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Entertainment Weekly has released their annual list of the 25 smartest people in television, which seems to be based entirely on how much money is in your direct deposit every two weeks. So guess who’s number one.
That ?frat-boy persona is only a cover. MacFarlane earns the $100 million that Fox ?is paying him to keep ?Family Guy and American Dad on Sundays through 2012, especially when you consider that Family Guy DVDs and merchandise have pulled in a ?reported $1 billion for 20th ? Century Fox. The apple-faced prankster secured ?a full-season order for a ?Guy spin-off called The Cleveland Show, and he ? still manages to find time ?to shoot his Cavalcade of ? Cartoon Comedy Web ?shorts (and animated ads) for a separate deal with Google. With Guy reruns airing approximately ? 20 hours a week on various networks, it’s no wonder ?MacFarlane is now the ?highest-paid writer in TV.
Wait, what? No, seriously, let’s get off Seth MacFarlane’s for a second cause I just got off yours, but WHAT IS THAT CRITERIA? Even if I was going to assume that earning 100 million dollars was the one definition of intelligence, and not, say, a reflection of someone’s fart-brained, lowest-common-denominator, unimaginative, pop-culture-reference-Cliff-Notes brand of dull-edged ‘comedy’ for 13-year-old boys being perfect for a country of 13-year-old boys, this paragraph still manages to propose unearned half-thoughts as well-reasoned facts. The argument that he “earns” that 100 million dollars really just means “it’s only fair” as a small percentage of the money the Family Guy franchise has pulled in. And how is the frat-boy persona a cover? Just because you say so and then fail to follow up on that statement? Is that how logic works now? Whoever wrote this is definitely not making the list of 25 Smartest People In Horrible Magazine Writing anytime soon.
This list is so patently ridiculous that even a dummy like Seth MacFarlane probably recognizes it’s worthlessness. Let’s make our own list of the 25 smartest people in television. You know, as a fuck you to someone. I’m not sure who. I’ll start.
The Videogum List Of The 25 Smartest People In Television
- Bill Nye The Science Guy
- Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim
- Flavor Flav
- The Mythbusters
- Conan O’Brien
That’s five. We still need 20 names. You do it. I’ve got to go pick up my award for 25 Smartest Bloggers Who Are Too Lazy To Bother Finishing What They Started.
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1. Tina Fey
2. Tina Fey
3. Tina Fey
Rick Steves
The basketball monkey.
Jon Stewart
That quote from EW that you posted needs more question marks.
Maybe Entertainment Weekly bases their research on Worthington’s Law:
More Money = Better Than
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF8wLg5Asgo
the ponytail makes it… i stole that from the commentary
john hodgman
Tribe, De La and Beasties is my idea of good hiphop…I don’t know what the F happened…
what?
Josh Schwartz
dino stamatoupolis, robert smigel, trey parker, matt stone, lisa simpson, anderson pooper
spaghetti cat and charlie day.
Larry David.
“Apple-faced prankster”?
i love this site so much
in all seriousness, it has to be the wire’s creator david simon.
Marc Summers. Dude knows lots about junk food. Always informative.
Sherri Shepherd
That frat boy is just a cover comment, isnt just stupid, its that the exact opposite is true. Lots of frat boys are from wealthy families and then go on to become extremely wealthy themselves. Thats sort of what they do and what they are.
john hodgman
alton brown
Alton Brown
Al Roker.
Colbert.
Bill Mahr.
Whoever came up with that commercial for yahoo where the dog fucking comes back to life and jumps out of the flowerbed. Laughed for days.
I am going to buy this website, you dicks. be prepared to become burgerkinggum
Amen! May I add Nightman
Only if I add the Dayman.
Fighter of the Nightman.
Harvey Weinstein (Project Runway)
Ben Silverman (The Office, everything)
Liz Gateley (The Hills’ overlord)
I think you just bought a one-way ticket to hell for including Harvey Weinstein.
Spongebob. Hands down.
Stephen Fry, John Hodgman.
Yeah, where’s the Tina Fey appreciation Gabe. Typical sexism.
is sexism still relevant in 2008?
Three words: Doctor Steve Brule.
stephen colbert, the entire cast of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, tina fey, the ex cast of Whose LIne is it Anyways, south park guys,
Tim Gunn and Joel Mchale
Keith Olbermann
Stephen Colbert
Elvis Costello
Norm Macdonald.
Seth MacFarlane.
Lee Majors. (Whaaaaatttt??? The dude is smart. Sit down and ask him about particle physics sometime. Or Bionics. The guys an expert on the stuff.)
Well, his shows are shit. But making 100 mil from Family Guy makes the guy pretty smart (because he is the one exploiting, not the one being exploited)
He might not actually be the smartest, but he definitely wins the award for Most Precious Moniker: “apple-faced prankster.”
My smartest:
Alton Brown
Simon Schama
Miss Frizzle from the Magic Schoolbus
Hell, I would put Tila Tequila above Seth MacFarlane.
I believe Tim and Eric should be at number one, thank you.
Bill Nye’s boss too.
tim and eric
gregory house
tina fey
the end
The article focuses on how successful these people are, subjective as that might be. And it doesn’t really matter if you like him or not, Seth McFarlane has been pretty successful. What I have a problem with is the inclusion of Lorne Michaels, who I suppose is adept at hiring some funny people every 5 years or so, and stumbling ass backwards into a political year ripe for mockery.
But yeah, the cast of It’s Always Sunny should at least get an honorable mention.
Alan Partridge
Larry Sanders
Conan O’Brien
Joel Mchale and everyone who writes for Joel Mchale. And I’m sure Spaghetti Cat is smarter than Seth McFarland.
MacFalane, whatever. He’s going to sleep on a bed made of many no matter what I call him.
tim and eric can rot in hell too! fuck those guys
1. Tina Fey
2. Charlie Day
3. The rest of the Sunny crew for enabling Charlie Day
Wtf? Brb becoming a tv writer.
I can definitely understand not liking Family Guy, but calling it “unimaginative”? Go back ten years and compare Family Guy to every other show on TV at the time, including the Simpsons.
Even if you think they rely too heavily on pop culture references, I don’t know how you can’t consider it extremely creative and imaginative.
If Conan O’Brien was so smart than over the past fifteen years he would have learned how to conduct a proper late night interview and not jump on top of his guests jokes and stories in the most annoying way possible. Watch his interview with Joel McHale. It’s terrible. As soon as McHale is about to a truly funny bit about Hugh Hefner, Conan jumps all over it and kills the momentum. It’s a hosts job to let the guest shine and be charming, not try to outdo the guest.Conan is unbearable and, bar none, the worst interviewer in late night.
I used to work on Family Guy as an artist, and let me tell you that Seth and his writers are all a bunch of Fratboy, self-important assholes.
I hated working on that piece of shit show, and quit as soon as I found something else. I even took a paycut to get the hell out of that nightmare atmosphere.
I absolutely cannot believe that someone is gonna trash Seth MacFarlane’s work as “lowest common denominator humor” and then put Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim on their list of the 5 smartest guys in TV. Are you kidding?
Believe it!
I vote for whoever got the other $900,000,000.
Surely the implication is that he earns this amount of money because his franchises are successful, which is down to his initiative and emotional intelligence, the ability to read and judge public sentiment and balance that off against a complex array of comedy devices? Or were you trying to be funny?
Um, Oprah anyone?
6. Jon Stewart
7. Seth Meyer
8. Tina Fey
9. Stephen Colbert
10. Joel McHale
11. Alton Brown
Jesus Gabe, you make it sound like I raped your father infront of your mother, then beat your mother infront of your brother, then ate your brother infront of your father, then broke my dick off inside your sister.
Get a grip. I would never eat another human being.
is this really seth?i know that you do go online and read and answer things people have put on well i read that somewhere anyway i am from scotland and i got season 1 about 3 years ago as a christmas present my aunt god rest her soul believed it was the simpsons so i watched it and at first to be honest i didnt like it and could see why fox cancelled it but i decided to watch it over again i work with a 100 guys and because of my love of your show all the guys watch it and most mornings we have a great laugh about the episodes we have seen the night before keep up the great work you and your team are amazing and i would love you to introduce a nice scottish character for an episode or 2 nothing like ground keeper willie in the simpsons i do hope this is you and you get this
P.S. – Fuck you in the ass.
In no particular order:
Ricky Gervais
Stephen Colbert
Jeremy Paxman
Larry David
J.J. Abrams
Conan O’Brien
Jon Stewart
Louis Theroux
Chris Morris
Matt Groening
Steve Coogan
Michael Showalter
David Wane
Michael Ian Black
David Cross
bill o’reilly
bill lawrence created/writes the funniest television show out there right now
Flavor Flav? How the fuck.
I agree with O’Brien though.
STEPHEN FRY and CHARLIE BROOKER. If you don’t know who they are, Youtube will provide you with hours of edification and enjoyment…
and +1 to the people who said Larry David.
You fail, having proper insults would have at least been entertaining. Insulting someone over the internet who clearly has made more of a statement than you have? HA Keep writing your blogs, it will get you NO WHERE
For what it’s worth: I interviewed MacFarlane for a small potatoes web magazine a few years ago and he was patient, thoughtful, entertaining and pretty much the furthest thing in the world from being a self-satisfied asshole. That said, I guess you have to allow for the possibility of $100 million changing a dude. As for the Family Guy haters… the show’s hard to classify precisely because it mixes sly, perfectly timed character-driven curveballs and beautifully written musical numbers in with the scatological stuff and outright misogyny. It’s a great show. Deal.
While I despise this show and agree with Gabe’s point, I found this post very difficult to follow. How can Gabe call out EW for bad writing when he’s “crafted” what is by far the worst paragraph of all time? Glass houses, buddy. Confer with Strunk, you’ll be the wiser.
what about Beakman of Beakman’s World fame? or even Ms. Frizzle from the magic school bus.. those were smart people when I grew up.. haha
Jack Horkheimer will show you the stars
With Public Access, y’all can be a smartest people in the magic box.
Goddamn, people. STEVE URKEL.
Who ever said john Stewart is a fucking idiot. That guy is about as smart as my cats shit.