Some of the content in this article contains swearing and material not suitable for children!

When you think ‘cartoon’, you might also think ‘for kids’ but the happy fact is, there are lots of them around that are most definitely adult humour. For example, Family Guy and South Park are not at all little-kid-friendly but some can be watched by both children and grown ups, such as The Simpsons and Charlie Brown.

There’s also King of the Hill and Futurama which contains jokes and one-liners kids wouldn’t necessarily understand but adults would.

Family Guy is my most favourite, closely followed by South Park, so these are the ones we’ll take a look at. Both are famed for their irreverent humour and sometimes obscene or insulting subject matter. I think the reason I love them so much is that they don’t care at all about political correctness; in fact, they seem to go out of their way to jump all over it.

Family Guy, in case you’ve never seen it, is an American television ‘sitcom’ in the form of a cartoon. Created by Seth MacFarlane, it airs on the Fox network in America and on various channels here. The show centres around the dysfunctional Griffin family who live in the town of Quahog, Rhode Island.

The main character is Peter Griffin – who is the family guy of the title – and other characters include Lois, his long suffering wife, Brian their talking dog and children Chris, Meg and baby Stewie.

Stewie and Brian are the characters given the best lines in my opinion and have the best character traits. For example, Brian fancies Lois and spends all his time flirting with her, though she’s oblivious to it. Stewie – who mostly hates his family – speaks with an upper class voice and is far more cerebral than the other Griffin’s.

Here’s a good example of Stewie and Brian together…

There’s a whole host of supporting characters too including the sex-crazed Quagmire, deli-owner Glenn, paraplegic ex-cop Joe and the creepy dirty old man Herbert who lives with his dog Jessie and has an unnatural interest in Chris. There’s also Mayor Adam West who is based on – and voiced by – the real Adam West.

Here are few clips from the show. Be warned, the clips contain scenes that may cause offense… hopefully, because that’s the point. In this one, the Griffin’s go to dinner with nudists.

And in this one, Peter’s on Ecstasy…

This last one is of Peter’s prostate exam…

It really is a hilarious show and if you’ve never seen it, it’s well worth checking it out. You can see an episode tonight on BBC3 at 9:35pm.

Now onto South Park which is again very much adult viewing and one that doesn’t shy away from religious or political insults, and goes out of its way to explore and pull to shreds every politically correct subject you can think of.

South Park is created and written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and the show has been distributed and aired by Comedy Central since 1997. The story revolves around the adventures of four boys, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny – as well as their friends – who live in the small town of South Park, Colorado. Since its debut in August 1997, the show has aired 181 episodes over 12 seasons.

Many of the episodes parody famous figures; for instance, the gang took the Michael out of Michael Jackson in the episode, The Jeffersons. Paris Hilton got the South Park treatment in Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset and The Passion of the Christ was remade for SP as The Passion of the Jew. They also don’t shy away from serious political issues such as terrorism, as in the episode Cartoon Wars. The American immigration policy came under fire in Goobacks and gay marriage was ‘discussed’ in Follow that Egg.

This disclaimer starts every episode, and gives you a clue as to what may be about to come. It’s brilliant stuff; keen political satire, very funny scenarios and sub-plots including the fact that Kenny keeps on getting killed.

There are a whole host of supporting characters too including Big Gay Al, Mr Hankey, the Christmas poo, Chef and Mr Garrison, a transsexual school teacher.

Let’s take a look at some clips, and again, they may cause offense and contain swearing…

This one is one of my favourites and it makes me laugh every time I hear it… very rude so be warned!

And this one is a parody of R Kelly… you need to fast forward the first few seconds.

Brilliant! You can see an episode of South Park tonight on Paramount Comedy 1 at 9:00pm.

Let us know what you think of ‘adult’ cartoons and which are your favourites!