Family Guy: Blue Harvest vs. Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Dark Side

3 comments

3 comments

They're both better than the third one. I don't know, this is tough. I guess I'll go with Dark Side.

These things are fucking horrible, horrible parodies. They take you through the Star Wars story, stop for a minute for an overly long unfunny routine, then take you through another 30 seconds, then another long unfunny routine, then another minute of actual animation, then mouth movements and arm raisings, then action lines taken directly from the Star Wars screenplays. I don't like Family Guy, because it's poorly written. I like Star Wars, because it's well-written. Which is better? The Empire one, I guess. But not by a lot.

" I don't like Family Guy, because it's poorly written." That's a pretty common accusation, especially from South Park fans. I guess as a The Simpsons/Daria fan I'm entirely liable to agree, but I like Stewie Griffin as a character a whole lot. I don't know that I'd ever call Star Wars "well-written", but there is still a fondness for it, albeit a waning fondness. Still, that fondness is enough for me to find both of these *riffs* likable enough. They're not really riffs though, are they? You can barely even call them reinterpretations. They're just condensed versions of Star Wars with the occasional gag that lands. Blue Harvest is better, but it's all whatever.

To clarify, I find the early episodes of Family Guy really funny, and with pretty good writing. But after the first few seasons, quality dipped considerably. I like most of the characters in the early seasons, but now they're all just lines on a television screen, with no depth or likability.

Blue Harvest took more risks. Dark Side was a repetition of the same pattern.

A thousand monkeys with typewriters, basically--once in a while something decent/funny happens by fluke. Still too much reliance on "[awkward mundane social situation] = something wacky!" type jokes. Confession: I think South Park is much, much worse than Family Guy by now. The first few seasons were great. Razor sharp black humor & absurdism. Then it became some kind of heavyhanded libertarian satire/sitcom, now it's just... nothing. It tries everything and doesn't really succeed at any of it.

* + something wacky, not =

Blue Harvest all the Way! love Herbert the Pervert!!