This Scene From ‘The Simpsons Movie’ Has More Emotional Weight Than 23 Seasons of ‘Family Guy’

Seth MacFarlane may have borrowed quite a bit from The Simpsons to make his own hit in Family Guy, but he could never quite copy The Simpsons’ heart.

For all the aesthetic similarities between the two long-running animated Fox sitcoms, any fan of either Family Guy or The Simpsons will tell you that the two shows are very, very different. Yes, they’re both animated shows about nuclear, middle-class families living in a fictional but all-American mid-sized town, and, sure, both fathers are dumb, immature alcoholics with wives who are far too good for them, and the eldest son is a similarly underachieving slacker, and the middle daughter is an oft-mocked nag, and the writers of the early seasons had a strange fascination with show tunes.

But could Family Guy ever write a scene with the heart-wrenching emotional weight of this viral moment from The Simpsons Movie that jerked the tears of Twitter in a mega-viral post last week? Could Family Guy ever even make a feature-length, theatrically released film?

As Simpsons fans who saw the anxiously awaited feature film adaptation of the series in 2007 may remember, the above scene comes at the beginning of the third act when Springfield is on the verge of annihilation by the government, thanks to the selfish and ecologically destructive behavior of one Homer J. Simpson. After the townsfolk chase Homer and his family out of their enclosed dome with torches and pitchforks, the family relocates to Alaska where Homer is more than content to spend the rest of his days drinking beer and playing Grand Theft Walrus.

When Homer refuses to leave Alaska and help his neighbors who clawed and scratched at his bald head as he slowly retreated into the sinkhole, the rest of the Simpson family sets out for Springfield without him, and Marge leaves behind the above video reflecting on their 18 years of TV marriage. This proves to be the turning point of the movie, as it inspires Homer to stumble his way back to Springfield and save the entire town, his family included.

There have certainly been heavier plot lines of Family Guy throughout the years, most notably, as one fan pointed out, in the Season Three episode “Brian Wallows and Peter’s Swallows." In this story, Brian “volunteers” for an “Outreach to the Elderly” program as part of some court-ordered community service, immediately coming at odds with a cranky (and suicidal) old shut-in named Pearl. Brian has a change of heart when he learns about Pearl’s past as an opera singer and saves her from a suicide attempt, and the two begin a beautiful friendship bonded by music.

Pearl is badly injured after Brian convinces her to leave her house for the first time in decades, eventually passing away and leaving Brian tormented by guilt. The episode ends on a melancholy note when Brian and Peter (whose A-plot was also about loss in a much more wacky sense) drink over their respective sorrows.

But while “Brian Wallows and Peter’s Swallows” was certainly an emotional gut-punch, it doesn’t compare to Marge’s powerful reflection on the last two decades of her relationship with Homer. For that reason, Family Guy will have to look inward and come up with something devastating if it ever wants to match The Simpsons Movie in terms of emotional impact. Maybe Quahog will go under the dome one of these days.