JWRosser said:
Actually, to all these people saying Family Guy is just crude toilet humour...well, it's not. A lot of the humour is quite sophisticated. Sure, they do throw in the odd fart gag, but I really don't think they go OTT at all. Family Guy is one of the funniest things out there.
South Park too. Sometimes they go a bit far - like the episode in the newest season where the write a sequel to Catcher in the Rye and everyone pukes? I didn't find that funny. But some of their stuff is very political. People just judge it because the animation is "bad" (although it's intentional).
Futurama is still hilarious. Funnier than the Simpsons I think. Just some of the stuff they come out with is so dry but classic, like in Season 2 A Pharaoh to Remember; "you don't have to go home but you can't stay here". One of my favourite lines.
But the thing is, it is not just an odd fart gag, there are frequent stupid gags like that just too keep the younger and often asinine audience interested. Of course it can be funny and highly political but do you think it is the political episodes that take a look on the controversial topics in the world that sell? Also not to offend Family Guy, but it seems that they frequently re-package jokes and they often don't seem to end the episodes properly. Examples of the aforementioned problems are:
Remember when Lois had to make a choice to raise a baby or have an abortion? And the episode went through all the ramifications of it and it was and times very serious, the entire episode ended when Peter kicks open the door and says "We got the abortion!" Another time like this is when Peter becomes a psychic and ends the entire episode when he says "Yeaaahhh, I'm not a psychic!"
Remember the absolutely inane Conway Twitty cut away jokes? They lasted for like 3 minutes each and they were painful as hell, once they did it twice in an episode.
The times when Peter had to fight the giant chicken? It was funny the first minute but it dragged on and on, they do it in three separate episodes and then later they make references to it in other separate episodes.
I could go and on and on about more episodes which use and abuse the same formats of humor but I think this post is long enough. I know you are probably going to say "But some people found that stuff funny!" All I can say is, it pissed more people off than it made people laugh.