The Simpsons vs Family Guy: The Best Crossover Moments in 14 Years of Rivalry

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SHOTS FIRED!  The Simpsons wasted no time getting the first dig in just 6 weeks after Family Guy’s first episode aired. The episode Missionary Impossible cuts to a Fox network pledge-drive, with Betty White urging viewers to “help keep this crude, low-brow programming on the air” while stood next to a TV showing the Family Guy logo.  Hardly an ether, but it’s a start.

In the “Send in the Clones” segment Homer buys a cursed hammock from a travelling hammock salesman (Springfield isn’t lucky enough to have a Hammock District like Cypress Creek), which has the ability to clone anything that climbs into it—the clone is just much more stupid than the original. He disposes of most of the original copies, but comes back to a garden full of Homers which reproduced exponentially, getting stupider and more mutated at each stage. Stand-out examples include The Tracey Ullman Show version of Homer, 300lb Homer in a Mumu, and Peter Griffin.  Message received, loud and clear.

Family Guy’s first retaliation is done in their typical pop-culture mash up style. The episode PTV opens with a parody of the Police Squad/Naked Gun credits—a first-person view of Stewie travelling around Quahog and through various other TV shows on his trike.  His journey ends by startling Homer in a garage—just as in The Simpsons credits—with him trying to outrun the car.  He doesn’t of course, and Peter comes out to ask whose body is lying on the floor.

Combining two well-worn plot formats, The Simpsons find themselves in Italy, where they bump into a newly rehabilitated Sideshow Bob—now the mayor of a Tuscan town.  The rehabilitation only lasts until Lisa gets drunk (because Italy) and exposes Bob’s criminal past to the townspeople, who strip him of his Mayoral role.  When the Italian Police bring out a picture book of criminals to help identify Sideshow Bob, some of the other pages show a photo of Peter Griffin, accused of “Plagiarismo”, and in a one-two attack at Seth McFarlane, a photo of American Dad’s Stan Smith, accused of “Plagiarismo de plagiarismo”.

Somebody call World Star—Matt Groening’s turning this rivalry into an all-out brawl.  Not content with the unprovoked jab at American Dad, he included this scene in his other cartoon Futurama, which features a flashback of Fry hanging a “Family Guy 12 Laughs a Year” calendar—even that seems a little generous.

Peter finds a winning raffle ticket from 1989 which bears the prize of playing a round of golf with OJ Simpson, and the two end up becoming best friends.  Peter arranges a welcoming party for OJ, but the people of Quahog form a mob with Mayor West declaring “We don’t want you in our town Simpson, we don’t love you like we did in 1993” - cut to a shot of Homer D’oh-ing.  A good gag, and well timed, seeing as the episode aired when The Simpsons was struggling to emerge from a particularly rocky patch of weak pop-culture satire (Mapple Mypod? Really?) and chronology-destroying flashback episodes about Homer inventing grunge.

Peter, Joe, Quagmire and the other one end up going to prison in the Deep South with a cutaway gag revealing that the jury that made the verdict was made up of unimpressed-looking Simpsons characters.  Rather than an all-out attack on their rivals, this joke relies on making the audience pity the show; Peter’s at least grateful that they’re a jury of their peers, but Joe’s not so sure they see it that way.

An episode of Family Guy where Peter Griffin ruins TV by making shows appeal to the lowest common-denominator to chase ratings.  Either the writers are master satirists, or they’re lacking in self-awareness on some Katie Hopkins level—either way, they did it.  In one scene, Homer bursts in and asks for their help because he’s ruined TV, and Peter proudly announces that this is one that they’ve beaten The Simpsons to—a humble bit of self-deprecation and a nod to critics, including South Park who started the “Simpsons Did It!” trope.

The finale of The Simpsons 24th Season, which also happened to be their 800th episode, is about potential infidelity, with Marge accidentally meeting a man online (when trying to order Homer some cupcakes) and the two of them bonding over a Downton Abbey style show.  Just as Jay-Z brought Nas on stage during a show and reconciled their differences, The Simpsons booked Seth MacFarlane to provide the voice of Ben, Marge’s would-be concubine, which he did in an inimitably sickly-charming fashion.

The last word before the official crossover episode goes to The Simpsons.  The couch gag for the Season 25 opener sees a party hosted in the famous lounge, which Homer is repeatedly denied entry to.  All the main cast members from the rest of Fox’s Animation Domination are on the guestlist and present, albeit as unnerving yellow versions of themselves like you’d expect to see on some bootleg merchandise down the market.