Why Family Guy Is No Longer Funny

A funny thing happened to me nearly every day for the past 7 months. That would be me going through all the seasons I own on DVD of The Simpsons. That would be 1-9 and 11. I don't know why I don't own Season 10. It made me appreciate the heyday of this series all over again, and since I've recently gone through my Futurama DVDs with the commentary on, I will go through all those Simpsons DVDs with that commentary on. Who knows what jewels I can find. With all the TV I've been watching recently, I've had a lot of time to think about all the comedy I've absorbed over the years. I've watched a lot, so I feel like I have a good understanding of what is funny, and let me tell you something: Family Guy isn't funny anymore.

Family Guy may be the most interesting TV show if one were to do a comedy exposé (as I am now thinking of doing). For one, it was off-the-air for THREE FULL YEARS, then came roaring back after insanely strong DVD sales. To think about how astonishing that is, you can look no further than it's return debut, where Peter in a clever gag ends up listing nearly every show on FOX that was cancelled during those three years. Unfortunately, that one gag ended up being a prelude to a large part of the show's humor. It existed before at times, as when Peter trips, falls, and hits his shin. Maybe it went on a little long, but when was the last time you got kicked or hit in the shins really hard? That's really what it feels like! The first time I got hit in the shins hard after seeing that, I couldn't stop laughing, and I was in a bit of pain. But that was the old Family Guy.

It was, before its three year hiatus, quite hilarious. One of the reasons why is, believe it or not, it was actually sort of grounded. At least, grounded enough. Stewie's homosexual tendencies, Brian's alcoholism and love for Lois, and even Peter's escapades were all moderately kept in check, and really let loose only once in awhile. Now, you can't go five minutes without something "outrageous" and "barrier breaking" happening. But it's not just that, it's the in-your-face approach that Family Guy fails at. It tries to do too much with being unconventional or fighting the man or whatever you want to call it, and it takes too much away from the story line. Then at the end of the main story line, the lesson is learned and then forgotten about within about 8 seconds, like the lesson learned is nothing more than obligatory to include as part of the episode.

Nonetheless, the return of Family Guy was initially met with praise from my peers and me. We had loved it, and I felt it left right when it was really hitting a stride. It's first episode back was a good sign, but almost immediately after came a clunker, then a so-so episode, then another clunker, and then a really good episode. Family Guy in short, became hit-or-miss. It would shine one week, but then deflate the next. And it became enough where I quickly stopped watching new episodes on Sundays. The inconsistency, in part stemming from it's supposedly outlandish content, probably hurt it the most.

Family Guy also suffers from dragging its good gags along too far. For example, this. I found myself watching this on TV for the first time thinking it was pretty clever then it got to about 0:38 left (in the linked clip) where I thought "just end it already." It plum wiped the smile I had straight off my face. And it's more of the same. I could spew off 100 more recent clips of this show with a solid bet that barely anyone finds it actually funny. It's just random fillings. It's almost precisely why my favorite episode from South Park is "Cartoon Wars," where the writers of Family Guy are portrayed as manatees who write jokes by pushing random rubber "idea balls" into a bin together.

It's really quite sad, because Family Guy was one of my favorite shows and one of the funniest. It just seems that after it came back it started to become drunk with power. It makes me concerned about the quality of Futurama when it returns next year, and not just because the voice talent may not return. At this point I can only hope.