Today's episode of Family Guy was pretty entertaining. There were no long fight scenes, no drawn-out song and dance sequences, and most of the jokes were short and snappy.
The Long Jokes
I like that Family Guy plays with the timing of jokes. The writers like the push the envelope, which is admirable. In the past, the long jokes have been less effective. They drag on too long, people get bored, the show comes off as lazy or eating up air time.
Today's joke about the fly, however, was an example of this style being used effectively. We've all spent time watching a fly try to get out the window. We want it to fly out, sometimes we've even OPENED the window for it, and yet it is still too dumb too leave.
Family Guy evokes our feelings of frustration by dragging out the viewer's time focused on the fly. Even though this joke is long (but still not very long by Family Guy standards), the fly is continuously talking, bringing up new dialog, and Peter is talking back to/over the fly. The fly gives up and goes upstairs, making the last 25 seconds just a waste of time. This effectively annoys the viewer without being boring.
The Sex Jokes
Rape was the joke of the half-hour. The bull rapes Peter, Meg rapes Peter with a loofah, Luke makes the obligatory prison rape joke, the bull implicitly rapes Peter again, and old pedophile neighbor buys roofies from the drug store. Family Guy has never been known for having good taste, but maybe spread the jokes out a little? Again we have the writers push push pushing the envelope.
Meg is a Badass
Good for her. She ain't taking no shit. That was hella amusing until the end of the episode, when she reverts back to "whipping girl" Meg. Meg episodes always depress me a little bit. I wonder if the show would be better if she DID go somewhere faraway like China.
-Rachel
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