Family
Guy
p-boi list
written by B on february 10th - 2004
Intro
25.
24.
23. "Holy Crap I am freakin' out!"
The episode: "Lets Go to the Hop"
The gist: Peter recounts his run-in with LSD,
and how "real" everything seemed. Cut to a 2-second
shot of a real guy in a Peter Griffin mask, sitting on a park
bench looking flabbergasted.
The funny: The whole thing is just so cheap, and
a bit creepy to boot. Like, they used a man who's not even that
fat, and who has a serious case of Robin Williams Forearm, and
stuck him in this weird bug-eyed Peter mask that kinda looks like
it's made out of play dough. The mouth actually moves, but the
body's gestures are kind of separate from it. The whole thing
kind of resembles some mediocre "Who's Line Is It
Anyway?" You know, like the bald one stands behind the tall
one and sticks his arms out in front of tall one. Then they have
to make a pie or some crap while the black one does a Jimmy
Durante impression. And all the while Drew Carey laughs
off-screen at the American public for still being famous at this
point.
22. Jon #5 pick
21.
20.
19.
18. "So ...like can the family understand the baby or, uh, what's the deal with that?"
The episode: "E. Peterbus Unum"
The gist: After an episode that focuses around Peter
starting his own country in his yard, the show unceremoniously
jumps to a classroom full of children in the future, who proceed
to dissect one of the show's biggest plot holes; Stewie talks,
and they only hear baby gibberish (most of the time). Brian
talks, and they understand him (most of the time). But Stewie
talks to Brian, and he understands.
The funny: Seth MacFarlane wasn't one to turn
down a joke often. He's from the Dave Barry school of comedy: use
every bad joke you can think of, just to kill time until the good
ones. That being said, Family Guy was usually blissfully devoid
of self-referrential humor. There was never that winking to the
camera that you see so often these days. Peter never called his
run-in. Because of that, it's funny as hell when the creators get
together and poke fun at their own oddities.
Furthermore, it's good to know that in the future, Family Guy is
what civilazation uses as a historical tool. I mean, where else
are the citizens of Earth2 going to learn about television from
the 1980's, or the usefullness of the Jewish people?
17. Jon #4 pick
16.
15.
14.
13. "Tom! Tom Bosley!"
The episode: "The Road to Europe"
The gist: Stewie and Brian head to England so
Stewie can live with the cast of his favorite television show. On
the way, Stewie's sure he sees the dad from Happy Days, but
doesn't want to be too obvious about it.
The funny: As a fairly obscure pop culture geek
myself, I'm a big fan of tv shows just throwing a name out and
expecting it's audience to get it. Of course, I would assume
anyone avidly watching Family Guy was probably also a pretty big
fan of Father Dowling Mysteries.
12. Jon #3 pick
11.
10.
9.
8. "Wouldn't it be delightful... "
The episode: "Fifteen Minutes of
Shame"
The gist: The Griffin family is tapped to be the
subject of a reality tv series. After a run-in with Lois, Stewie
has a Real World-esque "confessional" interview in
which is pontificates on his hatred of his mother. The segment
ends with Stewie wondering how nice it would be if he grew up to
be a homosexual.
The funny: Okay, so you have this baby
character. A baby who sounds and is fashioned after Rex Harrison
in the movie "My Fair Lady." A baby who started out as
an evil genuis, and as the show progressed just sort of became
progressively more bitchy and fey. Then, keeping in mind that
we're unsure of whether the baby is actually talking to people or
not, he announces how nice it would be if he wound up gay. Sorry
kids, but if I have to explain the humor in that then maybe I'd
just be better of bringing back Mario in a hamburger suit.
7. Jon #2 pick
6.
5.
4.
3. "Are you Stephen King?"
The episode: "Brian in Love"
The gist: Brian runs over a man in his truck.
When he checks to see if the man's okay, he finds out that it's
not horror legend Stephen King, but rather crap espionage legend
Dean Koontz. So Brian runs him over again.
The Funny: Dean Koontz sucks. That's basically
all you've got to run with. I've never read a Dean Koontz novel,
but I assume they're all just text versions of the Fugee's video
for "Ready or Not." Personally I would've had Brian run
over Hunter S. Thompson. With a steamroller. While screaming,
"THANKS FOR TURNING A BUNCH OF USELESS POTHEADS INTO
PSEUDO-INTELLECTUAL PRETENTIOUS ARTFUCKS YOU BASTARD!" And
then I'd drive over the Bret Easton Ellis' house.
2. "HHHHHHHH..."
"...AHH."
"HHHHHHHH..."
"...AHH."
"HHHHHHHH..."
"...AHH."
"HHHHHHHH..."
"...AHH."
"HHH..."
"...AHH."
"HHHHHHHH..."
"...AHH."
"HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..."
"...AHH."
The episode: "Wasted Talent"
The gist: Peter runs home after finding the winning scroll in
his vomit. The beautiful "I've Got A Golden Ticket" music from "Willy
Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" plays. He's almost home, and he trips and
falls. The music stops. He sits there clutching his knee for about
thirty seconds.
The Funny: This is one of the only shows I know of with the
balls to do something like this. Thirty seconds on national TV is very
costly, and shows (especially cartoon sitcoms) try to pack as much into a given
episode as possible. That's why this is so funny. At the second "AHH"
the viewer's laughing because it breaks the mood of the moment. During the
third and fourth one, he or she is thinking, "What the fuck?" I've watched
this moment with several different people, and it seems that on average, they
start laughing at "AHH" #5. This moment is an anomaly, and one of the most
uniquely funny television moments ever.
1.