The Latest Episode of ‘The Simpsons’ Reminds Us That the Show’s Feud With ‘Family Guy’ Is Far From Over
The Simpsons returned this week for a post-Halloween “Treehouse of Horror”-branded episode celebrating legendary science-fiction author Ray Bradbury. “Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes” featured three stories inspired by Bradbury’s work, the third of which was a parody of the classic book Fahrenheit 451.
The original novel is about a chilling dystopia in which the written word is outlawed, and a legion of “firemen” are responsible for burning any and all remaining books. In The Simpsons version, it’s “lowbrow entertainment” that’s been banned, forcing citizens to watch only prestige TV that’s been approved by critics of the future, like Alan Sepinwall the The Third — which seemingly came as a shock to the real Alan Sepinwall.
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That means that TV’s dumbest shows are illegal, including America’s Funniest Home Videos and Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Homer eventually tracks down an underground group of rebels, led by Krusty the Clown, who have secretly preserved a library of terrible television. The garbage content archive is housed below Comic Book Guy’s shop, The Android’s Dungeon. How do they access this repository of pop-culture slop? A secret passage is revealed by pulling on a Stewie Griffin toy.
Disney
Disney
As fans are well aware, The Simpsons and Family Guy have been dissing each other for years. It seemingly started back in 2002, with “Treehouse of Horror XIII,” which found Homer duplicating himself using a magic hammock, producing countless clones including Peter Griffin.
A few years later, they playfully joked that Family Guy had copied The Simpsons, and that American Dad was just a copy of Family Guy.
In 2005, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane responded to the “slam" by claiming that Peter was “more similar to Ralph Kramden” than Homer. He also worked in an insult of his own, admitting that he was once a fan of The Simpsons, adding “but it’s not the show it was. It can’t be. You can’t do 16 seasons and be consistent.” Quick reminder: Family Guy is currently in its 23rd season.
As we’ve mentioned before, that same year, Family Guy responded to the lighthearted barb with a prolonged, hostile joke involving sexual assault and murder (it has been censored on subsequent broadcasts).
The Simpsons’ references to Family Guy have been relatively infrequent, but MacFarlane’s show continued to allude to the rivalry (often in a more self-deprecating manner). Any sense that there was a legit “feud” between the two shows was seemingly put to bed by the controversial Family Guy-Simpsons crossover episode “The Simpsons Guy.”
But now The Simpsons has taken another shot at their Fox colleagues for the first time in a long while. Sure, it’s just a brief moment, but making a Stewie toy the key to entering a collection of lowest common denominator-approved TV seems pretty scathing.
Presumably, Family Guy will respond to this harmless joke by burning The Simpsons offices to the ground.
