Comedy – professional entertainment consisting of jokes and satirical sketches, intended to make an audience laugh. A rare breed in the pack that makes life worth living. From stand-up to memes, comedy offers a wide-range of humor from chuckles to balloon-bursting laughter. For Family Guy, this is easy as pie. Humor comes to the show naturally. Thank the heavens for its writers, eh?

Family Guy is an animated series that aired for 16 seasons (1998-present). For those that may not know, Family Guy was cancelled in May of 2000, before shortly being ordered by FOX in July of 2000 due to popular demand. If you thought that was a one- time deal, you’re mistaken. Family Guy was cancelled YET again in 2002, shortly after the third season, with one episode left unaired. The show could have just rested on its laurels at one point, but spread it’s audience to several audiences on networks such as Adult Swim, TBS, etc.

The show is largely known for its main characters (i.e Peter, Lois, Stewie, Meg, Chris, and Brian Griffin), but also the cutaways, special guest appearances of often celebrities, satirical songs, and sly jokes add to its wide popularity. For the haters of the show, this fuels them, thus, the quarrelling between the admirers and haters of the show ensue.

I mean, the show has seven Emmy’s to its name to validate its humorous side and overall attraction. So take that shows like The Simpsons, Futurama, Robot Chicken, and others of the same genre. Even though you may or may not have more, but still. That’s besides the point.

I scoured high and low for fellow iSchool students to interview on this wondrous show, and I was in luck when I had gathered intel from Bryan Anthony Gathers, Aaliyah Abraham, Masum Ahmed, Eli Piccone, Alliyah Logan, Katherine Javier, and Joseph Cabeza.

I had to search for an answer that tied all the knots. Right off the bat, no turning back. One that would give me a complete answer that seems ultimate over the rest. So I went to Bryan Anthony Gathers, who’s on of the seniors in the class of 2017, who said: “You know it’s a good show because other shows look to model themselves after it. Like American Dad, and the Cleveland Show. Although the Simpsons came first, Family Guy is better, by far.”

“I don’t know, I think it’s just a nice escape to watch. Sometimes it’s funny,” senior Aaliyah Abraham reflected.

Cade Smith, a sophomore at the iSchool, had this to say on why he liked the show: “I like the show because it’s a little limitless, you know they make fun of a lot of things. Which is often rare and unethical at times, yet it’s still funny.

The majority of them loved the show and said that they were active followers of the series because of its funny, edgy sense of humor.

Hold on a minute. The passion and crave for the show wasn’t unanimous as you might have thought. Sophomore Eli Piccone wasn’t much of a fan of the show, but admits that it’s a show to keep on your shortlist. “I definitely think it would be a good show to get into, for sure. I just find myself watching other shows like The Simpsons and Futurama instead. There’s only show much time in the day to watch shows.”

Eli also gave voice for others in a similar position to his own: “I don’t think there’s too many people that dislike the show, it’s just that there are so many alternatives, or that they prefer one over the other. But it’s a really comedic show, from the glimpses of what I have seen.”

I got a general countertop reaction from my peers, but I wanted to dig deeper. Particularly with the fans of Family Guy. Sorry, Eli.I was dying to know,their favorite moments of the show, etc.  

Instantaneously, I looked for commentary on the fact the show was cancelled twice. Most of the people that watched the show were surprised by this.. They didn’t really know about it because they weren’t as engaged with the show back then, but this is understandable given their ages. Other reasons were they thought that the tenure of the show and it’s success would prevent such a travesty.

Bryan blatantly told me, “I don’t really have any thoughts. It’s an amazing show. When they cancelled it, they brought it back, so it’s all good in the hood.”

“I can’t see it being cancelled because it’s such a traditional show. People love it and love to hate it. Hard to see them taking it off the air,” Aaliyah informed me.

Next, I surveyed them on what the funniest aspect of the show was to them specifically. Here’s what I found:

“The funniest aspect of the show, is the show itself, because anything can happen at anytime and anyplace,” freshman Joseph Cabeza pleaded.

“Peter’s cutaways for sure are the funniest aspect for me,” senior Bryan Anthony Gathers exclaimed.

“Has to be that the relate it to the audience. Like for instance the whole ‘cool Whip’ thing. Or something I already know, and they’ll make it funny,” said senior Katherine Javier.

Freshmen Alliyah Logan said, “When they characters of famous celebrities and make fun of them, I think that’s hilarious.”

Senior Aaliyah Abraham said, “What his name? Stewie, yeah! He’s the funniest aspect of the show because he’s supposed to be Peter’s son and he has a British accent, so how is he supposed to be related to the rest of them?’

To wrap up, my sources were great sports throughout the interview process and would like to thank them for their adequate behavior. They shared their favorite phrases, characters, & episodes as well. Be sure to check the video version published here above the article to see it all.

All in all, Family Guy may be cross the line from time to time. But the thrill and rush of adrenaline is to die for. We learn to forgive those edgy moments. If you aren’t into the show, give it a chance. It might be what you are looking for. The long-term fans of the show, you know what to do. Keep on watching! The humor is top-drawer and all round a show that is riveting. All hail Seth MacFarlane.