Seth MacFarlane Praises ‘South Park’ Creators Despite Them Mocking Him for Years

Ask someone today the last time they remember a person decisively winning a feud, and the answer will be Kendrick Lamar. Even folks who aren’t familiar with Lamar’s work know that he made Drake look like an absolute clown. He has, on several occasions, inspired stadiums full of people to call Drake something I don’t think I can type out lest we be throttled by our advertisers. The man took the stage at the Super Bowl, long after he had won, and salted the earth. It was devastating, about as devastating as Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s takedown of Family Guy.

Parker and Stone (who are making a movie with Kendrick Lamar that sounds… interesting) are the creators of the long-running South Park. The comedic cartoon has spent decades lampooning celebrities and regular folk alike. It truly is one of those “we’ll make fun of anyone” shows. Like most comedy, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and often it ages poorly. There are South Park bits that make me cringe just thinking about them. There are takedown of Family Guy, however, that live fondly in my memory.

The show did a two-part episode about Family Guy in 2006 that took the show to task. It skewered it for what they considered to be poor writing (going as far as to say the writers were manatees who drew ideas like BINGO balls). They were also clearly venting frustration at being compared to the new hit cartoon. The episodes were hilarious and kept high school me from watching any more Family Guy. Hell, I didn’t even know they tried to respond a few years later. Parker and Stone have both made it clear they hate the show in interviews. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane hums a different tune.

MacFarlane recently appeared on The Town podcast and was asked about South Park’s most recent feud, where they openly mocked the President of the United States in a new, record-breaking episode of their show. “I would never trade our animation team for anything on Family Guy, but their production cycle of, what is it, like, two weeks?” the Naked Gun producer explained. “It’s kind of amazing.” Fun sidenote, an episode of South Park only takes about six days to make.

The creator praised the show further, comparing its process to that of Family Guy, which MacFarlane isn’t as involved with these days, mainly going in to play Peter Griffin and collecting a fat-ass check. “It’s pretty incredible that it’s — yeah, any show that lasts that long is pretty astounding,” he noted. “Our shows take about 10 months to a year to produce each episode, so we have to really kind of guess what the world is going to look like, which obviously gets harder and harder.”

Processes aside, both shows will have a spot in animation history. Their feud did not end with Family Guy’s cancellation or Seth MacFarlane getting ab implants. Still, South Park has remained relevant in a way Family Guy hasn’t, and I doubt that’s going to change.