Analysis Of Family Guy, Futurama, And South Park

Television is the pinnacle of human creation. A box the size of an animal that could produce pictures that move and was created thousands of miles away in a studio by other humans whose job it was to entertain the public, but does the need to entertain remove from the possible knowledge to attain. Shows like Family Guy, Futurama, and South Park are some of the many shows that people decree as pointless, a joke, a waste of time, or idiotic. To the unknowing eye theses shows are indeed nothing more than a joke or entertain, but if one were to take a closer look into the shows it is possible to see that jokes, storylines, and characters represent a bigger picture. Family Guy, Futurama, and South Park are some of those shows that use satire to

poke holes into society and common held beliefs.
To begin, Family Guy is a show on TBS and Fox made by Seth McFarlane and is owned by Fuzzy Door Productions. The show contains multiple characters but the main characters are Peter, Lois, Meg, Brian, Stewie, and Chris. Peter is the “loving” husband who gets into random situations. Lois is the stay at home mother who is from a wealthy family. Meg is the teenage daughter who usually is maked fun of or ignored by the family. Brian is the witty dog. Stewie is the infant son who can talk but for some reason no one but the dog can understand him. Stewie builds inventions and has a goal of killing Lois. Chris is the son who is overweight and very much like Peter. In Family Guy satire is used constantly. An example of satire is during a car ride with Stewie and Brain, where Stewie is reading a book recommended by Oprah. Brain points out that Stewie will read anything that Oprah recommends and Stewie denies it. In this short snip it of the episode that did not last even a minute showed that Americans will follow celebrities without hesitating and will deny it. Antonia Peacocke a student at Harvard University said, “Brian and Stewie demonstrate insightfully and comically how Americans are willing to follow the instruction of a celebrity blindly--and less willing to admit that they are doing so” (Peacocke 304) Peacocke talks about how in America it is considered normal to wear clothing or watch television shows recommended by celebrities. By playing with this social norm Family Guy is able to show how idiotic it is and gets people to question why they do it. Jeffrey Hartinger a freelance writer said, “A lot of the reasons why this show is so intelligent is because, sadly, it depicts American culture - particularity the idiosyncrasies and passive aggressive mannerisms of the North - in a comedic manner; you laugh, feel bad for laughing, then think about why you laughed and then explore the political or social undertones of the joke.” Stating how the jokes in Family Guy sometimes draws out thought about it to find to why it was funny. Family Guy is an excellent example of the use of satire where if the interest lies in the show rather the satire then it is possible to watch the whole episode without understanding any joke but still find it funny. On the other hand it also provide a way for people to look into jokes and research to understand the purpose of the joke and its origin. Like Petter says, “Guess what? Chicken Butt”. Some jokes just have no meaning.
Futurama is a show on Comedy Central made by Matt Groening and owned by The Curiosity Company. The show much like Family Guy contains multiple character, but the main characters are limited to Leela,Fry,Bender,Amy,Hermes, Prof. Farnsworth, and Doctor Zoidberg. Leela is the competent one-eye captain of the Planet Express Ship. Fry is a pizza delivery boy who was frozen in a cryogenic pod for 1000 years. Bender is a robot who runs on alcohol and smokes constantly. Amy is a rich college graduate of Mars University who is an intern at Planet Express. Hermes is the accountant for Planet Express. Prof. Farnsworth is the founder of Planet Express and Fry’s distant nephew. Doctor Zoidberg is a lobster like alien who claims to be an expert on humans though his knowledge on the human anatomy and physiology is inaccurate. Futurama uses its unique setting to predict issues escalating. An example would be in season 1 episode 8 where the garbage piled up so much that it is decided to lump the garbage onto a rocket and shoot it into space in 2052. Then in the current time line of the show the ball is returning back to earth as a garbage meteor. This story line is showing that since people do not want to deal with the garbage epidemic that is present right now and would rather push it as a problem for other generations , it will come back to haunt us. Another example is in the episode called “Head in the Polls”, where a political debate is happening between Jack Johnson and John Jackson who are clones with identical views on everything. Which bring out the thought of how the candidates of today are very similar. In the episode Fry says that he is not registered to vote since it was not cool to vote, similar to how people do not vote now. When being forced to register to vote he goes through many political parties from the normal demarcates and republicans to the Apathy Party, Green Party, and Brain Slug Party. Which shows how many third parties there are today that do not have a voice since they are not large. The rest of the episode is were Bender sells his body to a pawn shop for money and Nixon ends up buying it. By the end of the show Nixon campaigns to be president and wins. This episode shows how overly complicated and sometimes pointless politics are. It allows for people to take some time and to think about political and politicians views.
South Park is a show on Comedy Central made by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and owned by South Park Digital Studios.

The main characters are Kenny, Kyle, Stan, and Eric. Kenny speaks in a muffled and indiscernible voice, he is from a poor family and is usually killed in every episode, which is always followed by Stan saying, “Oh my God! They killed Kenny”. Stan is considered “a normal, average, American, mixed-up kid”. Kyle is considered the most intelligent with the highest morals and is Jewish. Eric is aggressive, prejudiced, and emotionally unstable usually complaining when he does not get what he wants. South Park uses humor and satire to show social problems and issues in society. For example in a recent episode a police officer shoots a six year old Latino boy in the arm and results in the town not wanting the police’s assistance. In the show Randy the father of Stan says, “We’ve only had a Whole Foods for a month, and we already no longer need cops.” Then when the public requires the assistance the police deny them it since they are going to a luau and too busy to do any real police work. He also reminds the town of their constant harassment of the police. Dan Caffrey a writer for A.V Club says, “It’s not until Officer Barbrady’s (police officer who is considered unintelligent) mistake that everyone develops a real problem with the cops, and even then, it’s not because of genuine concern for the little boy or potential (albeit nonexistent) racist motivations of the act; it’s just another case of them jumping on a bandwagon that has PC Principal (principal who takes political correctness to an extreme) at the yoke.” Caffrey means that no one in the town cares about the child or even the racist cops but rather join the charade because of PC Principal. Much like how society is today with people hoping onto the bandwagon just because for some reason they cannot think for themselves. Which is a common trend in South Park. South Park uses it setting and characters

(children) as a way to introduce the topics in a new light and point of view. This allows the views to rethink their view points after watching someone complete new to the topic react to it. Since these children are unbiased and innocent in there chooses and reactions in like how the adults react to it which in most causes is extreme and usually how society will react to something.
Conclusively, though television does possess some shows that are pointless, it’s all based on the opinion of the viewer. Shows like Family Guy, Futurama, and South Park are shows that people consider pointless but even these shows contain hints of intelligence. In the answer of whether television makes people intelligent, it is up to the how the view uses the experience of the show. Since it is possible to go through any show and not learn a thing, but shows do teach how to question society and social norms.