Family Guy - "Family Goy" - Talkback [10/4]

unlike the last Jewish episode, this one didn't get me to laugh after act 1. The jokes were old and tasteless. If they are going to make fun of Judiasm, let them do it the right way, I won't even mention it DarthGonzo.
 
I'm really digging this episode. The "and Meg" part of the Superfriends opening was just great, and the various self-aware gags were funny (Quagmire's line about Conway Twitty even almost makes up for that crime against humanity that was The Juice is Loose). Stewie even gets to reclaim some of his dark dry wit ("How long before we play 'Pin the Eviction Notice on the Black Guy's Door?'" is my new favorite un-PC Family Guy quote).

This season is off to a surprisingly good start, even without a staff upheaval. Let's hope it keeps up.
 
Hmm, didn't know there was a right way and a wrong way to "make fun of Judiasm". And it seems obvious that you're dying to bring that other show into this discussion in order to explain how you think it handles Jewish humor better than Family Guy, considering you've already hinted about it twice and we know you prefer it.

Anyway, this episode wasn't as good as "Multiverse", but I expected that from the get-go so I wasn't disappointed. The Quagmire stuff was probably the most memorable parts of the episode, but as a whole the entire show was enjoyable.
 
For those wanting a screencap, here it is:

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The great part was the Superfriends parody opening (With original narration by 1977-1985 Superfriends narrator Bill Woodson - except for the "and Meg" part!). The funny parts were the handicapped rooster and Peter disguised as Parker Lewis. Too bad Stewie said "like I'm on the moon of Endor" twice without going to a cutaway clip related to Ewoks/moon of Endor - Why is that?

And so in the Drunken Clam it's now Peter, Quagmire, and Joe for the hangout guests since Cleveland's gone into his own spinoff series (There was mention of Cleveland's spinoff in the Quagmire cutaway - "Why is a moving van at Cleveland's house?")
 
How is that a parody, or even funny? All they did was replace the Superfriend characters with the family guy characters (Except the Meg part). The whole thing is just a copy/paste of the original Superfriends opening just with characters swapped, anyone can come up with a "characters swapped" concept with any opening. A parody done right would have been the Family Guy characters demonstrating powers based off of their normal Family Guy character mixed with their super friends counterpart, not just doing the exact same thing the original superheroes did. It's hard to figure out what that would be, but that's the writers of Family Guy's job.

Family Guy does that sort of thing all the time, people find it hilarious, but I groan at it's unoriginality. I did like the Disney scene last week though because they simply based it on Disney Films, not taking an entire scene and having Family Guy characters doing the exact same thing as the Disney characters did. Plus the animation was awesome.
 
I know what sodomy is, but that doesn't explain the joke. The kid in the church whispers something to Meg, presumably something sexual. Meg asks her father if sodomy is illegal for Jews, which didn't really make sense to me, since what does legality have to do with morality? I mean, how can a temple make something illegal? It doesn't have legal authority. Anyway, then Peter says "It's not, Lois. It's not." Where's the joke? I don't get it. Is the joke that now Peter wants to sodomize his wife because it's allowed under the Jewish faith? Because, I have a hard time believing that he's never performed any kind of sodomy on her when it's been shown in previous episodes that they have a pretty wild sex life.
 
Precisely. I know that people in their mid-to-late-thirties are mad for 70's/80's nostalgia, but I fail to see why it's amusing to replicate something exactly, only swapping the FG characters for the characters in the TV show/movie being "parodied". It's the same reason I despise those idiotic [Genre] Movie "spoof" movies. I am the exact same age as MacFarlane (35), but aside from nodding my head when I recognize one of the show's incessant 80's references ("Yep, that's The Goonies, alright"), I have never found myself actually laughing. Maybe because good humor depends on doing or saying something unexpected by the viewer, whereas when you're seeing a scene that you already know being re-cast with different characters, there is no surprise...just rote replication. It's the same reason why people say "Tell me if you've heard this one" before telling a joke, because if you already know the punchline, there is no joke.



Same here. This was the rare example of FG actually satirizing something, instead of simply xeroxing a movie/TV scene shot-for-shot. If the show did something that clever more often, I wouldn't hate on it so much.
 
Liked the first act (not loved... Peter and the cut-off was just awk-weird), then the show kinda middled around the rest of the way.

Quagmire doesn't know about Internet porn? Well, he does now... and... and... wow, the left arm, wow. Obviously, he's not a fan of theater, either, or at least Avenue Q.

Even more funny Quag... him thinking he was the one getting the spin-off! The writers apparently already had an answer for the curious fans... they just had to wait a week to get it.

As mentioned above, I didn't like Peter and the cut-off, but it did produce one hilarious moment. Chris and Stewie taking off their pants and running around in circles, with Stewie suddenly proclaiming "Mine's better, mine's better, mine's better!" Hilariously wrong on so many levels. :p

That's all I can remember from the episode that I liked really. Not that it was bad... it was still better than most of last season. But nowhere near as good as last week's season premiere.
 
I found the Superfriends opening a little funny because Brian and Stewie were Batman and Robin and found it a little ironic that Adam West would give them orders. The "...and Meg" got me also.
 
You know though Stewie and Brian may make for a more interesting dynamic and generally more intellegent or unique jokes, there's just something that's amusing about Peter's idioticy. Now that he's a full fledged retard the writers aren't afraid to have him delve to the depths of doing the most ridicolous things just to be humorous. I mean, falling in love and trying to start a relationship with a cardboard cutout? Only the most lonley or the most idiotic would do such a thing, and it's defintley the later's case for Peter. Then of course you have him finding out he's a jew and going all out and being happy to wear the scarf, try and make all new friends at the synogague and try getting Lois to dress more formal when they're trying to have sex. Then finding out that being jewish is bad and actually try putting his wife on the cross and then shooting at her when she's answering mail to prove a point. I mean yeah he still has to learn a lesson at the end but it's obviously not really the point at all of the ep. Besides the lesson was more two sided anyway with Lois also learning it's okay to not try embracing her face, and I also like how it was taught by Jesus of all people making another good appearence. (I wonder why Brian's an Atheist though when he has Jesus of all people starring him at the face, then again Jesus does kind of have the same views of him on religion).

Besides Peter though there was just a lot of good in this ep: The Superfriends opening, Quagmire discovering internet porn, the Kathy Ireland cutout being pressed against the window, "Peter I've got a lump!" "Yeah I got one too and mine's easy to take care of", the explanation of Lois's Jewish origin (considering she's had sort of a jewish accent to begin with this isn't actually too out of left field), the return of Max Wienstein (It's appearences like this and Jesus that make me question why the show dosen't acknowldge it's own contnuity more), the cutaway of Quagmire thinking he was getting the spinoff (And that's probably another reason why Quagmire didn't get his own show: he acted more like a jerk thinking he was going to leave FG. Though really Conway Twitty gags and Chicken fights shouldn't be put in the same catergory of lameness since Conway Twitty is just being lazy and Chicken fights actually give a lot of work to the direction staff), Francis not getting how to do a Star Wars ref (though really shouldn't it have been pointed out that Francis's isn't Peter's real dad or something? Or did they forget that as well?), Carter trying to trick Lois and her mom, Peter getting drunk as an easter bunny on the passover dinner and the already mentioned ending.

So yeah this was actually a good Family Guy. Unlike last episode's weird but kind of on and off episode this one was enjoayble most of the way through. Plus unlike last time the Catholic, Christanity and Jewish jokes though offensive actually had a point. I can see people still getting angered by this ep but really the lesson was it's more about being a good person then about what relgiion you are. And that idiots like Peter when used right make for good times.
 
I'm not really going to go deep into this episode (other than to say it was nice seeing Max Weinstein again) because of the absolutely chilling and inexcusable homage to Schindler's List. Family Guy has never been afraid to poke fun of Nazis and make controversial jokes about the Holocaust but this completely crossed the line and actually had me scowling. This show's tasteless jokes have seldom rubbed me the wrong way as this particular one did and it brought down the entire episode for me. *.

As for why is was Cleveland and not Quagmire who got the spin-off Seth MacFarlane explained it in Entertainment Weekly (and he was right): "Nobody wants to see a sitcom about a rapist."
 
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