‘Family Guy’ Fans Debate Whether ‘South Park’ Is Wrong About Seth MacFarlane
Last week, Seth MacFarlane’s newest project, the TV prequel series to his film franchise Ted, premiered to record-breaking streaming numbers and mildly amused reactions from critics, prompting the comedy magnate’s fans to ask the question, “What the hell have Trey Parker and Matt Stone done lately?”
The acrimony between two pillars of adult animation, Family Guy and South Park, has mostly been one-sided. Like most of their strongly held beliefs, South Park creators Parker and Stone profess their hatred of MacFarlane’s career-defining series often and loudly – beyond the famous parody put forth in the controversial South Park episodes “Cartoon Wars Part I & II,” Parker and Stone have spoken out in their own voices about what exactly they despise about Family Guy, with the former once stating in an interview, “I just want to say for the record right now, we’ve seen Family Guy. We do hate it. We do hate Family Guy. And we totally understand that people love it, and that’s why we put it in the show. … We certainly don’t think it should be taken off the air or anything like that. We just don’t respect it in terms of writing.”
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That’s been plainly apparent in Parker and Stone’s portrayal of Family Guy, and the other instances wherein South Park slandered MacFarlane’s stylings put Family Guy fans on the defensive earlier this week when a Twitter thread about South Park’s treatment of MacFarlane went viral. Cue the cutaway gag…
The thread continued in other corners of the Family Guy-friendly internet, including in the show's subreddit where fans had a harder time picking sides in the debate. “It’s South Park. They shit on everyone,” the top commenter stated simply, while another argued, “I love both shows. And don’t really care when they rib each other.” The real-life acrimony between the creators of Family Guy and South Park didn't seem to bother fans of the former, with another one adding, “Comedians do this shit all the time. It's all in good fun.”
MacFarlane, however, hasn't been able to enjoy any of that “good fun” – though Family Guy never shot back at South Park the way they've retaliated against some of The Simpsons' in-show insults, MacFarlane has spoken openly about how he feels towards Parker and Stone in the wake of their many attacks on his work. During a 2009 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, MacFarlane said of the South Park creators, “They can go to hell.” MacFarlane described his few social interactions with Parker as “like when Churchill and Hitler would be in the same room together.”
However, MacFarlane wouldn't go as far as his fans in saying that South Park's disparagement of his work is unfair or uncalled-for, explaining that the reason he's never cried foul about the criticisms is because, “We take so many shits on so many people that it would make me the biggest fucking hypocrite in the world.” You think that's gracious? Remember the time when…
