Knowledge Waits is a feature where I just share some bit of comic book history that interests me. Today, I examine how Seth MacFarlane was influenced by Gary Larson’s The Far Side in creating Family Guy, and then I’ll share some homages MacFarlane made to the iconic comic strip.
When Family Guy creator, Seth MacFarlane, appeared on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast, Maron asked MacFarlane what comics were influences on MacFarlane growing up. MacFarlane explained how Gary Larson’s The Far Side was the strip that impacted him the most (while also crediting Mad Magazine), “I liked Mad. The Far Side was the thing that really was groundbreaking for me. That just altered my whole perception of….and god, you look at those panels now, they’re so great and they’re so classic. But you remember at the time, if there had been bloggers then, if there had been think pieces, they would have torn them to shreds. People were like, ‘This is horrific. This is offensive,’ And…yes, but they were also brilliant.”
Later, MacFarlane would note that the format of Family Guy, with the constant cutaway jokes, was basically like interjecting Monty Python jokes or The Far Side comic strips into the series as much as possible. He explained in a Reddit AMA that it was very challenging to do because you WOULD basically have to write a new Far Side comic every few minutes, “The cutaways are actually the hardest things to write on the show. Story-centric jokes come a little easier, but when you have to conceive and invent a whole independent little sequence several times in a episode, it’s challenging as hell. Like doing a Far Side cartoon 10-12 times an episode.”
Later in the Maron interview, MacFarlane also acknowledged The Far Side‘s influence on having Brian Griffin talk on Family Guy (and, much later on, the success of Ted), “One of the fundamental tropes of The Far Side was this conventionalizing of talking animals. There’s one that I remember where there are two cows that are sitting in their living room and the wife cow has all these pearls and is wearing this beautiful dress. She is just clearly living a very good life. And the caption is simply, ‘ Wendell. I’m not content.’ And it was just such an awesome non-joke. That’s just like, ‘Why did this need to be two cows?'”
Over the years, Family Guy has paid homage to Larson and The Far Side as a sort of acknowledgment of its influence on the series, although, of course, MacFarlane hasn’t actually been the showrunner on Family Guy in many years.
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When Stewie takes over the world, he doesn’t like his Gary Larson portrait
One of the more notable early episodes of Family Guy was Season 6’s two-parter, “Stewie Kills Lois”/”Lois Kills Stewie,” written by David A. Goodman and Steve Callaghan, respectively (Goodman was the co-showrunner at the time, while Callaghan would take over as co-showrunner for Seasons 8-15). In the first part of the episode, Stewie Griffin seemingly finally kills Lois (something he had been threatening to do since the series had begun), but at the end of the first part, Lois shows up alive.
Now knowing what a monster her son is, Lois tries to take him down, but Stewie engages in a scheme where he takes control of the world’s power grid, and blackmails the world’s governments into making him the President of the World. While in the White House, we see Stewie sitting for his Presidential portrait. Stewie then notes that he likes it much better than the portrait that Gary Larson did of him, and they cut to a Larson-esque drawing of Stewie with a chicken…
Image via Fox Television
Image via Fox Television
Stewie even notes, “Why am I talking to a chicken?” Lois breaks into the White House, and tries to kill Stewie with his own arsenal from the Griffin home, but in the end, she can’t bring herself to kill her own son. Stewie takes the chance to try to kill HER, when Stewie’s dad, Peter, shows up, and kills Stewie. We then learn that the whole story was a virtual reality simulation (Brian teases Stewie about how the viewers are going to feel that that is a copout).
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Season 20 of Family Guy oddly had two different notable Far Side references in different episodes
In Season 20’s season premiere, “LASIK Instinct,” (written by Kirker Butler), Lois accidentally runs over one of Stewie’s classmates. She goes to the doctor to test her eyes, but instead of having her read a normal eyechart, the doctor has her describe some cartoons that she is seeing.
He then dubs her “Far Sighted,” as she is reading from a The Far Side collection. However, her vision really actually IS messed-up, and so she gets LASIK done. However, the procedure goes wrong, and she is blinded. She embraces her new blind identity, and soon becomes a popular motivational speaker. Then her sight returns, and she refuses to admit to being able to see, and hilarity ensues.
Twelve episodes later, in “Lawyer Guy,” Peter is soaked while sleeping in his hammock, due to his new neighbor’s sprinklers. Peter sees an ad for a lawyer, Brick Baker, and Peter hires him to sue his neighbor. However, when they get to trial, Peter is shocked to learn that his neighbor IS Brick Baker! A shocked Peter shouts, “You’re my neighbor! You’re the defendant!” and then continues with the role reversal jokes with, “And I’m the court room sketch artist?”
He then draws a court room sketch, but it’s essentially just a Far Side comic strip. He even notes to the audience, “I drew a Far Side”…
Image via Fox Television
Image via Fox Television
Peter then has to act as his lawyer, but thanks to his friends, he actually wins the case! Brick Baker then steals Peter’s friends, but by the end of the episode, they’ve worked out their differences (mostly).
