TikTok has breathed new life into Family Guy’s cutaway gags

Everybody knows this. Family GuyWe all enjoy dunkin’ on it. It’s the blueprint for every raunchy adult animated comedy that has come out since its debut in 1999 (and its return from cancellation in 2004). It’s a crass show that revels in offensive humor, regularly punching down at marginalized groups. But for all of its faults — and it’s clear that the writers on Family Guy are very aware of them — the show manages to be laugh-out-loud funny at times. With TikTok and YouTube shorts, fans have highlighted the best bits of the show, and I’ve found myself begrudgingly admitting that in 2022, Family GuyIt is actually quite good.

Family Guy The Griffin family stars in this sitcom, which parodies and plays on the tropes from sitcoms before it. The Simpsons. The episodes are designed to contain as many funny jokes possible. Literally everything else — plot, characterization, continuity, and logic — goes out the window in favor of a quick goof. These jokes are the reason that the show survives or fails.

The show is in its 21st season, so the writers have had time to figure out which jokes work and which ones don’t — or at the very least, which ones have been driven into the dirt in previous seasons. Writers are constantly focusing on comedy and throwing spaghetti at each other. Those jokes that fail end up being tossed out.

These jokes appear so often that there is no context. PerfectionYou can easily assemble them and post them in bits and pieces to TikTok or YouTube Shorts. These cutaway gags make great TikTok material, with hundreds of thousands of views and likes.

Family Guy’s absurd cutaway gags have aged incredibly well, despite being the target of much mockery (and a very good South Park episode). These fit in the time frame of a TikTok perfectly, with no context. And occasionally, there’s a real treat — a Family Guy This episode builds toward its final, using the humorous context from earlier scenes.

Take the season 21 episode “The Munchurian Candidate,” in which Peter and Lois go to sex therapy and decide to try some hypnosis. The humor of the situation escalates until it goes horribly wrong, culminating in Lois standing in the doorway of her mother’s bedroom and screaming her husband’s name. It’s a moment that went viral on social media by itself based on the strength of Alex Borstein’s voice acting; the rest of the episode reinforces that moment instead of weakening the final climax.

Years ago, I was ridiculed Family GuyIt was terrible, and I still find it horrendous. But watching clips from TikTok over and over again slowly made me love the show. It’s possible to preserve the finest bits from older seasons and present the content that is actually good in succinct clips. It’s helped me realize that the modern catalog actually has some great episodes I enjoyed watching. There’s still a lot of misses, but that’s to be expected with rapid-fire joke delivery — I’m just here to enjoy the hits.