While American satire cuts close to real life, FIONA RAE finds the real sting is in the 'toons.
Ever since The Simpsons picked up where All in the Family left off, animation has been the medium for satire in America.
That bug-eyed set of merchandise opportunities are so much part of American culture that they're known as "America's favourite dysfunctional family." Which means there must be others.
And here they are: King of the Hill and Family Guy (TV3, 7.30 and 8 pm), both animated satires at whose heart lives an overweight and confused dad.
While The Simpsons exist in the mid-west anytown of Springfield, King of the Hill is firmly set in the south - in Arlen, Texas, where Hank Hill's family and friends make sure his perplexed frown is permanently etched.
When he's not handing out bad advice to his son, Bobby ("Dating is all about who wins"), all Hank really wants is a quiet life drinking beer with his mates in the alley behind his house.
Last Friday, a dumped couch in the alley became a guy's paradise: "I'm sitting on the couch, drinking a beer and I'm outside," said Bill to Hank, Boomhauer and Dale.
Boomhauer's incomprehensible dialogue is a particular favourite with fans, who spend time on the Internet deciphering it, and Dale's rampant paranoia and conspiracy theories are a riot (he records all his telephone calls, labelling the tapes little gems such as "Hank/Lawn" or "Bill/Couch").
But where Mike Judge, King of the Hill's creator, casts a loving eye over his "family," the Griffins of Family Guy are an altogether more twisted affair.
Seth MacFarlane, the Fox Network's feted wunderkind who created, cowrites, draws and voices a number of characters is out to show those "good old family values" do not apply, which is a fine thing for a satire.
Trouble is, dad Peter Griffin is too obviously stupid, and most of the laughs come from Stewie, the family's megalomaniac genius baby who is constantly plotting to murder his blissfully unaware mother, Lois.
"And now, you contemptible harpie, I shall end your oppressive reign of matriarchal tyranny," he says, pointing his mind-control device at her.
But as she takes the toy away and puts him over her shoulder he is reduced to, "Blast you and your oestrogenical tyranny!"
Stewie seems like an excuse for MacFarlane to show off his English bad-guy accent, but when the rest of the family consists of a slacker brother and an unpopular sister who wants collagen lips at least Stewie is interesting.
King of the Hill comes closest to The Simpsons' ear for the absurdities of family - and American - life, although it tips over into pathos regularly (Bobby's "romance" with an older girl last week was just plain sad).
For sheer smart-alecness, Family Guy's your man.
TV: All in the families
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