I cant stand Family Guy anymore. Sure, virtually every episode has Sesame or Muppet parodies(including the Star Wars spoof movies), but the show is just repulsive.
Ive become a big Simpsons fan again, as the newer seasons prove to me they're edgy and smart in their own way. I like the recent Christmas episode, which included a scene where Maggie wants Homer to pop in a spoof of Muppet Family Christmas. Which leads to her envisioning the Simpsons as Muppet puppets.
Actually, I have problems with BOTH. Both shows have hit their strides long ago (though I do like the FG Star Wars episodes... need to see the third one), and they're at the point where if you see one or two good episodes a season it at least means they're trying. I hate how everyone in FG has no personality, and basically just perform nasty acts on each other (Meg especially... yeah, I get it, it's tough writing for the female lead that Fox made you add to the show 12 years ago). Likewise I hate how the Simpsons became the Lisa Simpson soapbox show (especially this season) where the writers willfully brandish their Harvard education and cast people no one but them have heard about or cared about as special guest stars. Oh yeah, they got a poet lauriet or obscure archetect to say "D'Oh!"
And yet they still find Cletus hilarious. Though I agree, I LOVED that puppet Simpsons bit.
I find the unsung heroes are the red headed step shows like Futurama and American Dad, where you know the writers have middle child syndrome and are out there writing the heck out of shows that just don't have the same sway as the bloated sacks that keep getting renewed because everyone watches them. Shows with bizarre way out plots that don't copy from themselves and seem repetitive. The rapture episode of American Dad is one of the most brilliant TV cartoons I've seen in ever.
Don't get me wrong, I still dig FG and Simpsons and watch every episode... but if I see one more Simpsons where Lisa spends the episode whining about how hard it is the be a precocious vegetarian Buddhist environmentalist artistic girl or one more Family Guy where Peter acts like a 2 year old for the first act and a half before the main plot with Stewie and Brian, I'll scream.