Family Guy Thread (Ladies and Gentleman, Mr Conway Twitty!)

[benji]

Sure, it put Brian in his place for once but who cares about the characters in Family Guy? What incentive have they given us, particularly in the last couple of seasons, to care about them? It just came off as filler to me.

How was it filler? It was the conclusion to the B story of Brian finding out Quagmire hates him, and the logical conclusion of Brian asking why when Quagmire never warms up to him.

It was still the high point of the night. Because it was brutal, no holds barred, absolute destruction of a person. You don't have to care about them, and it's even better if you hate them. And if you don't and actually relate and like the character?

Holy fucking shit!

That hurt MY feelings

Damn. I was totally taken aback by that. (And a bunch of it felt like it was being spoken to me.)

Yeah, same here. Didn't help that my name is Brian too.

Holy shit Quagmire just ether'd Brian, references from about half a dozen different episodes.

[Andrew]

I just don't get how it's funny or awesome for Seth to call out his avatar and basically just read a laundry list of how the character has become more annoying in recent seasons. To me, it seems more like wallowing in one's own crapulence, to paraphrase Mr Burns. Sure, it was brutal, but to me that doesn't automatically equal brilliance. It fits the Seth MacFarlane formula of cruel equals funny but personally I've grown weary of that so I don't find it appealing. It also sort of came out of left field as Brian and Quagmire have gotten along fine in previous episodes.

[benji]

It wasn't cruel, it was honesty. Brian sucks, has always sucked, and Quagmire laid out why to his face after Brian asked. A rare Family Guy plot that actually concludes satisfactorily.

Family Guy long ago ditched the premise that there was any purpose to the characters outside of as framing devices for the horrific plots. It's just stupid and mindless and has one or two good jokes a week. It's not even trying to build character arcs or use any aspect of them outside of the basic bullet points (Peter retarded, Meg worthless, Lois a slut, etc.), so it seems silly to criticize it every single week for something they aren't even trying to do or even pretend to do.

If you want good stories, characters AND humor from FOX's Sunday your only option is American Dad. If you want an endless number of references and bad joke attempts unrelated to anything thrown at you constantly in the hopes something sticks (which it does from time to time) you have Family Guy. If you want a worse version of pre-cancellation Family Guy, you have Cleveland Show. And if you want to go to sleep or develop a painkiller addiction, you have The Simpsons. It is what it is, it's what it's been all season and was for the most part the same in the last two seasons. (Outside of the shining star of KOTH that used to be in Cleveland's spot.)

(If you want the worst sitcom idea in the history of sitcoms and a retired NFL player poorly acting out the same story every week, you have Brothers. Then again, it does have Carl Weathers...)

[Andrew]

I realise that all Family Guy tries to be is a string of jokes loosely tied together with some semblence of a plot and yes, what Quagmire said was spot on about Brian's character but it just didn't strike me as hilarious or an awesome piece of television. It ended the plot (aside from the coda with Stewie) but to me, it wasn't anything particularly special, funny or whatever.

[el badman]

I see what benji means, but I'm still with Andrew on this.
Yes it was pretty much all true and probably justified, but it wasn't funny it itself, and it irritated me more than anything, especially since it occurred at the end of another mediocre episode. It's not like Quagmire needed to wear a silly hat or do fart noises while delivering his speech, but it could have at least been funnier than this. All they achieved is make you despise a character even more, but not the "I hate him so much I wanna see what happens next", more like "I hate him and certainly don't care about what those useless writers come up with next" (which I'm guessing is yet another girlfriend plot).
I just fail to see how this helps the show in any way, it just makes you think that even they seem to agree that they suck, so why the fuck watching it in the first place then?

[benji]

Well, then don't.

I don't know about "funny" but more amusing. I doubt anyone was ROFL instead of "oh snap!"

I thought it was amusing because it is unexpected. (And how brutal it was.) You expect something stupid or "funny" from Quagmire in response. You do not expect a complete and serious outlined tearing down of just how much of a terrible person Brian is. Everything that is not redeeming about the character outside of his strange relationship of Stewie was listed.

But in the end, it's amusing for the same reason Brian getting back at Peter years later for rolling up the window or months later for the vicious beating Stewie gave him. It's not expected. Next week, the deconstruction of the character will be forgotten and more expected things will occur. It's clever because it rewards twice for being a regular viewer of the show. It rewards you for having past knowledge of the show, and then rewards again by subverting what you expect the show to do based on the past knowledge of what they normally do. Properly doing double layered humor can be difficult, but someone on the writing staff does have a knack for it and I assume they were involved in Handi-quacks as well.

And in that regard and others, it was the last part of the episode one should criticize. Indeed, it's the antithesis of the standard problem with Family Guy. It was essential to one character, Brian was a required component of it. It was entirely self-contained into the details of Family Guy itself. (Outside of the accurate description of that terrible book, Catcher in the Rye.) And it was well thought out, time was spent on it, a careful hand was applied.

No, it's not on par with say, the "causality loop explanation" from Bender's Big Score or "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind". But, in the scope of Family Guy, FOX's Animation Domination, and the McFarlane Empire, it's needed. They would do well to mine the mentality that led to its inclusion.

[ixcuincle]

These episodes are not humorous at all. Basically it's gotten to the point where any Family Guy episode that isn't one of the story episodes (when they have 3 segments of spoofing a story / spoof an entire movie as seen in Star Wars episode) isn't funny.

Speaking of which when is that Episode V Family Guy coming out. Damn it

[el badman]

Terrible episode once again, not funny to the least. Nothing else to say about it.


Well, I had a power outtage around 2/3 of it, but I'm sure I didn't miss out on much.

[JaoSming]

I was busy watching the Finale for Storm Chasers so I only caught the admission to running a dog over and everyone's reaction to him thinking he was dead....yay....no

[Andrew]

I actually liked it, reminded me of the earlier days when they told somewhat of a coherent story. It wasn't over-the-top hilarious throughout but it had its moments, the Peter/PETA take-off on "Who's on first?" dragged a bit but Stewie's "We're really doing this?" saved it from being a complete disaster. Compared to some of the other disappointing/downright terrible episodes in recent years, I thought it was pretty good.

[benji]

Good episode, had only one plot line too.

[JaoSming]

found the stuff with house a little dull though

the first House.....Roadhouse did make me laugh though

[el badman]

I thought it was very hit and miss. Most of the jokes were pretty good I guess, but I don't know about the main storyline, nothing to write home about.

[Andrew]

Plot was OK, humour was a little lacking for me. Another one that's hardly bottom of the barrel, but still pretty ordinary.

[ixcuincle]

Thought the episode was all right. Good cameo by House.

[Andrew]

Best part was probably Dwyane "The Rock" Johnson's cameo. I rolled my eyes the minute they went into yet another potshot at Robin Williams. Seriously Seth and co, we get it. You don't find him funny and you think his humour is repetitive and corny. Too bad the same and much, much worse can be said of their humour. Same with the "Take Thats!" to Pretty Woman and Crocodile Dundee. A little late to the party there. Quagmire hitting on Lois undermined a key part of his rant towards Brian a couple of episodes ago but then it was hypocritical at the time too. As for the Fox swipe...way to bite the hand that brought you back and continues to air the show despite it being awful most of the time and giving you an obscene amount of money to write tripe. Yeah, The Simpsons have made Fox jokes even back in the classic era but the arrogance of FG's writing staff ruined it for me. I can see why it would be funny, but too many shows/comedians are relying on the fact that they're willing to "go there" somehow makes it hilarious. Stewie's 9/11 joke is another example.

[el badman]

It's been getting more and more uneven lately. A few months back, it was mainly garbage, with every plot being uninspired/boring and 99% of the jokes falling flat, but in the last few episodes, I think that it showed, still intermittently though, some highlights of what FG used to be, with some good jokes and some funny lines of dialogs. So it gives me a glimmer of hope for the show, but at the same time, when bullshit like the Robin Williams cheap shots keep coming back, it's hard to stay a believer...

[benji]

The last few episodes have had only one plotline. They've been "fully fleshed out" ideas instead of two plots that exist for the sole purpose of making specific jokes and thus get thrown into one episode together and go nowhere. That alone has improved the quality.

As for the Fox swipe...way to bite the hand that brought you back and continues to air the show despite it being awful most of the time and giving you an obscene amount of money to write tripe.

Fox continues to air the show and has given McFarlane carte blanche to create his Sunday block because it makes them obscene amounts of money. Both the Star Wars episode DVDs alone have been a cash cow. McFarlane doesn't owe Fox anything, they brought him back because of his value, he earned the right to be arrogant towards Fox if he wanted to be. He was right, they were wrong. If Fox hadn't brought him back, someone else would have been willing to throw millions at him and his shows. (See: Futurama!)

American Idol is awful all of the time and absolute tripe that barely has any actual market breakthrough capability outside of the AI fanbase. Yet is the most popular show in modern history and alone turned Fox into the dominant network. As such, like McFarlane, the two Simon's can basically dictate their demands to Fox as long as they're making money. (As they have for a number of years and continue to do.)

[Andrew]

The single plots haven't been too bad, I've got to give them that. The humour on the other hand is still lacking.

[Al Ka Pwn]

this show is so unintentionally funny.

[Andrew]

I have to admit it, I liked the latest episode. The Meg bashing has grown so stale and predictable that seeing her assertive and scaring the crap out of the rest of the family was fresh and at times, pretty funny. Peter's expressions/poses while playing the piano in the cutaway made me laugh for some reason, they saved what would've otherwise been another dull "Hey look, we can sing" cutaway. Pretty good story, most of the jokes worked, pretty good compared to some of the dreck they've had in recent years.

Lowlights would be the 9/11 joke and the Simpsons swipe at the end. The 9/11 joke was a pretty uninspired attempt to be edgy, when your bread and butter is tasteless humour it doesn't really register. I'm sure it would offend a fair few people so I guess they succeeded but it's not the first time they've made a joke like that so it's not really that shocking that they'd "go there". As for the swipe at The Simpsons, I guess they're trying to say that The Simpsons end their episodes with bad jokes, not an altogether untruthful assertion but as with many FG swipes it'd have more of an impact if they, you know, weren't guilty of the same thing and worse.

Other than that, I felt it was one of the better eps of late.

[JaoSming]

Agree with that. The whole Meg prison stuff was hilarious to me. And actually the Bull rape had me laughing as well

[Andrew]

Ah yes, the bull rape. I thought those bits were kind of hit and miss, I found the callback a bit funnier than the initial scene.

[el badman]

I don't know, I didn't really enjoy that one. Peter getting raped left and right feels like it's been done before (getting "abused" by the doctor during a prostate exam...), and it just didn't click with me. I guess it was a good try to finally make something out of Meg, but in the end it felt like a failed attempt to me, it was too precitable and it still showed how bascially useless she is in this show.

[Andrew]

Latest ep was pretty bland. South Park had a much funnier take on the physic stuff, Chris' subplot was pretty pointless and most of the jokes fell flat. I'd actually rate the latest Cleveland Show better than this one.