TVSquad

Most of the folks in our family have stopped watching both shows. Who cares which one is worse?

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Which is better a giant douche or a turd sandwich?

Both shows are awful and incredibly overrated.

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Family Guy>American Dad

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I think you get it right that Family Guy has become very hit or miss. It's highs are higher than anything you get on American Dad, but it's lows are substantially lower. Looking at this last season I think Family Guy's lows outweighed it's highs, so for the moment I'd give the nod to American Dad (which isn't spectacular, but's it's solid... you know what you're getting each week).

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I think American Dad is better. AD has the funnier character in Roger. AD still has stories to tell whereas FG is just marking time.

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"The Griffins are such extreme caricatures, that you don't become emotionally invested in them in any real way. How else could we cheer on the constant abuse of Meg."
I think you hit the nail on the head - I agree 100%.
In the same way that the believability of Klaus is limited, so it goes with Stewie and his antics, which are usually followed by the "he's a baby" criticism (people accept that he is a talking baby, but not that he’d be involved in anything “too adult”) But Roger truly has more range and better stories as the offbeat, wacky family member.

Great article and fair synopsis.

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its not so much that american dad has gotten better...but family guy has become AWFUL. stick with south park

http://hesaidandshesaid.wordpress.com/

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I think it depends on how you want to define "better". On any given night, and even at different points within a single episode, Family Guy can range from 1-10. It can be awful or incredible. American Dad though, after a pretty shaky start (I still remember despising the pilot), has become consistently good, ranging in say the 7-8 area.

Personally, I'll take AD. Its much higher floor more than offsets it's slightly lower ceiling.

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"Family Guy relies so much on the flashbacks and asides for its humor"

Exactly! I always felt the writers posted random memories from their childhood onto a dart board, and thats how they came up with the "funny". While that can be entertaining for awhile, it gets old fast (I'm shocked it lasted more than 1/2 a season....). One of the worst side effects of FG's success, was that the Simpsons start to start focusing on randomness for its humor too.... luckily its calmed down on that recently

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For me, American Dad > Family Guy (current)

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I've long held that American Dad is funnier than Family Guy, but I never really could figure out why. I think your reasoning is excellent - it's closer to traditional storytelling.

Also, I'm from DC, and I think American Dad is a hell of a lot funnier if you're from the area / interested in politics. There are moments of very clever satire, which is more than I can say for Family Guy.

Who wants to take bets on which formula the Cleveland Show will follow? I'm hoping it's a straight-up parody of 80s family sitcoms, personally.

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Two years ago Family Guy would have won this argument hands down. Now, not so sure. Stan's character has more depth than anyone on Family Guy. If the show involves Stan it's hilarious. The shows that aren't so strong are the ones that focus on the kids in the main storyline.

Family Guy has it's strong moments (The Juice is Lose for example) but it's really hit or miss where as with AD I feel it is consistently strong week in and week out.

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Roger is the funniest character out of any of Seth Mcfarlane's creations. If American Dad ever does get cancelled I hope they bring that character over to Family guy.
Beyond that the show is still funny, but not hilarious. Klaus is a waste of space, I don't know why they don't just kill the character.

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I really appreciate this article, because I think that AD is the most underrated comedy out there right now.

The problem is that AD had such a shaky start, and it didn't help that it drew such obvious comparisons to FG. But by its third season, AD has not only eclipsed FG's comedy quotient, but regularly blows it away in terms of story-telling and intelligence. Whereas FG is now the epitome of lazy, stupid gag-comedy, AD has become a much subtler, character-based show with much smarter comedy to boot.

Everybody needs to give American Dad at least another chance.

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From following FG comments for some time I've concluded that you either get what the show is about and enjoy it or you don't and you don't. It is basically surreal/stream of consciousness silliness that targets everyone and everything with equal loathing and sarcasm. As I commented to a friend the other night, it is also the only show on television that requires you to have a thorough knowledge of the entire history of American/British culture if you want to get all the jokes.

I reject the idea that there is only one good kind of animated show: one with heartwarming characters and traditional sitcom plot development. I have always enjoyed nonsense humor, so I like FG.

I equally enjoy AD for many of the same reasons others here do. These are two very different styles of humor and comparing them seems pointless to me. Depending on individual taste, some people will like one or the other or both, but there is no way to declare one of them objectively "better" than the other.

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Neither are that funny, I did watch some episodes of Surviving Suburbia but think it could have been better if they added a lot more of Bob Sagets perverse sense of humor to the show!

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This is exactly what I've been saying for a few years now. American Dad is by far the superior show of the two.

I think Family Guy just gets worse and worse as AD gets better and better. Even the best part about FG, Stewie, has been turned into a dumb caricature of a homosexual attracted to the family dog. Stewie no longer has weapons and plans to take over the world, destroy Lois, despise Peter. He just wears silly gay costumes, hits on Brian, and often acts as dumb as Peter (even though he sounds smarter with the Rex Harrison voice).

I laugh about once or twice - at the most - during each recent episode of FG. AD totally cracks me up, from the unreasonableness of Roger to the irrational stubbornness of Stan. I've even warmed up to Steve Smith's three friends, who have been developed a little without becoming unnecessary distractions.

I wonder how much time Seth McFarlane spends between the two shows - somehow I don't think it is a 50/50 even split. Now they have that Cleveland Show coming out, right? So it will be even less time per show. I wonder how much of AD's improvement and high quality is due to Seth McFarlane?

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Dad was better in Season 2 than Family Guy. FG's 4th season was horrible. The last one was brilliant so it was better than Dad. AD's last season bored me to death.

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I agree. Family Guy had kind of an off-year, while American Dad has been getting pretty good. I seem to like Roger the most with all his fantasies and self-importance.

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