South Park Vs Family Guy And 12 Other Comedy Feuds

13 South Park and Family Guy

South Park centered an entire episode around their distaste for the Family Guy writers. It appears South Park’s main problem with Family Guy is that while South Park writes jokes that are woven into a thought-out story with emotional risks, they feel Family Guy randomly strings jokes together interchangeably no matter the plot. They even go as far as to imply the entire process could be done by a group of manatees pushing balls with words written on them into random sentences to create jokes. Trey Parker claimed that after the episode aired writers from The Simpsons and King of The Hill reached out to tell them “You’re doing God’s work,” because of their mutual hatred for Family Guy. Seth Macfarlane has said he doesn’t think the Family Guy staff has enough spare time to make an entire episode devoted solely to lampooning South Park. Well played, Seth.

12 Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien

While this one was more a mistake on the part of NBC executives, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien’s beef started when Leno handed over The Tonight Show to Conan, to pursue a primetime time slot before The Tonight Show. When Leno’s show premiered and his ratings quickly dipped, the executives reached a deal with Leno saying they would welcome Jay back to The Tonight Show and push Conan deep into the 12:05 am slot, which Conan refused. As a result, Conan hosted The Tonight Show for only 7 months. In their monologues, the two have hurled jokes at one another with Jay saying "Seven months! How did he get that deal? We only got four." and Conan saying: "I just want to say to the kids out there watching: You can do anything you want in life. Unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too."

11 Norm Macdonald and Chris Kattan

During a 1997 interview with Rolling Stone, Norm Macdonald brought up Chris Kattan, saying ‘I never met a guy who seemed so gay who said he isn’t gay.’ and “I don’t find him funny what can I say.” Several outlets blew this story up to claim that a massive hatred was shared between the two comics. Chris Kattan revealed after Norm Macdonald passed that he and Norm never really had that serious of a feud and that the two had a deep mutual respect for one another and comedy.

10 Arsenio Hall and Roseanne Barr

In 1990, Arsenio Hall made a few cheap fat jokes at photos of her and her then-husband Tom Arnold in bathing suits. Rosanne responded in her Las Vegas stand up act by saying Arsenio was “America’s first black nerd… a triangle-headed Eddie Murphy lookalike.” The two squashed their beef within the same year when Arsenio invited her and Tom Arnold on the show, and he didn’t even seem that bothered when her racist tweet got her fired from all her gigs.

9 Larry The Cable Guy and David Cross

David Cross pulled no punches when he called out Larry The Cable guy at the height of his career in 2005 when Rolling Stone profiled the redneck comic. Cross claimed that what Larry does is the lowest form of comedy and rewards stupidity. Larry The Cable Guy responded in his eloquently named book, ‘GIT-R-DONE,’ that Cross was a comic who took himself too seriously and overanalyzed comedy, and that the main goal is to get laughs. Cross THEN responded in ‘An Open Letter To Larry The Cable Guy’ on his own website digging even deeper into the redneck comic saying his audience were, “dumb redneck, easily entertained, ignorant motherf*ckers.” He went on to add that Larry’s comedy was often racist quoting the comic as calling Arabs, “commie rag head carpet flying wicker basket on the head balancing scumbags.” We think Cross won this round.

8 Mike Myers and Dana Carvey

While it seems this beef has long been mended, the story of the rivalry between the two is still important to comedy history. When Carvey was originally added as Garth to Myers’ Wayne’s World sketch, the two had no idea they would essentially become comedy partners when the sketch turned into two movies. The two didn’t have a perfect writing collaboration and by the time Wayne's World 2 was filmed, Meyers had had so many issues with the director of the first film that he severely tightened his creative control on the second film. The two drifted apart and things got worse when Carvey realized Dr. Evil was just a rip-off of his Lorne Michaels impression that he used to perform for the writers. The two have since mended and make awkward little Wayne’s World appearances every decade.

7 Adam McKay and Will Ferrell

In what has to be one of the saddest falling-outs in human history, it appears Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the geniuses behind Step Brothers, Elf, Talladega Nights, and Anchorman are no longer on speaking terms. According to McKay, the falling out occurred to the fact that he had been seeking out more solo projects without Ferrell in Gary Sanchez productions, their shared production company. Finally, McKay cast John C Reilly in a role for his new HBO unnamed show, secretly, without telling Ferrell, which was the last straw in Will’s eyes. McKay says their final phone call was short and consisted of McKay saying, “‘Well, I mean, we’re splitting up the company.’ And he basically was like, ‘Yeah, we are,’ and basically was like, ‘Have a good life.’ And I’m like, ‘F*ck, Ferrell’s never going to talk to me again.’ So it ended not well.” McKay appears to take full responsibility for the breakup.

6 Andy Dick and John Lovitz

In 1998, John Lovitz accused Andy Dick of aiding in the death of Phil Hartman by supplying his wife, who killed him, with cocaine after she had remained sober. Lovitz claimed he apologized for the slight and that the beef was squashed for years, but that changed when Dick visited Lovitz's restaurant in 2006. Dick told Lovitz, “I put the Phil Hartman hex on you, you're the next one to die,” (real classy, Dick). Lovitz tossed Andy’s entire table out. One year later they crossed paths at The Laugh Factory where Lovitz demanded an apology, and when he didn’t get one, he promptly slammed Andy Dick’s head into the bar five or six times. 

5 Chelsea Handler and Joan Rivers

In 2012, Chelsea Handler told Howard Stern, "What the f**k do I care about Joan Rivers?" The following day, Rivers showed up to Stern and said, “Number one, made it on her back, f***ing the president , we all know that. Number two, she's fine, she's ordinary. She's not a genius." Later Handler said Rivers was never a role model of hers, and Rivers then told HuffPost, “She came out saying things like, 'I'm the first woman ever to do a late-night show,'" Rivers said, adding, "She did this one day, and I followed her on the dais and I said, 'I guess everyone's forgotten the Carson show.' She never spoke to me again." After Rivers’ passing Handler came out saying, “Joan Rivers and I weren't friends, but she did definitely open so many doors for me."

4 Kathy Griffin and Ellen DeGeneres

If you look up ‘Kathy Griffin feud’ you get about 50 different results, so let’s take this with a grain of salt. The feud stemmed from Kathy Griffin slamming Ellen DeGeneres for saying she thought Joan Rivers’ comedy was too crude and not funny. Griffin said that in her final meal with Rivers,  Joan told her she felt shunned by Ellen. After she passed, Griffin called Ellen to insist she do a tribute for the late trailblazing comedienne on her show, but Ellen held firm saying she felt there was a difference between mean and funny. Griffin called DeGeneres an “untalented hack.” Eventually, Ellen posted a tweet saying “Joan Rivers will always be a pioneer. She paved the way for a lot of comedians. I’m very sad she’s gone.” Undoubtedly written by a chained-up intern.

3 Bobcat Goldthwait and Jerry Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld brought up his hatred of Bobcat Goldthwait on Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, although he didn’t mention him by name. Seinfeld said, “He used to rail against me ‘cause they weren’t as wild and dangerous as he was. ‘Cause he sucked. He wasn’t funny. And that’s why he didn’t get anywhere… ‘Cause in comedy, nobody gives a f—- if you’re cool, if you’re lame. If you’re funny, you win. If you’re not funny, you don’t. And he’s not funny. That’s why he had to do that stupid f—-ing voice. ‘Cause you have no f—-ing act. “That’s why he didn’t like me, ‘cause I could actually do it. I can do it. I can do comedy. He can’t. “Stupid . You’re not scary or dangerous. You’re just… you’re just weak on stage. You’re a weak act.” This seems to stem from a quote Goldthwaith gave the Spokesman review in 1995, “Here is this creepy Scientologist guy (dating) teenage girls - which I don’t care about one way or another. What I find creepy is that people are convinced he lives in that apartment, and those are his wacky friends. They don’t like each other; they’re actors paid to pretend they like Jerry Seinfeld. He’s a weird guy. But everybody thinks he’s normal and I’m weird.”

2 Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy did an entire set on his legendary special Raw about how Bill Cosby called him to complain about his vulgar language on stage. It appears that Murphy has had the last laugh on this feud adding the line to his Mark Twain humorist award acceptance speech, “Did y’all make Bill give his back?”

1 Dane Cook and Steve Byrne

This small feud stemmed from episodes of Mark Maron’s podcast where Maron brought up that he heard Dane Cook accused comedian Steve Byrne of “stealing his essence” when he moved to LA after doing comedy in New York for 7 years. Cook claimed that the two had a nice conversation and that Byrne admitted to stealing his essence, and that the two parted ways. Cook claimed Byrne later changed the story to make him sound like a villain. Byrne revealed on a later episode of the WTF Podcast that he barely knew Cook when he accused him of stealing his essence and that the entire conversation was strange. Cook said he didn’t think Byrne was doing any of his material, but that he was ‘dressing exactly like him’ and stealing his vibe, before telling Byrne he should leave LA. 

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Top Image: Comedy Central