Last summer, Family Guy was nominated for two Emmys — one of them being for best comedy series – meaning it was the second animated series to be nominated for the award. The Flintstones (1961) was the other one. The Simpsons has never been nominated.

Shortly after the nominations were announced, a friend of mine, Charles Gooch, wrote in his blog that FG has been on the decline.

He wrote:

Family Guy stopped being funny sometime in the middle of the fifth season. Take it from me, I’m right in this show’s wheelhouse and can quote almost anything from the show at request, but I probably fast forwarded through half the episodes this year. It had funny bits, but the whole ‘randomly-generated-stream-of-consciousness’ joke thing may have run its course.

I can’t say I disagree. The show has been on a steady decline, and has been resorting to over-the-top-offensive jokes to stay on top. (And I’m hardly a guy who is easily offended.) FG has indeed jumped the shark. Matter of fact, FG jumped the shark so long ago, that the speedboat is back at the marina, and FG has removed its life jacket and swim trunks* and is sitting at a picnic table eating a cheeseburger.

* I love calling them swim trunks. It’s old school, and it sounds funnier than bathing suit.
 
For those of you who are not as familiar with TV colloquialisms as me and Gooch, jumping the shark is when a TV show’s plot crosses into the absurd and it moves towards characterizations that are not in line with the show’s original plot/feel — the point at which you know, it’s all downhill from here. It’s named after the moment when Fonzie jumped a shark in Happy Days (which went downhill after that).

FG gained such a cult – and then mass – following because of its willingness to joke about things that most other shows wouldn’t touch. When a show builds its foundation this way, it has to keep getting more and more offensive because the writers have to top themselves.

In every joke, you need to know when you’ve reached the funniest point. Once you’ve reached it, it’s best to end the joke. Imagine you’re telling a funny story to a group of friends. You’d like the funniest part of the story to be the climax — the last part you tell. Once you get the big laugh, you’re done. You don’t keep trying to add on to the joke. (Think George Costanza trying to leave on a high note.)

The problem with FG is that they’ve already got the big laugh, and they keep trying to add to the joke, but you’re not laughing anymore. Now, you’re uncomfortable because they’re still talking and it isn’t funny.

The show’s cutaway gags were funny early on. But, like any other novelty, they wore off. It goes from being funny and clever to being unfunny and pointless. The problem is, they can’t move away from that, as that is what set them apart from shows like The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and South Park.

By the way, have you noticed that The Simpsons is taking a page from the FG playbook? I’m not sure how long ago they started doing it, but they’re using more cutaway gags in their show, although they’re not using the typical “… than the time when I…” setup.

 
Maybe the overuse of such gags, coupled with their desire to be more offensive/shocking, means the show has run its course. I don’t know. Maybe what kept the show funny for the first five seasons is the fact that it was canceled twice, which led to the hiring of some new writers (most of the old ones got new jobs) who brought fresh new humor.
 
Now, the show has been on for four consecutive seasons. This is about the time you start to see writer fatigue, and shows tend to start going downhill. As Seth MacFarlane, creator of FG, put it (although not in the same context), “you see a lot more sex jokes and (bodily function) jokes and signs of a fatigued staff that their brains are just fried.” This is probably the case.

Think about it. Season 4 of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Nicky is born and they get a new actress to play Vivian. Season 4 of Saved by the Bell: Slater’s long lost sister and Tori are introduced, and this is the last season before The College Years. (The horror… the horror…) Season 4 of Friends, Phoebe becomes the surrogate mother of her brother’s triplets, and Emily is introduced. Season 4 of The Cosby Show: Sandra and Elvin give up law and medicine, respectively, to open a wilderness store. Theo catches a dead body on a fishing trip. C’mon man. Need I go on?
 
I think the fourth/fifth season of a sitcom is usually when it starts to get stagnant. There are exceptions – Seinfeld – but for the most part, without rotating or completely changing the writing teams, you’re going to start noticing the same jokes over and over again. I think that’s what happened to FG. I’m not saying the show should be canceled yet. But, someone should certainly start thinking about it. And remember, I like(d) the show.

This is one of the few funny moments, to me, from after season 5: