Come on Down to South Park

by **Jesle** » April 5th, 2006, 11:02 pm

I thought Cartoon Wars, Part 1 was fantastic. Not only did they have Cartman leading the march against FG completely against character and addressed their own hatred of the show, but they also were able to incorporate the Muhammad cartoons, attacks on free speech and referenced their own scuffle with Catholics over the Bloody Mary ep. And they made fun of FG mercilessly (loved the voicework on that, spot-on). This is the SP I dream of. If they have the President of FOX die or something next ep, I will be a very happy embittered AD fan.

Bravo, Matt and Trey, Bravo.

Did anyone hear that they just won a Peabody? That's amazing.

by **TomJane** » April 5th, 2006, 11:32 pm

Very cool episode, I wonder how Family Guy will come back at them...probably some non-sequitur that isn't that funny or very well-written :wink:

I'm predicting the writers are crab people, but I'd like to be wrong since they've done that joke a couple of times already.

by **vcalzone** » April 6th, 2006, 12:23 am

Oh, hell. I was seriously hoping that at least someone would be on here pointing out that the episode wasn't that funny. Unless you'd never heard those criticisms about Family Guy before (which I somehow doubt), there was almost no real humor to be found, and it was even worse than last week's. I actually fast forwarded through the last 5 minutes or so, because I just couldn't sit through it all.

I won't go too far into the Family Guy debate here (done that WAY too many times by now), but even if the jokes are interchangeable, at least quite a few of them are funny, and the style of humor is pretty consistent throughout (unlike, say, tonight's episode of South Park). You say that it's a series of absurd jokes and non sequiturs thrown together, and I say you're absolutely right. I don't get why that is supposed to mean the show has no artistic merit or cohesiveness. It worked well enough for Monty Python (who I'm not trying to say Family Guy is on the same level as).

by **Premiere** » April 6th, 2006, 12:46 am

vcalzone wrote:Oh, hell. I was seriously hoping that at least someone would be on here pointing out that the episode wasn't that funny. Unless you'd never heard those criticisms about Family Guy before (which I somehow doubt), there was almost no real humor to be found, and it was even worse than last week's. I actually fast forwarded through the last 5 minutes or so, because I just couldn't sit through it all.

I won't go too far into the Family Guy debate here (done that WAY too many times by now), but even if the jokes are interchangeable, at least quite a few of them are funny, and the style of humor is pretty consistent throughout (unlike, say, tonight's episode of South Park). You say that it's a series of absurd jokes and non sequiturs thrown together, and I say you're absolutely right. I don't get why that is supposed to mean the show has no artistic merit or cohesiveness. It worked well enough for Monty Python (who I'm not trying to say Family Guy is on the same level as).

Thanks. South Park is getting progressively worse, much like Family Guy, except I can still occasionally laugh at FG. South Park hasn't become a parody of itself like FG has; it's just become pure bleep. Trey and Matt need to throw in the towel if their weekly credo will now be pointlessly attacking people without any kind of humor.

by **Gimpace** » April 6th, 2006, 1:03 am

Family Guy and South Park shouldn't fight, they're both equally mediocre/over-rated. Plus they have something else in common, horrible replay value.

This episode was decent but Family Guy is so easy to pick on I'm surprised they just choose to take on the obscure reference jokes instead of covering all the other annoyances the show offers. When I read the preview I didn't understand why Cartman would hate Family Guy, but his explaination made a lot of sense when I saw the episode. I'm so sick of hearing the Family Guy Movie (so awful... god awful) is the best thing ever, so I can see where Cartman is coming from.

by **vcalzone** » April 6th, 2006, 1:57 am

I agree that a lot of Family Guy fans are WOEFULLY ill-informed when it comes to the quality of the show. But I come from the standpoint that funny is not necessarily tied to the overall quality of the work. Norm MacDonald movies have taught me that much. But in the case of this season of South Park and the last seasons of Simpsons (before about 1 year ago), both don't/didn't have enough quality OR funny going on to really be able to take that shot.

Unless South Park has some grand satirical gesture planned for next week, I predict that Family Guy will seize the opportunity and will rip South Park apart. Which would be a damn shame, because South Park should win a battle like this effortlessly.

by **Tv junkie** » April 6th, 2006, 6:51 am

4/5

Just watched it. Season 10 is bleeping awesome. I can't wait for part two, if there is one. The bike chase was awesome as was Butters dads speech and then their reaction. I thoroughly enjoyed the cheap family guy parodys which had a ring of truth to them. It also opened my eyes to come to this conclusion. It was very funny as well amazing the quality of the show has sustained itself by changing the shows format in the last years. As this season progresses I'll be comparing it slightly to The Simpsons season 10.

South Park > Family Guy

I expect the secret to involve crab people.

by **vcalzone** » April 6th, 2006, 10:18 am

Tv junkie wrote:As this season progresses I'll be comparing it slightly to The Simpsons season 10.

Amazing how we both can agree on that, but mean two completely different things. ;-)

by **Gimpace** » April 6th, 2006, 10:22 am

vcalzone wrote:
Tv junkie wrote:As this season progresses I'll be comparing it slightly to The Simpsons season 10.

Amazing how we both can agree on that, but mean two completely different things.

Season 10 was pretty good though. It is in my opinion the last classic season of the Simpsons.

by **vcalzone** » April 6th, 2006, 10:34 am

Hmm. Well, nearly every Simpsons season has episodes which could be considered good, but overall, it has enough really bad episodes and cheap, sloppy humor to not rate that highly to me. Perhaps the DVDs of later seasons might change my mind in future.

BTW, Adam Finley at TV Squad just articulated everything I was trying to say:

I've said it on this blog and elsewhere that Family Guy's humor can be very jarring at times. Whatever plot there is has to be ground to a halt in order to insert as many one-off gags as possible. There's no effort on behalf of the writers to try and weave jokes into the story, jokes simply pop in and out wherever they seem to fit. In that regard, it's not even comparable to shows like South Park and The Simpsons, which take a more substantive approach to their humor and satire, even if South Park appears to delve into the same scatological humor as Family Guy at times.

There's a mistake that a lot of critics make, and that's to judge a show on what you think it should be rather than what it's actually trying to be. Does Family Guy use interchangeable jokes? Yes, it does, and so did the classic Warner Bros. cartoons from which the show takes its aesthetic. Family Guy has never been about depth, it has always been, from the first season on, about getting yucks. It is a CARTOON in every sense of the word, a series of animated drawings packed with as many jokes as possible, plot be damned. Nobody watches Family Guy hoping to hear some profound truth or see some hidden injustice exposed. If they want that kind of experience, they'll watch South Park. Or, if they can wrap their mind around the concept that two cartoons can have vastly different approaches to humor, they might actually be able to watch and enjoy both.

by **Tada!** » April 6th, 2006, 11:03 am

i love nerd debates

by **chrisarah81** » April 6th, 2006, 3:00 pm

I agree with all the TV Squad guy wrote.

I'm a fan of both shows but I liked the Cartoon Wars pt. 1 episode, although I didn't think the jokes poking fun at Family Guy were actually funny. I also wasn't sure what the writer's really think of Family Guy, because isn't Cartman usually the idiot with the dumb opinion?

by **The Dude** » April 6th, 2006, 3:10 pm

I personally liked the episode a lot and can't wait for pt.2. Family Guy just isn't funny anymore. They recycle jokes to no end and come on - they basically killed off Meg. What a bleeping cop out. And Seth McFarlane is a total egomaniac - it's blatantly obvious when he has one of his zillion characters burst out into song. Bleh.

South Park, in my opinion, just keeps getting better. And Simpsons? Well, I still love them. When watched repeatedly, you catch little things you didn't before. Sure earlier seasons were much better, but it's been on for almost 20 years! How a show can stay even as remotely fresh as the Simpsons is a blessing for television as a whole.

by **TomJane** » April 6th, 2006, 6:40 pm

I also wasn't sure what the writer's really think of Family Guy, because isn't Cartman usually the idiot with the dumb opinion?

Well Matt and especially Trey write all the episodes, so it's their opinion. And since Cartman, more than any other character, epitomizes South Park, I think it makes sense to have him vocalize their feelings like that.

by **tehMick** » April 6th, 2006, 9:42 pm

It's funny cuz like Stewie talks like an adult and Peter farts and is like super dumb and then they cut to like inane flashbacks and, um, that old guy is a pedophile and he wants to have sex with Chris and like the dog talks and is smart.
Peanut butter jelly time.
Hilarious.
/cough /cough /cough
Family Guy is funny, but it is nowhere close to South Park in terms of, um, EVERYTHING.
Youre the same people that think Family Guy is funnier than Simpsons.
I just want to puke all over your heads sir.

Come on Down to South Park

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