i don't really want this to be a straight up discussion of which series you like better, but more of which one was more "complete". throw in simpsons if you think it should be in the mix. my own views:

Futurama
theres tons of mathematical jokes thrown in ("no fair! you changed the outcome by measuring it!"; books labeled P and NP).

you end up caring about the characters more than any other animated comedy show. as seen in everyone listing jurassic bark as the only episode that made them come close to crying or whatever. plus episodes like the sting, the devils hands, etc.

my recent discovery that nibbler was seen in the PILOT as well as in jurassic bark, before why of fry came out. that foresight completely blew my mind. seriously the writers are geniuses.

consistency: from episode 1 to the end, futurama imo has absolutely the most consistency as a series. south park's first 3 seasons baffle me as to how it continued to be made, and later seasons would dip slightly by their standards. simpson's first couple seasons sucked and after season 9ish continued on a huge downward slope. but nothing like that in futurama.

favorite episodes: roswell that ends well. farnsworth paradox.

favorite characters: zapp, zoidberg


South Park
definitely had a greater societal impact than futurama, probably close with simpsons. societal commentary obviously leaps and bounds over both of them.

i would know next to nothing about scientologists and mormons if not for this show. and i swear i never noticed how lame family guy was until they did cartoon wars. and now i hate seth mcfarland.

definitely pushes the envelope more than any other show out there, so much so that it seems to be struggling to continue pushing it further

favorite episodes: imaginationland, krazy kripples

favorite characters: butters, cartman


overall i give the nod to futurama. south park has flashes of brilliance (now its "flashes", but seasons 4-8 were all awesome), but the entire series of futurama is just a work of art.

It's South Park IMO it has more episodes and higher peaks. Using Jurassic Bark as an episode about how you care about characters is really bad imo since most of the caring is about a dog who is rarely shown in the show. Talking to people about the episode most of the people who love it are dog-owners and they are projecting (INTERNET PSYCHOLOGIST) their feelings about their dogs onto Fry's dog. A better example, would be the Luck of the Fryish, however generally people still don't really care about the characters all that much imo. The Nibbler example is also poor they showed so many random aliens in the background throughout the series, it doesn't show forethought by turning one of them into a regular character. If you are saying that we saw Nibbler pushing Fry into the cyrogenic machine or doing something else, which could be related to the plot in "The Why of Fry" you would have a valid point.

yes, you see nibblers shadow in episode 1 when fry falls in the freezer.

good point about jurassic bark. i guess its not so much of caring about the characters, its the wide spectrum of emotions that futurama can convey. i don't think its limited to dog owners at all, since i'm not one. seriously can you think of a south park episode that made you as sad as that one? kenny dies is the only one i think they tried in, but it wasn't on the same level.

I've never gotten the love for Futurama, it's somewhat amusing imo, but just pales horribly in comparison to Simpsons/South Park. If the thread had been titled properly, I would have voted Simpsons, but since I didn't read all the poll answers before voting, I went for South Park. It's close between the two of them though, it's been a long time since The Simpsons has been remotely close to funny, the movie was just an abomination.

one quick thing,

i'm a pretty big futurama fan and i think the writers are brilliant but i remember reading that they actually inserted nibbler into the pilot episode when they came up with the idea of jurassic bark and then the why of fry. not positive but i think i remember reading it. still pretty good! just not "foresight since ep 1" good.

It is not even close. South Park has moments of absolute brilliance. Simpsons is consistently funny.

I am really not a big cartoon guy, so I struggle to watch any of these shows, but I will watch Southpark as often as I can just because sometimes it is genius. The Simpsons I always find funny, but almost never watch, and the other two I almost never watch because I don't find them funny.

I do like when South Park makes fun of Family Guy though.

the only reason i didn't include simpsons is because this is completely not true. if simpsons stopped 9 years ago it would be better than futurama and SP imo. but simpsons as it is now, is complete crap. and i had to factor that in when comparing the shows.

This poll is missing King of the Hill which is incredible in my humble opinion.

Hmm...two terrible shows, one decent one, and one of the best shows ever. Pretty easy contest: SP wins, and it's not close. I honestly don't know how people can enjoy Futurama or Family Guy.

i love the show but didn't think it would have the cult following like the rest do. honestly, at the peak of each of those 4 shows (excluding family guy ldo), i would have a very hard time ranking which ones i liked best. but i wanted this thread to take into account other factors, like consistency or whatever.

lumping futurama with family guy should be punishable by death. futurama is one of the smartest shows out there.

futurama is almost as bad as king of the hill

FYP

I've got to say the new season of SP has been lackluster at best IMHO - but still voted for it.

I voted for The Simpsons, even though at this point its had more bad than good, the good was so great that it has to get the nod imo.

p.s. wiki on nibler in ep 1.

Simpsons > Futurama ~ South Park > King of the Hill > Other, imo. I know the Simpsons has hung around for too long, but, at least imo, South Park has done the exact same thing. I stopped watching both on a regular basis a while ago, but when I do happen to catch a "new" episode here or there, it's pretty surprising how unfunny they are now. Futurama was the only one of them that was consistently good, probably because it was canceled before it had a chance to suck. But even so, it had more continuous character arcs and recurring themes that spanned a few episodes, which is, or was, somewhat original.

Also, King of the Hill is awesome, but loses points for the Peggy heavy episodes.

I've never liked Futurama at all.

Can't get into it one bit.

I think its pretty close imo. If I had to vote for one, it would be Simpsons because of overall impact. It has changed television and even though it has sucked for the past 5-6 seasons, it has created its own culture and much of our generation. If I were voting on overall current quality and humor it would prob be last tho.

South Park is brilliant @ times, but Trey Parker and Matt Stone seem full of themselves. Still, very humorous and they did tarnish my view of Family Guy somewhat (I still don't think its as bad as they think it is, and can be smart @ times).

Futurama is just quality, so it might get my vote as most consistent.

South Park.

Simpsons>SP=Futurama>>> being kicked in the nuts >> FG

I voted for Futurama because the title and poll disagree, but The Simpsons is superior to any of them. The problem is the Simpsons haven't been good for over a decade(almost half my life! an 18 year old reading this was too young to watch any of the good episodes), but man, from Seasons 2-7 they were as good as any show could ever hope to be. Just look at the episode list from like Season 6 and you're like "Wow I must have misremembered because it seems like all the great episodes are from this season" but then you glance at Season 3 and you realize that it's every episode. They have several 10+ consecutive good episode runs. South Park can't go 3 episodes without dropping in something that sucks, and even the really great South Parks(Scott Tenorman, Die Hippie Die) pale compared to episodes like Last Exit to Springfield or Deep Space Homer.
I've probably seen Last Exit to Springfield one hundred times and I still laugh every time Lenny gets punched in the back of the head.

Back on point:
Trying to mix comedy with pathos requires a deft touch and as much as I like the SP guys, there's no way they could make an episode that is legitimately poignant and funny. Futurama has done that, what, 4 or 5 times? Nobody else does that, not even live action shows. Those episodes are like >50% of humanity's total output of "funny/sad".



Also, Pudge, I don't like dogs at all. They actually kind of annoy me, I'm way more of a cat person. That said, if you don't cry at the end of Jurassic Bark you don't have a soul.
NSFW unless you work at a place where it's cool for employees to break down and sob uncontrollably because a cartoon dog displays loyalty:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=H25B99cyTFw&NR=1

I haven't watched Futurama in a very long time and I've never followed it so I'll leave that one out. That said; South Park > Family Guy >>>>>>>> Simpsons. On average I might smirk once per episode of Simpsons if I'm in a good mood. It's just not funny.

I'm a huge Futurama fan. I've always liked SP, but I'd still go with Futurama any day. Something about the characters in Futurama makes them more interesting to watch than the SP kids.
Also, Jurassic Bark was a definite tear-jerker and every time it comes on the TV I have trouble watching it.

I havn't watched much Futurama, is there really an episode that makes everyone cry?

peak simpsons>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>anything else

overall as shows it goes something like

south park>>futurama>>simpsons>>>>>>>>>>>>family guy

The backlash against Family Guy is so sick. Should have never came back.