Such is what happened when Justin Bieber was seen wearing a bejeweled Stewie Griffin, reportedly costing $25,000 hanging from a gold chain around his neck. When a multimillion dollar pop star is seen on the street wearing a diamond encrusted necklace charm resembling a character from your animated series, you know you have made it. Furthermore, Family Guy was resurrected twice, a feat unheard of in show business, and is still going strong on its original network, earning a victory for this round. While American Dad! may have scored the higher average viewership over the years, making the move from network TV to basic cable (while proving successful for many) is still considered a step down in most eyes. American Dad! managed a greater average than Family Guy (well, by 0.1 points), but Fox gave them the boot, too, in 2013, only to be picked up by TBS, where reruns have aired for years. Or, more accurately, MacFarlane’s relationship with the Fox network has had its ups and downs and Family Guy is the prime example.ĭespite maintaining a steady average of 7.2 million viewers per week, Fox famously cancelled Family Guy twice citing unimpressive returns both times, but would revive it after the DVDs proved successful. Name any Seth MacFarlane show and it is sure to have an interesting ratings history behind it. However, since the tone between the two is not that different, I think I will give it to Family Guy purely based on the series’ commitment to making recurring gags a trend that, even when it grows tiresome, is made funny again by a meta commentary on that fact. The winner of this category, like the last one, would normally depend on one’s comedic tastes. ![]() American Dad! is relatively lacking in recurring jokes, however, unless you count the rotation of newspaper headlines and Roger’s disguises in the opening credits. What keeps people coming back, however, are the shows’ recurring gags, which Family Guy is chock full of, such as whenever a character falls and has to hold their knee while breathing heavily for a full minute or two, Bonnie’s (Jennifer Tilly) long overdue pregnancy, anytime the Griffins’ understanding of Stewie is put into question, and (probably the best one there is) Peter’s epic fights with The Chicken. From clever political satire to random moments of obscenity, two series, in typical Seth MacFarlane fashion, love to push the envelope as immaturely as possible. American Dad! actually gives itself the advantage by sticking to tradition and, in what may be a supposed upset to some, gets the point for humorous style.įamily Guy and American Dad! differing styles of humor, but the tone is very much in the same. While I have a personal soft spot for Family Guy’s cutaways, I will admit that the concept can feel tired after a while and many of those pop culture references run the risk of sounding too dated and too niche. For instance, Family Guy often plays with elements of fantasy, has people spontaneously spring into song, and there is not explanation for how both Stewie and Brian can talk, but Dad! at least explains that Stan stole Roger from Area 51 and Klaus is actually a goldfish with a German man’s brain, as the result of a CIA experiment gone wrong. ![]() While its own common tropes, themes, and even behind-the-scenes activity have become the source of many jokes nowadays, the series was best defined in its early stages, and still is, by its signature cutaways, pop culture riffs, and goofy sight gags you might find in a Zucker Brothers movie (they co-directed Airplane! with Jim Abraham).Īmerican Dad!, on the other hand, does not utilize this same irreverent style, but instead relies more on a straightforward narrative structure and, sometimes, it will even attempt a more believable explanation for its bizarre material. While American Dad! borrows more from the styles of a traditional sitcom, Family Guy is its own brand entirely, going a step above self-referential humor to (for the sake of giving it a name) multi-referential humor. As for the biggest difference between Seth MacFarlane’s animated hits, it is clearly how the comedy is structured.
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