Family Guy: Tales Of A Third Grade Nothing
By fred | November 17, 2008
(S07E06) I was disappointed by last week’s episode, which I thought failed to be really funny, especially once the Jackass parody was over. It might be taste, but as far as I’m concerned Family Guy is never as hilarious as when it doesn’t try to do anything else but what but does best : throw at us one joke after the other, regardless of whether or not it really makes sense, much less is part of an actual bigger story.
That’s what this episode did, and that’s really how I love the show. After last week’s faux-pas we’re back on track this week, with an episode as hilarious as this show can be, and it even had something that has become quite rare this season : Meg. Not that she’s a character I miss, she’s no Stewie or anything like that, but it’s always fun when she’s around and people make fun of her, or worse.
So, yeah, I was happy – and laughing – when Peter called her a “fart smeller”, and proved it. An episode that opened with a reference to Jurassic Park, only instead of dinosaurs here it was the executive bathroom, and that was impressive enough to get Peter to alter his behavior at work in a radical manner, because he wanted to get to use that Island Bathroom whenever he wanted to, so he had to get a promotion.
We saw him try many things which were just stupider and funnier than the other, like inventing a robot to do all the work, except not only did it start to harm people but also develop human emotions, and not the nice ones, or Peter trying to get ride of a billboard sign and accidentally blowing up a children hospital instead. Nevertheless, his boss, Angela, was actually impressed by Peter’s hard work, but if he wanted that promotion he needed, like Billy Madison before him, to go back to school, elementary school.
In a surprising move, for once one of those jokes actually had consequences, as by the end of the episode Peter couldn’t actually get the promotion, despite successfully spelling “lesbians”, because of the children hospital he blew up earlier on. Yes, there was a follow up, an investigation, and a jail sentence : seven days behind bars, out in time just for next week’s episode.
It’s just too bad that actually, there won’t be one next week. Or the week after that, as the next episode of Family Guy isn’t scheduled before December 7th — in three weeks. Next Sunday at 9.00 we will be in the middle of Jack Bauer’s long awaited return, in 24: Redemption. Recently we’ve seen how South Park could react very quickly to events, pulling out an Election-special episode including speeches the candidates gave merely one day earlier, and since the date for the 24 movie has been known for some time now, I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better for the Family Guy crew to tweak this episode to gave Peter a 3-week sentence ? Sure, it’s funnier with only a one-week sentence, but still. What do you think ?
Anyways, that was still a funny joke, and so were many others like the piano finally falling on him, and in the office no less; Michael Jackson’s treatment of his own groin on stage; Quagmire seeing his kids all over the school; Peter once again destroying Cleveland’s home while he was taking a bath (as seen a few times previously, like during Hell Comes To Quahog (S05E03) when Peter shot the house with his tank) and Joe hoping for a while he wasn’t the only one without legs; Peter’s awful influence on kids, teaching them to insult people and beat others up… lots and lots of laughs all over the place.
As the the other plot, Stewie taking over Brian’s club to turn in into a hype pLace, I will say that it didn’t really feel “fresh” — I’m not sure if they did this exact same plot before or just something pretty similar to it, but you almost felt like you had seen it before, it was lacking something. Still, a few jokes were funny, such as the John Wilkes Booth one, and one was particularly hilarious, or at least made me laughing out loud before it even happened, since we all knew what was going to happen when Stewie re-enacted one of the most famous You-Tube-clips ever. It was funny before Stewie even fell, as we knew it would happen, and his screaming once on the floor were just killers!
This was a pretty solid and quite hilarious episode of Family Guy, a much better one that last week’s. Since the show will be away for a few weeks now, as discussed earlier, it surely was good to end on a high note.
What did you think about this episode ? Which of all the jokes made you laugh the most ? Share your thoughts in the comments below…
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Family Guy
