‘South Park’ Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker Explain Why They Hate ‘Family Guy’
True fans of South Park know how much Matt Stone and Trey Parker hate Family Guy. They even made a two-parter special titled “Cartoon Wars,” which emphasizes their dislike for Seth MacFarlane’s show. But why is it that Parker and Stone dislike Family Guy so much? And what does MacFarlane have to say about their hateful opinion of his series?
Why do the ‘South Park’ creators hate ‘Family Guy’?
According to Parker and Stone, they really do hate Seth MacFarlane’s animated series. It’s not just Eric Cartman who desperately hates being compared to Family Guy– It’s Parker and Stone as well.
“I just want to say for the record right now, we’ve seen Family Guy, it’s… it’s… we do hate it,” Parker admits in an interview. “We do hate Family Guy. And we totally understand that people love it, and that’s why we put it in the show. We understand that it speaks to some people, and it can just be a simple laugh, and that’s great… and we certainly don’t think it should be taken off the air or anything like that. We just don’t respect it in terms of writing.”
“I think what makes me disappointed about Family Guy is that it could be an amazing show,” Stone chimes in. “You can tell there are smart people working on it.”
“I don’t think they work hard enough,” says Parker. “They need to work harder.”
‘South Park’ creators say their hatred of ‘Family Guy’ is ‘childish’
Parker and Stone may not be fans of the writing on Family Guy, yet they are big enough to admit that their dislike for the animated series is “childish.”
Yet despite the juvenile nature of their Family Guy-hatred, it turns out they’re not the only ones who can’t stand the series. According to Parker, The Simpsons writers dislike Family Guy even more than they do.
“After ‘Cartoon Wars’ aired, we got calls from people at The Simpsons, of people saying ‘Thank you.’ Because they actually hate Family Guy more than we do, even though they won’t say it,” says Parker. “And then we got calls from people that work on King of The Hill– They said, quote, ‘You’re doing God’s work by ripping on Family Guy…’ That’s sort of how everyone in this town feels about Family Guy,” says Parker. “And it’s sort of a childish jealousy thing too, because it’s like ‘come on, our stuff is cooler,’” he says (in an Eric Cartman voice.)
“Yeah, it totally is childish,” says Stone, “Because Family Guy gets like four times the ratings as us.”
Has Seth Macfarlane responded to Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s comments?
During an interview, MacFarlane was asked why there was so much beef between him and the South Park guys.
“You know, they don’t like the way the show is set up,” says MacFarlane (Via Comedians ‘R’ Go.) “They don’t see it as a legitimate form of comedy… You know the two-parter they did on us was very funny,” he admits. “But then I read this article where they were really just spitting venom at us, and at our staff, and I was like, ‘well that’s kind of lame.’ I was like, ‘go after me all you want but don’t go picking on writers that you don’t even know, who are making much less money than you.”
MacFarlane continues, saying, “My point of view is that they can say whatever they want about the show, you know, just go nuts… But what sort of crossed the line for me was, you know, don’t go harping on staff writers.”
