Sunday, March 14, 2010

7: Adult Animation Archetypes

I was watching Futurama, and I began wondering what kind of characters are recurring through most of the adult animated shows on contemporary television?  Futurama, South Park, King of the Hill and Family Guy all use similar archetypes throughout their series, and I am going to expound on these briefly.  Characters such as Bender, Cartman, Meg, and Peggy Hill reflect similar characteristics throughout these three shows.

Peter Griffin in Family Guy, Bender in Futurama, and Cartman in South Park are all clearly the most interesting characters in their respective shows.  Cartman's evil genius, Peter's stupidity, and Bender's hatred for all mankind are very similar characteristics because they express much of the driving humor in the shows.  They drive the shows and are the most interesting people to look at, holding the viewers attention throughout.

Furthermore, characters such as Peggy Hill in King of the Hill, Meg in Family Guy, and Zoidberg in Futurama all represent the characters that are kinds of punching bags.  Meg is constantly being made fun of by all the characters in Family Guy.  Peggy, although she thinks she is smart, is constantly proven to be dumber than she thinks she is.  Similarly Zoidberg represents the same character archetype in the sense that the viewer and the other characters in the show hate him.

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