![]() ![]() ![]() After a controversial episode with a depiction of the prophet Mohammed garnered death threats and subsequent Comedy Central censorship, Everybody Draw Mohammed Day (+5) was founded in response. The show’s politics informed, shifted, and started national conversations about everything from the core beliefs of Scientology (+5) and Mormonism (+4), to trans rights (+2), “safe spaces” (+2), PC culture (+3), and the smugness that comes from driving a hybrid (+2). Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s “both sides suck” approach to issues helped to create a generation of “South Park Republicans” (+5) who (often incorrectly) assumed Parker and Stone to be on their team. A profane show from day one, South Park was the first-ever regular program dubbed TV-MA (+8) in the US and blazed a trail for the future of television by normalizing unbleeped swearing on cable (+5). Though not the longest-running on this list, South Park has somehow remained consistent over its two decades on the air, adapting its humor and philosophy with the times. An early Family Guy episode popularized the problematic phrase “full-blown AIDS” (+2), but 13 years later, the show has vowed to no longer target gays with its jokes. Though some Family Guy gags are pretty much universally beloved, like “wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men,” (+2) it has also attracted criticism for being misogynist, racist, or just vile. Cleveland gave us “that’s nasty” (+1), and weatherman Ollie Williams provided “it’s gon’ rain” (+1) and "damn, nature, you scary.” (+2) Quagmire’s “giggity” (+2) and “alllll right” (+1) became phrases synonymous with horniness. Early Lois gave us the “X is God’s way of telling you Y” (+1) format. Stewie’s early-era “what the deuce” (+1) and “victory is mine!” (+1) catchphrases evolved over time into less diabolical bits like his mispronunciation of the w (+2) at the beginning of words like whip or a “you’re drunk / you’re sexy” (+1) tete-a-tete with Brian. Chris’s “I need an adult" (+1) is perfect for escaping awkwardness. Peter’s trademark laugh (+1), “holy crap” (+1), endless “whoa, whoa, whoas” (+1), and adaptable “shut up, Meg” (+2) weren’t the only lines that made it off the screen. On the other hand, Family Guy is unique in its ability to kill an internet meme by merely featuring it on the show, a phenomenon known as “the Family Guy effect.” (+2) The show also had a thing for eclectic musical non-sequiturs, and gave Conway Twitty (+2), the B-52’s “Rock Lobster” (+1), and the Trashmen song “Surfin’ Bird” (+1) a brief renaissance. The series' primary contributions to the comedy landscape were its popularization of the cutaway gag (+4), and introducing Adam West to a whole new generation (+1). Not only did this result in another 14 (and counting) seasons and MacFarlane-verse sister series like The Cleveland Show (+1) and American Dad (+3), it made cancellation no longer a permanent death sentence, (+7), even though you “touch yourself at night.” (+1). ![]() The show was so popular in death that Fox revived it in 2005. Family Guy also sold a ton of DVDs, helping to fuel the series DVD boom of the era and get other shows on discs (+3). Fox gave the first 50 episodes to Cartoon Network, and those episodes helped carry the Adult Swim programming slate (+5) through its early years. Gaining a legion of fans within its first three seasons, Family Guy did not go quietly into that good night when it was initially cancelled in 2003. ![]() Which one? You'll have to scroll down to find out, because if I did all this work you little ingrates can at least skim this article.īuckle up, buckaroos. What resulted was a monumental, subjective, exhausting, and hopefully exhaustive process that at least gave me a math-based argument for which cartoon was the most important of our lifetimes-and one cartoon’s massive reach did exceed all others. But kids parroting Cartman lines on the playground doesn’t leave as much of an impact on the world as the attitudes toward politics and environmentalism South Park helped create, so for each of these items I assigned a point value from 1 to 10. These programs-the big three of Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park in particular-literally altered the way people talked, and later how they posted online. So I did my best to tally up every instantly recognizable catchphrase, meme, and IRL impact created by each show. I wanted to find some way to quantify the impact the major cartoons of the 90s had on society-this means Futurama, King of the Hill, The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy. ![]()
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