Is the deeper meaning of a cartoon proportional to the surface idiocy?

I was watching Futurama, the Clockwork Origin episode the other day, and I thought that it was pretty nice to see some kind of message in such a stupid show. Then I watched South Park, which is far more offensive and stupid at first glance, but always has some terrific satire underneath, and I started to wonder if there was a correlation between the underlying intelligence of a show and the stupidity required to mask that intelligence (in the interest of not alienating the generally dim witted audience)