The Simpsons is still finding new ways to feud with the likes of The Simpsons, American Dad! and even more with the latest episode of the series. The Simpsons is now working its way through Season 37 of the animated series, and it’s in the current company of other animated hits like Family Guy and even American Dad (which starts back up again on FOX next year). Fans might have seen through the years how each show has taken a few shots at one another with some of them varying in different levels of severity and length depending on the joke.
There was a thought that this was all put behind them when The Simpsons and Family Guy had their official crossover episode, but The Simpsons has been casually shooting a few jabs at Family Guy in the years since. The latest is one of the most casual yet as seen in the newest episode that helps to highlight how The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad and even a classic like The Flintstones all started from the same core idea of “stupid fat dads with their way hotter wives.”
The Simpsons Takes New Shot at Family Guy
Courtesy of 20th Television Animation
The Simpsons Season 37 episode, “Men Behaving Manly” sees Homer and the rest of the men around Springfield attending a special men’s camp to get in touch with themselves. The man who runs the camp, Greg (voiced by a returning Al Brooks), at one point highlights how many shows have had jokes at the expense of dads at the center of it all. Family Guy and American Dad are explicitly named here alongside a hilariously made up show called “Daddy’s Not Home” that was a pilot that never made it to air with FOX. Homer then connects the dots between all of them together and says “Stupid fat dads with their way hotter wives.” Then takes a shot at itself as Homer does his Season 1 voice while stating, “I like doughnuts and bowling.”
Questioning who even does that stuff anymore, a stand in for Fred Flintstone embarrassingly tiptoes out of screen (with Fred’s famous xylophone playing with each step). It’s a joke that encompasses how all of these shows stem from the same famous sitcom idea, and it’s one that Family Guy itself has made many times before. So it’s far from an aggressive shot at those other shows. Instead, it’s one that The Simpsons is using to instead highlight how much each of these shows have come in the years that they each started their runs.
What Does This Mean for The Simpsons and Family Guy’s Long Feud?
20th Television Animation
The Simpsons and Family Guy have taken increasingly harsher jabs at one another over the years, but it seemed to have quieted down over the years. It’s definitely seen as more playful as with the brief Stewie “cameo” in the recent “Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes” that likened it to trashy television, and this joke is in that same vein. The way the episode present those shows in this context makes sure to angle it more about what they all have in common at their core.
Even further is the art used for Family Guy and American Dad as well. It’s clear that the images shown are based on much earlier versions of both shows (as you can tell by their designs), and the final Flintstones stamp on it really helps to emphasize that it’s not really a critique of anything they have done. Like The Simpsons, those shows really do have a lot of dad jokes.
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