South Park creators called out for “hatred” of Seth MacFarlane
CBS/PeacockSouth Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been criticized for their “pretentious, annoying hatred” of Seth MacFarlane amid the success of Ted.
South Park and Family Guy are easily the two defining titles of adult animation on TV. The former kicked off in 1997, following a group of young boys in Colorado who get into all sorts of crude mischief; this includes losing bets to suck each other’s balls, playing World of Warcraft to the point of morbid obesity and sh*tting into their mom’s hands, and HumancentiPads.
The latter, created by MacFarlane, began in 1999. It revolves around Peter Griffin and his dysfunctional family – Lois, Meg, Chris, Stewie, and Brian – and isn’t quite as ruthless as its rival. That said, it wouldn’t be fair to say it’s pulled its punches over the years; in one scene, Peter’s shirt is covered with wine because Michael J. Fox can’t stop shaking.
Both take differing approaches to storytelling and comedy, but there’s no love lost between the creatives – at least from South Park’s side.
South Park creators slammed for Seth MacFarlane “shade”
MacFarlane recently returned to our screens in Ted, a Peacock prequel to his hit 2012 movie. It didn’t arrive to much fanfare – however, hilarious clips from the show have been shared on social media every day since its release. It’s since become the streamer’s biggest show ever, sparking hopes for Season 2.
It’s also reminded people of the one-sided beef between Parker, Stone, and MacFarlane. While MacFarlane avoided any sort of feud between the two shows (he turned down a Britney Spears cameo in 2009 after South Park ripped into her), Parker and Stone have been more proactive. In 2006, one of the show’s most controversial episodes aired: ‘Cartoon Wars’, a two-part special about how Family Guy plans to show Muhammad in a new episode, and its writing staff are actually manatees.
In another episode, ‘A Nightmare on Facetime’, Randy stares psychotically into the distance like Jack Torrance in The Shining – only for it to be revealed he’s watching Ted.
“South Park’s hatred of Seth MacFarlane is so pretentious and annoying,” one user wrote. “Yeah South Park has not earned the right to be so high and mighty about Seth MacFarlane’s stuff lmao,” another posted.
“I really love South Park but even then, the Seth MacFarlane shade was annoying,” a third tweeted. “The funny thing about this is how Seth only mentions South Park in his show once and it was a Canada joke while Matt and Trey made a whole episode trashing on Family Guy,” a fourth wrote.
Why do Trey Parker and Matt Stone hate Family Guy?
In an earlier interview, Parker said: “I just want to say for the record right now, we’ve seen Family Guy… we do hate it. 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.”
Stone added: “I think what makes me disappointed about Family Guy is that it could be an amazing show. You can tell there are smart people working on it.”
MacFarlane responded to both the creators’ comments and ‘Cartoon Wars’ in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I thought the South Park episode making fun of us was funny and accurate. But what I don’t understand is the personal venom that they spew in the press about the show and about me, where it’s not in the context of a joke. That’s a little baffling,” he said.
Stone and Parker have admitted it’s a “one-way war… they completely ignore us, so it’s fine. We don’t know anybody there. They don’t know us. I don’t think they’re much bothered by us,” they told The New York Times.
And after ‘Cartoon Wars’, they didn’t think Family Guy got “any better… they didn’t take it too personally because they didn’t work any harder.”
