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South Park's Cartoon War
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Contributed by: Alexis Gentry
on 8/20/2007.

South Park's epic 10th season came out on DVD
sometime ago, and I thought it was fitting that I run this
article from the Trashwire.com archives. Season 10 had so
many great episodes, but I was particularly fond of
"Cartoon Wars" for taking on the very network that airs
the show.... oh, and for totally ripping on another
"controversial" animated comedy in the process. This
article was originally posted on Trashwire when the
two-part episode first aired back in 2006.

In "Cartoon Wars", a recent two part episode of South
Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone took on Family Guy and
its writing staff. Not only did the episode feature a fake
translated terrorist threat video which said, "Seriously,
Family Guy isn't that well written," but it also had Cartman
screaming that his sense of humor was better than Family
Guy, and it claimed the Family Guy writers were manatees.
The feud between the two controversial animated shows
has been legendary for a while, but this was the first time
it was directly addressed by either party. I found that after
the episode aired, a line was drawn amongst my friends
between those who were South Park people and those who
were Family Guy people. As someone who likes both
shows, I think there's really no way to compare them.

Family Guy is a great network TV show. It's funny, the
characters are amusing and some of the jokes are really
smart. Who doesn't love Stewie and Brian? How could
anyone not laugh at the Hope/Crosby parody "Road to..."
episodes like "Road to Rhode Island" and "Road to
Europe"? Seasons 1-3, the first set of DVDs, were
excellent. At that time, most of the jokes had some
significance within the plot and the absurdity was new and
funny. Even into the fourth season, as the jokes started to
become more obscure and irrelevant, the show maintained
a pretty good level of humor. I really liked the Discovery
Channel bit they did with fire trucks and ambulances
competing for food out in the wild in the "Petarded"
episode.

The only complaint I have with the show is when they claim
to be "controversial". Let's be honest, the show is tame.
Even network shows like the brilliant-but-canceled
Arrested Development touched on more controversial
subjects than Family Guy. There's nothing wrong with
that; it's ok to not be controversial. I only wish that I didn't
have to hear Seth MacFarlane claim that their show is so
risqué in every single interview. It's like he took old articles
about South Park from 1998 and just scratched out South
Park and jotted in Family Guy. I think MacFarlane should
be proud of the show he has without making it seem like
his show is so important for stirring things up. Like I said,
it's a great network TV show. It's not a cable show like
South Park, so it's a whole different ball game.

Cable shows can take on subjects that network shows
could never imagine. Just think, would we have ever heard
the word "sh*t" 162 times on Fox's Family Guy? Would
there ever be an episode in which Christopher Reeve
sucks the stem cells out of aborted fetuses, or one where
a statue of the Virgin Mary squirts blood onto the Pope?
Those were all incidents on South Park, but there's no way
that Fox would ever take on subjects like that. Again,
that's fine. Fox doesn't have to talk about aborted fetuses
and bloody Mary statues. But please, Family Guy staff,
don't try to say that your show is the most controversial
cartoon.

Aside from the completely different medium, you can't
compare the shows because of the time frame it takes to
make each episode. One episode of South Park takes only
four days from script to air time compared to Family Guy's
nine month production schedule. That allows South Park
to take on current events while they're still current and
even gives the show a news-like quality. It's at least as
relevant as an editorial. The show becomes a social satire,
Parker and Stone's own op-ed piece. Family Guy just can't
take on this genre because it takes so long to produce.
That's why Family Guy remains a sitcom... and that's just
fine. Sitcoms are good too, look at Seinfeld, but sitcoms
can't claim to have news value or to be real social satires.

I TiVo both shows, but I find that I'm always anxious to
watch South Park right away, whereas Family Guy can
sometimes sit on my Tivo's Now Playing list for a while
before I get around to it. At Trashwire we support our
dudes and Parker and Stone are, most certainly, our dudes.

At the same time, I enjoy Family Guy too. I don't think we
should have to pledge our allegiance to one show or the
other. So to all my friends who are now living in fear of
admitting they like Family Guy in front of hardcore South
Park fans like me: let your freak flag fly and watch Family
Guy whenever you want, just make sure you watch South
Park too.

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