it doesn't respect a proper timeline at all? Peter didn't fart until his mid-thirties, Stewie has time-travelled many times, Brian's past has been jumbled up and Chris/Meg have only promoted to their next class once in their entire run.

It's not about logic at all.



How many Tarantino films have you watched? Sure, they all share that kind of edgy, sleek style that he loves to use, but I can't look at The Bride, Vincent Vega, Aldo Raine, and Mr. Blue and think they're all manifestations of Tarantino himself. They all have seperate personalities and motivations that makes them come alive in their own little universes. They may share some of his interests, but its only natural that they would since fictional characters often share some of the traits writers have that they view as a positive.

For Seth MacFarlane, he voices about half the main cast, so its only natural that some of his personality will surface through them. But again, they're all completely different characters and its even reflected in the jokes they're involved in. Peter's are more nonsensical and absurd, Stewie's are more straightforward or meanspirited and Brian's are more snobbish and condescending. They also usually have unrelated conflicts that affect them on a more personal level, which usually never intertwine unless it's a more Peter centered episode.
 
I'm not quite sure if you are saying South Park is or isn't in the so called "Seth Style", but I and the rest of the board can assure you it isn't.

And please don't go turning this into another South Park Vs. Family Guy thread.
 
Seth-Era is a good era in my opinion. He's created an era with his cartoons, unlike SouthPark he could get his shows on a good Network while SouthPark had to get a comedy channel that never beats FOX in the ratings.
 
I meant not Seth style. I guess bringing up that show whever FG is mentioned isn't a good idea.

@Fox
SP is on CC due to the material. Trey and Matt would never go to less.

And like Captian America said.
 
I think Seth's work is very often very cheap stuff. But then we live in an age of reality tv and shows like "Cougar Town", so cheap is in.
 
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