The viewer as the punchline

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Many complain about the stagnation of The Simpsons and oftentimes this is blamed on Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy.

The Simpsons, in its peak seasons (two to 10), was an example of (at times) fairly highbrow comedy rivaled by few. Family Guy came into the picture much later with a different formula. Instead of presenting the audience with references they probably won't make the effort to research themselves, Family Guy bases an entire show on lowbrow comedy that everyone, especially people of the '80s generation, will easily understand and, as such, the television-watching experience will be more easily digested and require less actual thought.

While Family Guy is a pretty dumb television show, it's ultimately unfair to compare one to the other or blame either one for any sort of decline. The blame should be placed on the consuming public, who threw away a more rewarding entertainment experience — a show that combined literary/ film/music references and intellectual content — and chose the McDonalds version of a television show.

Like anything else, The Simpsons had grassroots beginnings but now is ultimately a franchise and corporation like anything else, and the basis of any corporation is to generate net income. When Family Guy came along with its formulaic use of repetition and garnered almost as much attention as one of the most popular cartoons in history, The Simpsons followed suit. Gradually, the cerebral jokes disintegrated, the references became more trendy and an emphasis on modernity became a centre for the new stylistic adaptation of The Simpsons.

Do The Simpsons and Family Guy still have their moments? Sure, but at a cost. Surrendered at will for something more instantaneously gratifying but less rewarding in the long run. The fact is that these programs are giving what the audience is responding to, and regurgitating the needs of the "common person" (or their idea of said same) back onto the television screen. The issue is much deeper than a television show "selling out" or the quality of writing in a long-running series. It's something deeper within society that demands things at a faster rate and a declining amount of patience within the human psyche, this deterioration could possibly be attributed to the fast-paced nature of the Internet and the frequency of usage, or, ironically, the amount of time people spend watching television in the first place.