Microsoft Finds "Family Guy" Offensive, but Thinks "South Park" Is Good, Clean, Family Fun
When Microsoft decided to cancel its sponsorship of a live "Family Guy" episode earlier this week, the TV world had a good chuckle at their expense. The 'Soft pulled out, they said, because they were shocked by the offensive content of a show that included jokes about the Holocaust and incest. To which anyone who'd ever watched a second of the Fox animated hit replied: "Yeah, well, duh."
Nothing says wholesome like a show that depicts the graphic murder of one of its main characters on every episode.
In light of Microsoft's last-minute change of heart, Joe Flint at the Los Angeles Times asked a media consulting firm to find out if the Redmond giant had bought advertising with other not-so-squeaky-clean shows. The results: Hilarious hypocrisy.
An abbreviated rundown of the money Microsoft spent on advertising last year:
- Nearly $5 million for new and syndicated episodes of "Family Guy"As Flint points out, it's not so much that Microsoft chooses to advertise with shows that push the boundaries of what basic cable deems acceptable. That's part of what makes those shows worthy of financial support. The real problem comes when Microsoft contradicts itself so blatantly.- $4 million for CBS's "Two and a Half Men"
- Undetermined amounts for AMC's "Breaking Bad" about a teacher turned meth dealer, FX's "Nip/Tuck" which is about as racy as the come, "Rescue Me" which features an s-bomb from Denis Leary approximately every 35 seconds and, of course, a cool $1 million to "South Park," the biggest "offender" of all.
Earlier this week they were "shocked" that their brand was tied to a show featuring jokes about abortion and Mother Theresa. But tonight, on TBS, when a "Family Guy" repeat airs for the 1,000th time and Peter makes a joke about a handicapped gay Asian midget who died while masturbating? Then, not so much.
5 comment(s)
AxlReznor says:
The difference between Family Guy and South Park is that for years now Family Guy has merely been offensive for the sake of being offensive. What used to be a show on the cutting edge of comedy has been turned into identical episodes with one bad joke designed to offend after the other.
South Park started off the same way, but over the years has gone in the opposite direction and turned into cutting social commentary. The jokes aren't any less shocking, but put into the context of the episode, and the aspect of culture that Stone and Parker have set their sights on this week, they have a point - something that MacFarlane's jokes are sorely lacking - and most of the time it's a fairly good point. Only in South Park do most episodes end with the lead characters learning a valuable life lesson out of all the madness that had happened in the preceding 18 minutes.
Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 29 2009 @ 9:00AM
AxlReznor says:
P.S. - The tradition of having Kenny dying in every episode was halted at around the same time South Park made the transition from everyday gross-out comedy to social commentary, so your caption's a little out of date.
Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 29 2009 @ 9:06AM
Ed Whitson says:
I agree with AxlReznor --'South Park' is one preachy show.
Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 29 2009 @ 10:14AM
Caleb says:
Thanks AxlReznor. I forgot that the plight of poor Kenny has now been ditched in favor of giving Butters his time to shine.
And you're right: Family Guy now just feels like a loop of the same old shit. Staid comedy should have been reason enough for Microsoft to bail.
Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 29 2009 @ 4:10PM
jd says:
family guy is little kid hummer south park is funnny in way more ways like real world events!
Posted On: Monday, Nov. 2 2009 @ 7:28AM