6. Rival Animation
Episode: Cartoon Wars & Simpsons Already Did It What's the point of having an outspoken animated series if you can't poke fun at your peers? South Park has been very self-effacing over the years but that hasn't stopped them from putting the boot into other shows, although this tone of this mockery varies depends on the target. The first of the two main examples comes in the form of Simpsons Already Did It in which Butters attempts to carry out nefarious crimes as his alter ego Professor Chaos, only to find that everything he tries has already been done on The Simpsons. This episode comes across as more of a compliment to Springfield's favourite family while acknowledging the trouble of being original in coming up with storylines against a show that has been running for much longer. The two writing teams have a friendly relationship with the writers of The Simpsons even sending flowers to South Park on the completion of Cartoon Wars Parts I & II. These episodes are a focused criticism on Family Guy within the confines of a narrative regarding the depiction of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. The majority of the jokes are based on the fact that Family Guy's writers don't have to try hard as all of the jokes are interchangeable. The punch line to which they slowly build is that the writers of Family Guy are manatees, who select jokes within floating balls and place them in a random sequence. While some could argue that Cartoon Wars was harsh on the Griffins I find that the clear quality gap between the two shows despite Family Guy running for less time makes it more and more apparent that South Park may be on to something.