I understand what Family guy was going for but felt the "Lowest Common Denominator" approach to be a bit of a mess. If the show actually had some subtly I could get behind it but since it insists on slamming you over the head with all its jokes and references it just becomes exhausting; Guys it's OK if a joke misses for a little but later makes sense when you think about it. That's smart comedy. Don't drag out the joke or go into detail explaining it.
On the subject of reference humor: Just acknowledging something exists doesn't count as a joke. You need to poke fun at the smaller pieces rather than say "Hey Street Fighter is a thing, let's just redo a Street Fighter fight completely straight but use our characters without any joke other than it being recognizable".
Oh, rant continuing: Repetitive jokes. Hey here's a celebrity. How can we make fun of them? How about we give them a huge body part. There, Done!
On the subject of reference humor: Just acknowledging something exists doesn't count as a joke. You need to poke fun at the smaller pieces rather than say "Hey Street Fighter is a thing, let's just redo a Street Fighter fight completely straight but use our characters without any joke other than it being recognizable".
Oh, rant continuing: Repetitive jokes. Hey here's a celebrity. How can we make fun of them? How about we give them a huge body part. There, Done!