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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Favorite Family Guy episodes

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Our Lady Has Left the Building

20:26 / 08.11.05

Thought I'm bump this off so the Family Guy haters can give their reasons over here rather than the Clerks thread. But while we wait for them to have their straitjackets removed and the foam wiped from their mouths, can I just remind everyone of the start of last weeks episode on BBC 2, where Lois discovers Stewie is an evil genius, "Oh my God, all this time, it was so obvious!"

11:05 / 09.11.05

When Family Guy first started, I didn't like it. Then it hit Adult Swim, and I started to enjoy it more. Then Adult Swim played it ad nauseum, and since one of my roommates always had it playing, its many flaws became painfully obvious. It leads me to believe that the worst episode of the Simpsons (save for the Furious D ep) is better than the best Family Guy episode. This goes double for the brilliant Futurama.

The characters, with the exception of Brian, are completely unlikable, and not in a good way. I simply don't care about them. They don't know what to do with Stewie, starting with a fairly funny kid trying to take over the world to a fairly effete excuse to do a take on Shatner's Rocket Man. They really don't know what to do about Meg (first suggestion get Jackie from That 70's show to stop doing the voice), so every episode they make some excuse that she is absent or not talking.

Most Family Guy jokes (particularly those from the latest season) follow the exact same pattern:

1. This one time...
2. Flashback to 80's cultural reference

It gets rather wearing to see the same joke, with slight modifications, again and again. The equivalent of "what wacky thing is Homer going to be this week," that the Simpsons has become. The other style of joke is to take a point and stretch it. This is funny if you have a real sense of comedic timing, and know when to stop. But drawing it out past the "funny because it's a long time" point all the way back around to "it's not funny anymore" just bugs me. Gotta say I love the chicken fight though.

16:07 / 09.11.05

Used to have a semi-regular Guys Night. We'd get together, play an hour or two's worth of raquetball, then hunker down with a spliff and switch on Family Guy. At the time, I thought the show was f'in brilliant. Then one day, I watched it without the benefit of the wacky tobaccy. BOOORRRRING! I didn't laugh once.

So, if I have to drug myself to enjoy something, I'm not sure that thing is worth the time or effort.

(Also a big turnoff - one of the guys is still HUGELY into FG and will relate the "funny" bits of the new eps. to me, even though he knows I don't care for the show anymore. He does the same thing with 'The Sopranos' and 'Robot Chicken'. I detest them both.)

Our Lady Has Left the Building

16:38 / 09.11.05

Well that's true. 'Family Guy' is almost always a 'Homer does a stupid thing' episode each week, with occasionally a story about the dog reacting to Peter's stupidity. Having a stupid son is something of a drawback, as he doesn't do anything, and the daughter is also limited. But it's the continual references and breaking rules of continuity that I like, such as Peter being fired from the Jets because he can't do the dance, or being hired by Wily Coyote to run over Road Runner.

I would suspect that the obvious flaws in 'Family Guy' were picked up on to create 'American Dad' as each of the characters are a lot more active and can act independently. And Stan isn't quite as stupid. But I find the cynicism on 'FG' enjoyable, I wish they wouldn't follow the formula of bringing the family together for hugs at the end of each episode, a show where the family are bound together despite hating one another would have been truly more interesting.

16:49 / 09.11.05

>> 1. This one time...
>> 2. Flashback to 80's cultural reference

This is true. I fall in the middle on the Family Guy question...it's ok, very derivative of Simpsons and certainly darker and more cynical. Sometimes funny, sometimes not so much. I like Stewie. There's a T-shirt of him on a kiddie phone screaming "Get me the Pentagon!" that sums up what works about him.

16:52 / 09.11.05

oh, and I did like the ep. where the dad gives a piano recital playing the X-Files theme.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

17:48 / 09.11.05

It just makes me laugh, what can I tell you.

As far as Peter tripping over stuff, that stuff is almost always funny because the timing is great. Peter running from the library cop into the bookshelf, bookshelf collapses around him? Hilarious.

The opening of the most recent episode? Osama's video. Hilarious. That's my favorite kind of Family Guy joke. Leisurely paced, conversational hilarity.

But as far as 80's references go, there was something quite funny about replicating The Naked Gun opening, as its main conceit is rendered useless in an animated setting.

Also, I liked when they were all throwing up from the Epicack. There's nothing funnier than a sentence cut off abruptly by vomit.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

04:28 / 14.11.05

Ladies And Gentlemen, The Single Greatest Gag In Family Guy History: Tag Body Spray For Sick Cats

Peter Applies Tag Body Spray For Sick Cats
Immediately, Dozens Of Infirm Cats With Mottled Fur, Bandages, And Even A Neck Guard Nuzzle Against Him, Weakly Mewling
PETER: Oh, oh, oh God. Oh, God. Oh, oh no. Oh. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Ew. Oh, no, no, no. Oh, no, you're cute, you're cute but I don't wanna pet you, though. I don't wanna pet you. Eh. Eh. Eh, all right.
Peter Picks Up One Of The Cats, Which Immediately Begins To Wretch
PETER: Oh, oh, oh, oh what are you gonna do. What are you gonna do. What are you gonna do.
The Cat Throws Up On The Back Of Another Cat Below It
PETER: Oh, okay, oh no. yeah, no, this. This spray is not for me.

20:23 / 14.11.05

The Tag for cats was funny, but my favorite Family Guy bit was from a few months ago -- Peter watching Passion of the Christ: "How can he just lay there and take it? If that was ME, I'd get up and do something about it!" Cut to Peter, as Jesus, being flayed by a Roman. Peter gets up, wags his finger at the Centurion: "Now you stop that! Stop that right now!"

03:46 / 15.11.05

I loooooooved the Naked Gun gag.

Here's another Family Guy convention: the awkward social engagement but put into a humourous context. Like the TAG Cat Spray gag. "What are you gonna do?" There's other examples, but my brain can't quite remember (Tylenol Three is to blame)

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