And American Dad Takes the Lead

As usual, I will be extrapolating points after having watched a handful of YouTube clips (on account of being way too cheap to purchase full episodes of TV shows).

Today I ask the question: how did American Dad grow to surpass South Park and Family Guy as my favorite animated comedy? I should be more specific. I really like the character Roger. Family Guy fell to pieces over time. It became this show where all of the characters find slick ways to dump hate of society into the show's scenes. And that's about where it became too mean for me. But Roger is really interested in creating personas and just acting for acting's sake. He finds his calling in make-believe and the Smiths get into tug-of-wars with him while he does this. It's nice to see someone who is trying to be happy.

South Park hasn't really been the same since around season 14. Once in awhile it'll put out a good episode or two but I haven't seen it reach its old peaks since around that season. There was a somewhat recent episode where Butters and Eric were working at an ice cream shop. It seemed extremely cliché. We've seen Eric torture Butters a thousands times at this point. But that's what Matt and Trey were putting out.

There was a time in my life when I thought Family Guy was awesome. As I got older, the show either became really mean or I started to perceive it as such. That's a whole genre of comedy for some people: being mean. I don't bother with clips of it on YouTube anymore.

Stewie and Roger are related characters. Stewie is a half-closeted gay person and Roger's sexual orientation is kind of irrelevant since he is an alien, but he sure has a playful way of talking. But where Stewie's humor comes from feeling superior to others and even getting angry with others, Roger just cares about building his characters and his make-believe world. He's happy and Stewie is persistently, grossly unhappy.

I don't want to watch Family Guy throw temper tantrums anymore than I want to watch South Park just be gross. American Dad chooses to be playful. So I prefer it to the other two shows now.