analog

That's an almost insulting attempt at rebuttal. You didn't watch it, but you're taking time in this thread to bash it and pass judgment as though you had.

I'm not sure how it seemed reasonable in your thought process, but it doesn't work here in the real world.

As to the thread: I find South Park, in general, to be very hit-and-miss. It seems like entire seasons have gone by with almost no real "good" shows. Preaching is all well and good, but if all you do is say, "let's preach on _______" for this episide, and then do that for every episode, it gets a little tired after a while. Plus, unless we're talking about an exception, the "rule" is pretty mediocre writing.

Aside from that, and in all honesty, the "cut and paste" nature of some of Family Guy's jokes is a result of writing, not cop-out. Writers constantly write little scenes, or one-liners, or small sets of joke or regular dialog that seem good but just aren't for the narrative they're working on at the moment. Taking what you've written and incorporating it into a full piece of script, is very much part of the process. I, personally, can attest to that- I write a little scene for a script, and don't end up using it... do i throw it away? Hell no. It's saved, and it's used in some other piece. Just because jokes seem interchangeable doesn't mean there's any less work involved, or the talent is any less brilliant. In writing, there are often scraps left behind from what you wrote, to the finished product- only an idiot would throw those away, instead of saving them for something else.