Family Guy

Family Guy is an animated television show on the FOX network. The show was criticized by Trey Parker and Matt Stone in the South Park episodes, "Cartoon Wars Part I" and "Cartoon Wars Part II" for having jokes that have nothing to do with the plot of the episode.

The second episode revealed that Family Guy is written by a group of Manatees that pick up balls that have words etched on them. One ball has a build up, and the second ends the joke. If a ball is removed from the tank, the manatees will stop their work, apparently due to the belief that all things must be allowed to be parodied and mocked, or nothing can be.

Trivia

 * Trey Parker and Matt Stone have stated that although they hate the fact that Family Guy is only famous for its cutaway jokes that have nothing to do with the main episode plot, and that they dislike being compared with it, they respect the fact that Family Guy has a large number of viewers and understand that it can provide a cheap laugh for some.
 * The Family Guy writers have become well aware of this portrayal and actually taken it in good humor, to the point of referencing those style of jokes as "Manatee jokes" in DVD commentaries after the episodes airing.
 * In one DVD commentary Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, mentioned that a comeback had been planned for the episode "McStroke" involving Matt and Trey being seen at "Anal Point", but it was ultimately dropped, feeling that it was in bad taste.