My friends and I are snobs…
Music snobs, movie snobs, beer snobs, and television snobs. If there is a section of pop culture chances are everybody has their own well thought out opinion about why it’s great or why it is awful. I remember watching the first three seasons of Family Guy with my chums at middle school slumber parties chugging Mountain Dew: Code Red and stuffing Flaming Hot Cheetos down my gullet. We would all laugh hysterically at the wild and offensive antics of Peter Griffin and his family. Maybe it was because we were all going through puberty and we found fart jokes and offensive comedy funny or maybe the show was actually well written. Most people know that Fox canceled Family Guy after three seasons much to hardcore fan’s chagrin. After a couple years of quality DVD sales and a cult following Fox decided that they should bring back the little cartoon that could. Fan’s rejoiced at the return of Peter, Lois, Meg, Chris, Stewie, and Brian.
Then something happened… sometime around 2006 or 2007, when the show reached the height of hits popularity, people started vehemently hating this show. Fans from the beginning were upset that everybody and their mother were quoting lines from last night’s episode. People began lambasting the show for its predictability and deemed the show terrible. Family Guy became the go-to punchline for hipsters and tv snobs who wanted to demonstrate their superior opinion over anybody who disagreed. Much like how Nickleback has become the punching bag of the music industry, don’t get me wrong Nickleback is a terrible band but there are thousands of abysmal bands that are popular today that don’t receive a fraction of the hate speech or talk show punchlines Nickleback gets. For many years I considered myself one of the people who hates Family Guy. I would berate Seth MacFarlane for his unending use of cutaways, the tired rehashing of the same Conway Twitty or Bird is the Word bits, and the way that the main characters devolved into parodies of themselves.
Remember this image?
Then, about a week ago I was cruising through my Netflix instant watch. I had just finished Battlestar Galactica and House of Cards when I realized I had all but “beaten” Netflix. I’ve seen Arrested Development a thousand times and was running out of new shows to marathon. I saw Family Guy and decided it was worth giving another shot. So I started off with Season 5, the period in time when I stopped watching. The first episode had me rolling my eyes and scoffing at the sophomoric humor but I became frustrated when I would find myself laughing out loud at some of the jokes. “Why am I laughing? I’m supposed to hate this show,” shouted my inner monologue. Then I realized something Family Guy is NOT fucking awful.
Take a second to breathe that in. I’m not saying that Family Guy is a great show or even a good show but it does not deserve the endless groans and steely glares from television aficionados whenever it comes on the tube. Sure Family Guy is no South Park, Louie, or Chappelle’s Show when it comes to breaking new comedy ground but it is certainly better than Brickleberry. I can confidently say that within each Family Guy episode I will enjoy at least three hearty laughs whether they arise from situational comedy, a non-sequitur cutaway, or random pop culture references. Just like everybody jumped on the bandwagon of loving Family Guy after it was canceled for the first time, everybody jumped on the bandwagon of hating it because that became the popular thing to do.
This is indicative of how American culture treats anything that becomes immensely popular. Think about the popular book and movie series Twilight. How many times have you heard somebody pontificate their contempt for Twilight. Visit any short-form improv show starring 30-somethings and you are bound to hear at least one or two jabs at Twilight and it’s stars. People hate Kristen Stewart simply because she participated in the film. Chances are the majority of people who say that Twilight is the worst book and movie series to come out in the past decade have never even seen the movie or read a page of the book. Twitter users who have never listened to a single Justin Bieber song will hashtag #deathtobieber. “The Black Keys were a great band until they sold out and released Brothers now their fucking mainstream drivel” says the hipster who never gave the record a chance. We live in a culture where the words popular and bad have become synonymous. People choose (whether consciously or subconsciously) to dislike something because the majority of people enjoy it. But when it becomes popular to dislike something do you start enjoying it? How about we create informed opinions instead of starting a lynch mob whenever something is well liked. If your way of being a unique person is by flaming something just because other people enjoy it then you need to reevaluate some life choices.
If you actually hate Family Guy, Twilight, and Nickleback after giving them a chance that’s absolutely fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It’s when you jump on this pop-culture hatred bandwagon without ever even trying that makes you just as mindless as the people who like Nickleback because they know that they sold a million records. Here is a novel thought, if you don’t enjoy something don’t waste your time trying to convince other people not to like it. Don’t proselytize your disdain: keep it to yourself unless you are asked. So is Family Guy the best show on television? Certainly not, but is it good mindless entertainment that you can zone out to while your drinking your after work beer? Absolutely… but again that’s just my opinion.
