This is going to be a series of rants, tirades, and outright attacks on what everyone in the modern world seems to believe is so "edgy" or "kewl".

First up, Seth McFarlane. OH, he is just SOOOOO creative!

No. No he's not. Mr McFarlane has never had an original idea in his life. Even his face is not his own. Don't believe me? Just Google the Kool-Aid pitcher face. Yeah, now you see it, don't you?

If he is so creative, then tell me which of his numerous poorly drawn, badly animated series I am describing:

1)The main character is a self-obsessed, inconsiderate asshole who does whatever he pleases with no thought of the consequences to those around him.

2) He has a son who is socially inept, obsessed with "bewbs", and generally a loser.

3) His wife is supposed to be "hawt", but actually comes across as a clueless whore/bimbo with absolutely no redeeming social values

4) There is a misanthropic, potentially genocidal genius who is rendered impotent by size and/or "deus ex machina" plot devices.

5) Non-human sidekick.

6) A daughter who is a closet slut, despises her father and family in general, and yet does not have the wherewithal to become the "Typhoid Mary" of STDs.

Give up?

Okay, the answer is: ANYTHING SETHPOOL McFARTBRAIN HAS EVER DONE!

Need more proof of his "genius"?

He believes that revolvers eject spent cartridges.

He believes that breech loading shotguns can be "pumped" to reload.

He believes that Army recruiters carry sidearms

He believes that Army recruits still wear Olive Drab fatigues.

He believes that these same recruits receive green berets on graduation.

In short, he feels that it is okay to criticize and/or condemn things of which he has absolutely no knowledge, expertise, or experience; while proclaiming that that pot is illegal because of William Randolph Hearst. (It's not. It is illegal because the Southern Baptists in the U.S. were convinced that all the "Negroes" would rise up and start raping white women if they ever got high. Google it.)

McFarlane is a hack, sensationalist writer who would be laughed out of the offices of the "Midnight Star" for being, well, just plain stupid.

Is it pop culture in general or specifically Seth McFarlane you hate?

I don't have particularly strong feelings either way, I like shows like Family Guy and American Dad, they can be funny but sometimes I just can't be bothered with them. However, I don't really agree with all your reasons for why he is an idiot. So military lifestyle, practices and equipment are obviously not his strong suit if he got all that wrong but I think it just shows that he should've used a better researcher/fact checker. At the end of the day he makes shows that are supposed to have a different story line every episode, if he only wrote about stuff he personally was a subject matter expert in after a while the storylines would be pretty repetitive.

The references I cited are just examples of McFarlanes crass stupidity and "I can't be bothered to check" attitude towards writing. Worse still is his repetitive and formulaic recycling of the same old crap episode after dreary episode.

Tell me you can't honestly apply this following "script" to any episode of McFarlane's drive:

Opening scene: Hi, I'm the main character, who is a thin stereotype of the republican party. In other words, I'm a fat,stupid white bastard or a kissass racial punching bag. Now I'll do something completely stupid for no real reason except to make sure the Koreans who animate me aren't wasting time by using the bathroom, eating, or sleeping. I'm not giving them 12 cents a week just so they can make a mockery of my peudo-intellectual attitude and noveau riche lifestyle.

Musical Interlude: Main vocals by ME! SETH MCFUCKINGFARLANE because my voice is just so fucking awesome!

Scene 1: Family member has problem, title character is clueless, and uses ham-fisted dialogue to set up this little gem-

Flashbac!: It's just like the time I did something totally random and idiotic for no fucking reason whatsoever. Oh, and there are pop culture references from the latter half of the 20th century for anyone whose IQ is above that of a snail to laugh at.

Evil runt: Damn you all!

Wife: Something, something, something stupid, I was such a slut when I was five minutes younger.

Non-human: Blah blah Liberalism will solve everything blah blah Prius blah blah blah George Bush is evil blah blah blah I am a failure at life.

End scene: Well that's it for tonight, tune in next week for the same crap that you benighted dumbasses won't recognize as this week's episode because my ignorant whore wife will show cartoon boobs.

Your blind rage at his mere existance amuses me for some reason.

Do you actually know for a fact that he's in the slave trade business employing Koreans for a pittence because that sounds like a fib borne of your rage and hatred for him. Noveau riche lifestyle, really I think he's worked hard and earned it which is more than can be said for a lot of old money heirs so why shouldn't he enjoy it?

I agree that a lot of his work tends to follow the same formula but rather than mock his intelligence and work ethic for it I think it's testiment to his insight and understanding of the requirements of his chosen profession and the show's demographic. Look at any sitcom or animated series, in fact almost every tv show going. You could say they all follow a formula. The formula changes sometimes depending on the genre but at the end of the day, if the formula works people use it because they want their show to be a success. Perhaps Seth could be accused of not being subtle enough in his use of his preferred formula but personally, I don't blame him for using one. As long as the details are varied and the jokes are funny and original I really don't mind; it's not like I watch that kind of show for an education. If that makes me a "benighted dumbass" well so be it.

I actually like the fact that he does so many voices for his shows, I don't think I can do that many different sounding voices, it's pretty impressive. Plus it's possible he did so many voices to start with to save on paying actors to do it since he was starting out and maybe he likes doing it, is that so bad?

Just out of curiosity, what shows do the enlightened watch?

God I hate family guy, the plots are interchangable, the jokes are lame, and there are just way way way too many plot holes. Case in point Hey <NAME> do you remember the time I <ACTION> to/for/at <NAME> *Dumb clip*

HOWEVER! If you remember Johnny Bravo, he was one of the producers of the show and later created episodes,

So Fox turned down your animated sit-com then, did they?

Shame, cos you're utterly fricking hilarious, and gosh, I've never read that rant about S McF anywhere else on teh internetz before

ever.

Or have you been posting this everywhere you can?

Well hey... with highbrow creative writing like THIS you could easily show him a thing or two.


Eh. I'll agree that his shows are formulaic... they're all watered down versions of Family Guy, which itself has become sort of hit or miss. It still has its moments, though. And as far as research goes... I can't really say that anyone expects a whole lot of fact-checking from a show that features a talking alcoholic dog and a baby with a British accent.

There was a time when Family Guy was very funny, but that time was long ago. I agree that part of it is that the creator got lazy. IMHO he began substituting blasphemy for humor a long time ago. I quit watching because of that.
If you want to know how old the show has gotten watch the first Star Wars parady, I think it's called Blue Harvest, and then watch the sequel, Something, Something, Something Dark Side. The first one was very funny, the second just full of foul language, the F word thrown in constantly in an attempt to be cool or smart, when it's just stupid.

Nothng is new, just read the TV tropes wiki and educate yourself. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage

McFarlane barely writes Family Guy anymore, so if the show's gone to crap (which it actually has, in my opinion; excessive gore, homophobia, racism and transphobia do not a comedy make), it's not completely his fault. Fox is the one that needs to give it a rest, they're the ones that keep renewing the contract to keep it going. A show can only go for so long before it starts to get stale, you think they would have learned that from The Simpsons.

^ Pretty much what I was thinking, starved4pizza.

I love Family Guy and American Dad (AD the most, I find it funnier) and don't think they've gone stale yet, but I totally agree that a show should always quit whilst it's ahead to avoid becoming stale, so I don't think there will be many more seasons left before that happens.

IMO The Simpsons has had it's day, it's gone on for so long I feel they've pretty much exhausted it, and so much of what made it great is gone. The reason everyone fell in love with it was because it was about the imperfections of family life. The episode where Bart shoplifts a video game is one of my favourites because it's so sincere. But when you've got a cartoon where the characters never age there are only so many family situations that can be written about, and so now it's had to resort to them having really weird adventures in order to keep people's interest.

Something that always seems to happen with comedy shows (particularly American ones) is that they will start off great, so funny and realistic, and then after a few seasons it's like the writers get stuck for ideas or something and so resort to slapstick humour and jokes that are made at the expense of the realism. Friends and Scrubs are two perfect examples of that (although I enjoy all the series, I definitely prefer the earlier ones).

Eh. He was okay in the beginning. Anyone seen the early pilots? His style has changed a lot and probably will continue to change, although it'll always have that McFarlene flavor (a bit like old bologna).

I was mildly interested in his old work, and kinda hate his new stuff, but what can you do? Some things just get tons and tons of followers for no reason. Give me Old Mike Judge, kthnx.

McFarlane's old stuff was all right, the Life With Larry special I saw on CN years ago was funny. The older Family Guy, especially, is better, back when the episodes had actual plots, and didn't rely solely on cut-aways or Star Wars.

I saw some episode the other night, where Chris went in Meg's room and stole her diary. They both start chasing each other, and knock Stewie down the stairs, which very graphically splits his head open, and exposes his brain. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but that episode took it way to far for me, especially since his head kept gradually decomposing, as the episode went along. It's STEWIE, ffs! for one,he's a baby, and for two, he's one of the greatest cartoon characters of all time, IMO. You just don't mess up an awesome character, like that.

This thread's title is not very accurate. I was going to say something about all the reality shows and fame-whore culture and all that... but then I realized that this is just about Seth McFarlane. I'm rather indifferent to him, so I have nothing to say.

Reality shows are just as bad as the new seasons of Family Guy. =P

Fakepeeps7 is right. There are a WHOLE lot of things about pop culture besides Family Guy to complain about. Course I can't think of any right now, but I'll come back later and whine about a whole lot of things.

Justin Bieber.

What's so great about him? I just don't get it.

Pop culture refers to more than just whatever tv show or musician happens to be in the spotlight at the moment. It refers to movies, music, tv, games, comics, fiction, etc. Not only that, but the concept of pop culture has been around for decades and the concept can be applied even earlier. Saying that you hate pop culture is like saying that you hate the entire body of human creativity.

As to current tv, I don't like much of it, but there is the occasional gem. Even the gems need to know when it's time to die, though, as it's just depressing when a show that used to be good continues on well past the point of zombification.

It's the hair. I think.

^I think it works more as a helmet for him. Works wonders when he's getting hit in the head by a water bottle.

We get Family Guy, American Dad and (occasionally) The Cleveland Show over in UK and although some of it sometimes makes me smile they all seem to merge into one in my opinion (although I prefer Family Guy). It just seems like The Simpsons for adults wearing it's "look at me, I'm so clever and daring in my observations" hat. And what's with that toddler Stewie in Family Guy who has a posh upper-class British accent?

The Simpsons, on the other hand, retains its charm all these years later.

Its charm, maybe. But it's not quite as observant as it used to be.

And I miss the crazy plot drift the show used to have...

Personally, I don't really tend to feel very strongly about Seth McFarlaine either way. I don't watch tv very often (I don't currently own one myself, so I either watch stuff online or at someone else's house), and when I do, it's only very rarely do I watch Family Guy (like, when there's nothing else on), and never any of his other stuff.The few times I do watch it, it's usually kind of "meh" for me, except for most of the parts with Brian and Stewie.

As for the thread being "entirely about Family Guy/Seth McFarlaine," well, in all fairness, Kneon_Knight did say that it was going to be a series of rants, and the Seth McFarlaine one was only posted yesterday. It just seems a little premature to be saying that it's entirely about that one little thing, is all, what with it being started barely 24 hours ago. :P

I used to be a Family Guy and even owned the dvds but I haven't liked the past few seasons. Maybe I am growing up since I was teen when I first started watching it but there is no story structure since it is all cutaway gags and the stories are rushed and uncomplex, the charcters are now obnoxious and unlikeable. Well I shouldn't expect much from a show written by manatees.

That being a good example of now often disgusting behaviour on the show since it took a long time to give him medical attention so along with Peter make it look like Lois ran him over.

That's another thing that has turned me away from the show. It's now sounding like a Micheal Moore film. Conservatives are Nazi's, anyone who believes in god is retarded, Christians are racist, homophobic, moronic bible thumpers, everyone thinks Athiests are worst than terrorists. When it comes to politics I prefer South Park since both sides get satirized and every belief including Athiesm.

And one more thing some jokes go on way longer than the should Conway Twitty for an example which was never funny to start with or Peter saying a word repeatly for 3 minutes that's not funny that's obnoxious.

I get most of them and they're not all that funny.