The "Next Muppet on Family Guy" thread

[muppet maniac]

I just thought of two really good gags that could have been used in the "Road to the Multiverse" episode...

*When Stewie and Brian are in a "Japanized" Quahog, the Stewie in that universe watches a Japanese Sesame Street on TV, with poorly made versions of Big Bird (as a walkaround), Elmo, Oscar, Bert and Ernie (both with beady eyes and flapping mouths), Cookie Monster and The Count (who makes an evil facial expression while lightning flashes after counting to "san", or three)

*Stewie and Brian find themselves in the "Muppet Babies" universe - meaning that the characters have been morphed into the Muppet Babies (Peter as Baby Kermit, Lois as Baby Piggy, Meg as Scooter/Skeeter, Chris as Baby Fozzie, Stewie as Baby Animal, etc.)

 

[dmoss]

This Just In!

On tonight's new episode of Family Guy, Chris was holding Stewie's head up, speaking for him, and at the end of his made-up dialogue, he said, "Wokka, Wokka!"

 

[beaker]

I happened to catch part of tonight's Family Guy, with the Statler Waldorf sketch.

I cant recommend the show tho...its just gotten so increasingly extreme and ugly(cant believe its only "TV 14") Im far from some fuddy duddy person, and love avant garde humor. But the show just goes way out of their way to cross the line, and I cant even reference the really horrible stuff from tonights episode

 

[TheJimHensonHour]

I happened to catch part of tonight's Family Guy, with the Statler Waldorf sketch.

I cant recommend the show tho...its just gotten so increasingly extreme and ugly(cant believe its only "TV 14") Im far from some fuddy duddy person, and love avant garde humor. But the show just goes way out of their way to cross the line, and I cant even reference the really horrible stuff from tonights episode

I thought last weeks was much worse and the week before that.
I can't believe what they did to stewie in those 2 episodes.

 

[Convincing John]

I happened to catch part of tonight's Family Guy, with the Statler Waldorf sketch.

Where it's just Statler without Waldorf, right? I remember that one. It's one of their middle-of-the-road references for me. It wasn't a cheap shot (like the Ernie and Bert references they do), but at least it was somewhat accurate to the character. You could almost expect Statler to say something like that if he were by himself in the balcony. Waldorf did once for the closing comment. "He shouldn't've jumped. The show's not that bad."

The "Lost" reference with their balcony in Peter's house seemed to work better for me. Probably because it had both characters doing a joke.

Over the years, their Muppet references have been hit and miss. One week they can do a completely out-of-character reference that adds nothing to the episode (see the "Stewie Loves Lois" episode). Another week, they can do a clever, incredibly accurate reference like the "Pinball Stewie" clip. It takes guts to do a reference like that. Your average schmo on the street knows who Cookie Monster is. Not as many people know about "Pinball Number Count".

I hope the writers reference other non-Muppet Sesame segments. The Pinball Stewie one worked really well.

Picture this: Stewie plays some kind of a trick on Brian. Brian gets revenge on Stewie by waiting until he's asleep, then carrying him downstairs to the living room and putting him on the couch. At 2AM, Brian puts in a DVD. Stewie wakes up to see the I-Beam sketch, freaks out and runs screaming out of the room. To make Stewie more paranoid, Brian waits until Lois is about to give piano lessons. He switches the Beethoven sheet music with sheet music for the I-Beam sketch while Lois puts Stewie in his playpen. Each kid plays the I-Beam music on the piano as Stewie screams "Clockwork Orange"-style. Brian chuckles in the background and sips his martini.

Convincing John

 

[beaker]

I thought last weeks was much worse and the week before that.
I can't believe what they did to stewie in those 2 episodes.

Worse than extreme physical and sexual abuse? Maybe I've become a party pooper, but I am genuinely horrified at a lot of the material on the show.

The Statler/Waldorf thing was surprisingly innocent though. I don't think this is a show that should be seen by minors though.

 

[Drtooth]

I cant recommend the show tho...its just gotten so increasingly extreme and ugly(cant believe its only "TV 14") Im far from some fuddy duddy person, and love avant garde humor. But the show just goes way out of their way to cross the line, and I cant even reference the really horrible stuff from tonights episode

Honestly, I still watch the thing, and I agree. The characters all have the same generic nasty personality, it's gotten just poorly written, and basically it panders to the idiot adult swim crowd that laughs at any mention of the word "AIDS," or tired 1980's nostalgia junk that EVERYONE's done by now. it became a totally different and lousy show. And 5 minute Conway Twitty cutaways are NOT FUNNY! No one knows who it is, and NO ONE gets the joke (at least in the audience they've got). I'm glad at least the Cleveland Show has been surprisingly pleasant so far... and American Dad is highly underrated and unfortunately shuffled under the rest. I mean, it has a PLOT in every episode, and the rapture episode is one of the best cartoon's I've seen in years.

But FG became this:

• Some celebrity does not meet my approval. Let's say they're ugly and or annoying.
• OOh! Let's be insanely mean to Meg because the network pressured us into adding a character we're too lazy to write for.
• Remember that joke we did that was funny only the first 2 times? let's do it in EVERY single episode now.
• Crazy what the heck moment that makes no sense and is only funny because it makes no sense
• Hey! Let's put a long drawn out "this is how people talk" conversation here. That's always good for a laugh.
• Gay Stewie is million funnier than evil Stewie. Oh! And let's make him say something that's only funny because he says it in a funny voice.
• Peter acting like a child? How can we lose?
• You know what's funnier than an obvious joke? Vocalizing how it's supposed to be a joke and say what it means.

All and all, it's turned into a lazy mush of overdone shallow attempts at humor. Sure, there's the occasional well written episode, such as the Multiverse thing, but it's all just about staying on the air because it's popular with an audience of gamer poseurs. They show successfully lost everything that made the show good, and replaced it with all the things that made Adult Swim suck.

 

[TheJimHensonHour]

Worse than extreme physical and sexual abuse? Maybe I've become a party pooper, but I am genuinely horrified at a lot of the material on the show.

The Statler/Waldorf thing was surprisingly innocent though. I don't think this is a show that should be seen by minors though.

I was talking about what they recently to stewie when meg and chris knocked him down the steps and then tried to hide it through the entire episode then having peter tell chris hes proud of him for hidding his knocked out bleeding baby.

 

[beaker]

All and all, it's turned into a lazy mush of overdone shallow attempts at humor. Sure, there's the occasional well written episode, such as the Multiverse thing, but it's all just about staying on the air because it's popular with an audience of gamer poseurs. They show successfully lost everything that made the show good, and replaced it with all the things that made Adult Swim suck.

It's more of an endurance test.

They now mostly go for two things, beyond the "insert random 80's pop culture reference" cliche.

1. Shock(hardcore racist joke, taboo or sickening sexual reference, and then abuse jokes)

2. See how long the audience can handle the length of a segment's joke. Which can sometimes go on for two minutes.

 

[Drtooth]

They now mostly go for two things, beyond the "insert random 80's pop culture reference" cliche.

1. Shock(hardcore racist joke, taboo or sickening sexual reference, and then abuse jokes)

2. See how long the audience can handle the length of a segment's joke. Which can sometimes go on for two minutes.

That stuff I wouldn't even mind if it didn't become a slovenly, poorly written adult swim-fest. Really. The show was SO much better 3 years ago. They don't even do the 80's joke stuff anymore. Really. They were the ones that did it first before Robot Chicken and every lame internet cartoon started ripping them off and bludgeoning us off the head with them.

Though I will say, they handled the Muppets with some sort of respect. Worst thing they did was "racist Louisiana Swamp Kermit."