By Laura Kelsey, Staff Photographer

Greg Carlson
First-year Audio

much.”

 

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

“To be honest, I haven’t looked into it

 

"WORD ON THE STREET

“What do you think about the proposed carbon tax?”

 

James Penson
First-year English

“T haven’t read enough about it. I think it’s
a good initiative but it’s too little, too late.
The only reason the government is talking

February 25, 2008

Pamela Findling
Second-year Print Futures

“T think it’s a good idea in theory, but I
don’t think it will discourage people from
driving.”

 

about it is because it’s an election year.”

Family Guy is ruining television,

all of their sketches linked together, or at
least flowed together, to create some sort
of groove, as opposed to Family Guy’s
disjointed series of flashbacks. Monty
Python, despite being a sketch show,
generally has a stronger plot structure
than Family Guy as well, because Family
Guy’s plots are so weak and provide
absolutely no context to the vignettes.
Hell, any one of Monty Python’s five-
minute sketches has more structure and
coherence that a whole episode of Family
Guy, and the humour is better for it.

Of course, Family Guy is not alone
is spreading the plague of random. There
are co-conspirators, and I think the one
most deserving of hatred is Seth Green’s
painfully lame Robot Chicken. Robot
Chicken is like a 15-minute Family Guy
(actually, I guess since it’s on the air less
time that does make it better) acted out
with action figures instead of cartoons.
YouTube it; you’ ll find it’s all over that
site. But like Family Guy, Robot Chicken
is a show that does not take its audience
seriously. Like Family Guy, it makes
assumptions about the attention span of
the average viewer, namely that we can’t
handle a joke unless we get it in about
half a second. If we have to think about
it, it’s apparently not funny.

Robot Chicken’s vignettes are
just like Family Guy’s, except even
shorter. The problem this presents, in
my opinion, is that they’re trying to

produce material that only adults would
get in a format that only a child could
enjoy. Their idiotic non-sequitors are
always a direct parody of a TV show or
movie from 10 years ago—a page right
out of the Family Guy playbook. Robot
Chicken may not seem like a rip-off of
Family Guy but it’s unoriginal and stale
in all the same ways Family Guy is, and
makes all the same heartless assumptions
about audience intelligence that Family
Guy does. But it’s got action figures. So
it must be funny, right?

Oh, and don’t even get me started on
that Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great
Job! bullshit.

I’m not saying randomness
shouldn’t be on TV at all, I’m just saying
that a man can’t live off of bread and
water alone. Some shows have taken
unpredictable humour to great places,
because there was something to back
it up. A great modern example of this
is Clone High. Clone High had many
random elements and gags, but at its
heart it was also an amazing satire of
teen drama in movies that used random
jokes and asides to help deconstruct the
time-honoured formula of overwrought,
self-important teen drama, exemplified
by Degrassi and other programs. After
all, it’s hard to take anyone’s problems
seriously when something ridiculous
involving a dolphin is happening behind
them. As I’ve mentioned earlier, Monty

and I blame you

Python also often used random humour
to great effect, because such jokes were
always in the context of well-written,
innovative sketches, social commentary,
and hilarious comedic performances.
Monty Python was a true maverick TV
show because it was the show’s format
that was random; Monty Python intended
to tear up the lame “unrelated scene,
applause, repeat” format sketch comedy
has always relied on (just look at SNL)
and make it into something that made
viewers laugh; they pioneered the use of
cold openings, they would put the end
credits before the opening ones, and it
was never the same in any episode. This
is what randomness should be, and this
is what Family Guy could never hope to
be.

only take this sort of thing for so
hope), and eventually it will die a
celebrated death. But my concern 1
what we will replace this type of humour
with. Low-brow American sitcoms like
Friends or That 70's Show? Late-night
schmucks like Leno or Kimmel? Or
maybe we'll just settle for another 78
million seasons of SNL, with each season
crappier than the last—you know, the
way it’s always been.

Hopefully this won’t be the case,
and I see some promise of better things.

 

J

In terms of late night viewing, Jon
Stewart and Stephen Colbert have always
managed to keep things funny. Innovative
new sitcoms like The Sarah Silverman
Program, Arrested Development (rest in
peace, gentle prince), and The Office have
breathed new life into what was a stale
and decrepit genre. South Park remains
a strong cartoon (if you can handle
the sometimes suffocating libertarian
overtones), and Futurama is set to return
this summer. And The Simpsons... well,
The Simpsons is sort of like a lovable old
dog. It can’t play fetch anymore, it can’t
learn new tricks, but it’s comforting to
have around, and you’d hate to see it

 
   
 
   
 
 
  
 
  

quality, but then again, it ce’
more of a right to be on the

 
 

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