It was cancelled. The cartoon Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth was created in 1991 by artist Chris Ware, eight years before the premiere of Family Guy. Stewie, the football-shaped-headed child who loathes his mother and invents diabolical weapons on Fox's Family Guy, bears a striking resemblance to a comic-strip character: Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, a football-shaped-headed child who fears his mother and invents things to escape from her. Chris Ware has been drawing Jimmy since 1991... Says Ware, "I don't want a book of seven years' worth of my stuff to become available and then be accused of being a rip-off of Family Guy. The show's animation has come under fire by Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi, who expresses concern that the current generation of aspiring animators will be negatively influenced by the quality of animation in Family Guy. If you're a kid wanting to be a cartoonist today, and you're looking at Family Guy, you don't have to aim very high. You can draw Family Guy when you're ten years old. You don't have to get any better than that to become a professional cartoonist. The standards are extremely low. Kevin Smith and David Mandel, co-creators and executive producers of Clerks: The Animated Series, have gone on record as Family Guy haters. In the final episode of their Clerks they include a scene where a bad comedy writer consults a book entitled How To Write Cartoons by Seth MacFarlane, leading him to suggest the writers send the characters to Gilligan's Island and make gay jokes about them, parodying the heavy usage of pop-culture references and offensive humor on Family Guy (Family Guy actually stranded the characters on an island in the episode, "The Perfect Castaway"). On the DVD commentary to Clerks: The Animated Series, Smith refers to Seth MacFarlane as a nemesis, and Mandel calls the show "Emmy-nominated shit." When South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were questioned about the meanest thing ever said to them, Stone replied "When people say to me, 'God, you guys have one of the best shows on television. You and Family Guy.' That fucking hurts so bad", to which Parker agreed: "Very well said. It's such a kick in the balls." On the DVD commentary for the South Park "Cartoon Wars" episodes, Trey Parker states "definitively" that he and Matt Stone truly hate Family Guy. They compare the show's reputation among other animated shows to the way serious musicians feel about Justin Timberlake. "Cartoon Wars Part I" aired on April 5, 2006.
In the episode, fake Family Guy clips are shown depicting nonsensical cutaway jokes with no apparent relation to the plot. Three flashbacks occur and references are made to David Hasselhoff, Knight Rider, Mr. T, Captain Kirk, and Captain and Tennille in less than a minute. Between these clips, the Griffin family is shown making comments about the same subject (Peter inviting his old sweetheart over for dinner, to Lois's disapproval), as if to point out that Family Guy needs to remind its audience what the actual plot is, given that the cutaway jokes are often in no way related to the story. Eric Cartman justifies his hatred for Family Guy using words that echo Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Don't you ever, EVER compare me to Family Guy, you hear me Kyle? Compare me to Family Guy again and so help me, I will kill you where you stand! Do you have any idea what it's like? Everywhere I go: "Hey Cartman you must like Family Guy, right?" "Hey, your sense of humor reminds me of Family Guy, Cartman!" I am nothing like Family Guy! When I make jokes they are inherent to a story! Deep situational and emotional jokes based on what is relevant and has a point, not just one random interchangeable joke after another! "Cartoon Wars Part II" aired April 12, 2006, revealing the Family Guy writers are manatees who take "idea balls" and send them down a shaft; a jumbled collection of ideas then become a Family Guy joke (for example, balls about "Mexico", "Gary Coleman" and "date" become a joke about Peter going on a date with Coleman in Mexico). It should be noted that this episode treated "Family Guy" viewers fairly, acknowledging the common criticism of South Park being too preachy; for example, a man who gives Kyle a lift comments, "Sure, it's just joke after joke, but I like that. At least it's not up its own ass with messages." Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski - two of the series' more sympathetic characters - admit to being fans. An excerpt of an interview on IGN:
Q: Have you heard any reaction back from Seth McFarlane or anyone from Family Guy over the jokes you made about them on "Cartoon Wars"? And is it safe to say your feelings on Family Guy are the same as Cartman's? Matt Stone: We haven't heard anything. I think they're just swimming around in their [tank]. Trey Parker: I think he's a Scientologist, actually. Matt Stone: What I know about Family Guy, I'm sure they have a sense of humor, so... Trey Parker: What I can tell you that was pretty interesting, was the day after that episode aired, we got flowers from The Simpsons. We got calls from King of the Hill, saying we were doing God's work. It's not just our opinion. At the 2006 Comic-Con in San Diego, writers and producers of Family Guy and American Dad admitted during a panel that they enjoyed "Cartoon Wars", and that they now refer to throwaway jokes as "Manatee Gags". "You think that's bad", a catchphrase Peter repeats before every cutaway gag in the South Park episode, has also become an in-joke. Numerous writers associated with The Simpsons, such as Matt Groening, Al Jean, David X. Cohen, Matt Selman, Tim Long, and Joel H. Cohen have made fun of Family Guy during public appearances, in interviews and on DVD commentaries. When a long-lost book of jokes is mentioned on a Simpsons DVD commentary, Al Jean joked that it was stolen by Family Guy writers. You know, it's funny. Matt Groening and I actually have a great relationship. We've talked several times in the past few weeks and joked about this. One day out of nowhere this rumor pops up in papers and magazines. Actually, it was probably one comment that was taken out of context in Blender. Matt's just a cool guy, and fortunately neither of us was ruffled by any of that stuff. We just laughed it off. In "Treehouse of Horror XIII", Homer creates an army of clones of himself that are each progressively dumber than the real Homer. One of the clones is shown to be Peter Griffin. The rivalry is very affectionate. Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, is a good guy and he does great work, and I certainly have no problem with the perceived competition. If anything, we have the same kind of competition that Pugsley Addams and Eddie Munster had in the old days. They duked it out a few times, and so did Seth and I, but that's probably before your time. I think Family Guy and American Dad have definitely staked out their own style and territory, and now the accusations are coming that The Simpsons is taking jokes from Family Guy. And I can tell you, that ain't the case. In "The Italian Bob", swipes are taken at both Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane's other creation, American Dad. In trying to identify Sideshow Bob, the Italian police look through a book of criminals, in which there are pictures of Peter Griffin (accused of "Plagiarismo") and Stan Smith (accused of "Plagiarismo di plagiarismo"). In "The Wandering Juvie", Bart and a cellmate escape from prison but soon begin to fight. When trying to strangle each other they throw insults at each other. One of the insults is "Family Guy". At the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, a screening of the the opening sequence of Treehouse of Horror XVIII shows Marge putting acid on a Family Guy advertisement (As well as putting a House ad in a microwave and vaccuming up an American Idol ad). Matt Selman, in a serious tone, said that Family Guy was a great show and will not air after that episode.(SORRY FOR THE LONG READ, IF YOU DID.
Saw another seen Family Guy took from Simpsons. Remember when Homer tooked Mel Gimson's movie? Peter did the same, except it was Passion of the Crist. Can't remember what movie Homer took.