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"Gryffin" 25 years
We tell you why this terribly incompetent - and even offensive - the animated series is still so funny
On January 31, 1999, the American television channel Fox showed the cartoon “And death has a shadow” - the first series of “Gryffins”, an animated sitcom for adults. Critic Anton Khitrov tells what the comedy style of the long-life series consists of-and why not everyone likes his stupid humor in 2024.
When a graduate of the Rod-Alend School of Design, the beginner multiplier Seth McFarlein introduced the FOX TV channel FAMILY Guy, a animated sitcom, known in Russian as “Gryffins”-he was 25 years old, as much as his series was fulfilled today. The McFarlane cartoon has more than four hundred episodes: in American animation, only the “cross-carrier rabbit”, which was the first painted television show, at the PenCilMATION, and, of course, with Simpsons, only in American animation.
The legendary Sitk Matt Gromer, Marge, Barte and Lisa began to go out on the same Fox TV channel ten years before the Gryffin, and the similarity between them is so obvious that the series more than once joked on this topic - including the 2014 crossover, where Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin became rivals. Gryffins, like Simpsons - a white family from the middle class, in both husbands - a fool and a drunkard, and his wife is patient and smart. Both shows regularly joke about celebrities and parody pop culture. The difference is in intonation. The cartoon of McFarlane is tougher: Homer is a good -natured bog, and Peter is an egoistic monster.
For 25 years, the Gryffins received nine Emmy television awards and many other awards. McFarlein does not hide that he was inspired by the “Simpsons” - but his show also influenced the next generation of “adults” animated series. For example, the speaking dog Brian with his complex personal life and an unsuccessful literary career is the prototype of depressed anthropomorphic animals from the Bodzhek . And the ingenious infant, the inventor of Seti, who wanders through multi-seniority and meets with other versions of himself-one of Rick Sancheza's predecessors. By the way, the Gryffins themselves noticed these coincidences (and by jokes it seemed that the scriptwriters were jealous of the audience to a new show).
And the series is regularly criticized - both on the right and on the left: for example, for ridicule against religion or violence against female characters. One of the last noticeable scandals around the show happened in 2014: the crossover of the Gryffin and Simpsons criticized the rape, which fell into the episode trailer. According to the plot, Bart Simpson persuaded Steui Griffin to play the bartender of the MO by phone - and he did not come up with anything better than saying: “Hello, Mo, your sister will rape.” Gag is most likely conceived to emphasize the difference between the characters of the two shows, and at the same time between the series themselves. But the careless mention of a painful topic hurt some spectators. Tim Winter, President of the Parental Council on Television - a conservative organization who advocates for “returning family values to the entertainment industry” - even urged the creators to cut it out of the episode.
It is worth admitting that in a quarter of a century the humor of the “Gryffin” is outdated: on Yutube you can find cuts of jokes from the series “Not for Snowflakes” (conservatives call “snowflakes” of young people who are concerned about political correctness). Nevertheless, McFarlane needs to pay tribute: he managed to find a unique comedic style that distinguishes his show from Simpsons, Southern Park and other analogues.
The signature technique of “griffins” is the short inserted sketches, the so-called CutaWays, not related to the main plot of the series, but attached to the words of the heroes: Peter, Brian or someone else recalls the film actor, the character of pop culture or historical figure-and we are immediately showed to sketch with his participation. The series also has a characteristic visual humor that destroys the audience expectations from animation. Traditionally, gags in cartoons are based on movement - and in Gryffins a comedic scene can be built so that the character will never move at all. Or we are used to the fact that “cartoons” are stronger than real people, and that the age rating in animation prohibits, for example, blood - and the heroes of the “Gryffin” are regularly crippled, so much so that it hurts to watch. Another pride of the series is voice acting: for many heroes, including Peter, Steuy and Brian, McFarlain himself speaks, who, like no one else, can find a ridiculous and memorable voice.
Outside the show, McFarlein sometimes behaves quite seriously: the multiplier has repeatedly supported the presidential campaigns of the Democrats (for example, represented Bernie Sanders at a rally in Los Angeles) and spoke out in defense of LGBT+. Nevertheless, the main quality of his most successful show is carelessness.
Griffin is another Peter in the gallery of Peters who do not want to grow up (between Peter Pan and Peter Quill from the Marvel film outstatic). He does not demonstrate any ambitions, does not care about other people's feelings and, as a rule, wants only one thing - to have fun. No wonder the hero instead of a crown phrase has an inimitable nasty laugh , which he reacts not only to funny things, but also to everything that brings him joy, like parties, attractions or bathing in a washing machine. There are not so harmless entertainments, up to the bullying of their own children, primarily-a teenage daughter Meg, who is humiliated by everyone who is not lazy in the series (the actress of voice acting Mila Kunis even said that “shut up, Meg!” Fans regularly address her herself).
But Peter is a parent, husband and generally Family Guy, according to the name of the show, that is, a person with what kind of responsibilities. Actually, this contradiction is the source of most comic situations in Gryffins. From the episode to the episode, Gryffin has fun eliminates responsibility and feels like a schoolboy who escaped from a lesson who enjoys not only idleness, but also his own insolence. Fear of growing up is an understandable emotion that has made the series a hit. The viewer is infected with this feeling and sympathizes with Peter, and not, say, his wife Lois, who cannot afford to be infantile - "she is a woman."
Caution is a feature of not only the protagonist, but also the series as a whole. “Griffins” evil laughs both at politicians and stars, and at vulnerable groups, for example, over women or people with disabilities: what are Glenna Kuagmaire’s sexual habits, a neighbor of Gryffin - strictly speaking, there is no not funny guy, but a real rapist. But the same carelessness, the willingness to resolve everything in general, makes the “griffins” “Gryffin”.
The McFarlane show is absolutely and unconditionally free. This is the reason for its main problems, but in the same - its main advantage. The characters can break the fourth wall in any conceivable way, realizing themselves by the actors of the game sitcom, then painted men - or they can die with a terrible death and return in the next series as if nothing had happened, without any explanation. Even the inserted sketches, the same CutaWays, occur, in fact, just like that: we seem to tell you a story, but you know what, well, to hell, let's just have a neighing. In this regard, the series is very similar to Peter Gryffin himself, who raced to the aid of a friend and stopped playing mini-golf.
The responsibility that the show itself avoids and its main character is the most important requirement for modern comedy: spectators, critics and comedians themselves are increasingly talking about how dangerous jokes that support, say, discrimination. It is not surprising that the "Gryffin" is more comfortable in the past, and not in the present. The series regularly makes an Ommage pop culture of the last century-like the old Hollywood musicals, who outdated musical genres or the classical trilogy of Star Wars.
At the same time, the Gryffin team perfectly understands how much this contradictory show is - and makes fun of themselves in the series. The same Kuagmair in one of the new episodes is directly called the character, inappropriate in the #Metoo era. But do not be deceived, the McFarlane show does not adapt to new norms and does not fight with them: it laughs carelessly to everyone, including himself. Still, a 25-year habit.
Anton Khitrov