One of the most irreverent and frankly crude shows on network television these days is Family Guy. Family Guy has a huge fan base, almost as big as its detractors, and when the show went off the air in 2002, it only took three years of amazing DVD sales and Adult Swim ratings to bring it back. One key formula to Family Guy takes its cues from 80’s popular culture and fun and excitement. satirize
The list of amazing Family Guy episodes is huge, but with 75 episodes to go, that’s where you start (that is, of course, if you don’t want to watch all five episodes one by one). Some of the best stories from the Family Guy archives are those that have a very greedy mind for what they want to satisfy. Without a doubt the top five satirical stories of the family guy
1. There’s Something About Paulie – Season 2. In this episode of the mobster series, Peter is named as Big Fat Paulie, a Jersey mobster who was taken care of on his way to Quahog, when Paulie accidentally punches Lois’s hand. Chaos ensues at his father’s wedding and ends with Tiramisu. Classic family guy humor with some solid flair.
2.Mr. Griffin goes to Washington – Season 3 Peter was almost fired after he had to work at a baseball game. The El Dorado Cigarette Company buys the company and gets lucky in keeping its job. They send him to Washington as a tobacco lobbyist where he finally sees the errors of his ways after Stewie starts smoking and acquires a wheezing cough. Classic discourses of political culture and films follow. He points to Bob Dole, Martha Stewart, and presidential candidates Gore and Bush.
3.A Method to Madness – Season 3. Stewie joins the acting school where he meets Olivia and the classic rags to riches story together, after which Stewie dies and Olivia lives without him. One of my favorite scenes in the entire series occurs here when Olivia says to Stewie, “You’re the weakest link” referring to the short life show of the same age. Stewie fires back with a long sustained burst of intelligence in classic Stewie form.
4. Brian Goes Back to College – Season 4. Brian Loses His New Job at Novi York did not complete the college education. After which Brown decided to return. The Stewie/Brian tag with plotline is fully established at this point in the series, so Stewie goes with it. Stewie loves college life while Brian tries to drop out, unable to complete his final class. The academic fight, along with rock themes, and classic college movie stereotypes make this a great event.
5.Give it a Boom – Season 2. An oldie but a goodie, plays on the whole Y2K scare of the late 90s. Airing the day after Christmas in 1999, the episode follows the destruction of the worlds infrastructure and the post apocalyptic travels of the Griffin family to find a Twinkie factory that they can live off of. The changes of friends and the reformation of the landscape is similar to the nuclear classics of the 50s and 60s and Stewie finally turns into October. The last episode is a throwback to the whole Dallas fiasco when Bobby is in the shower and Pam describes it as his “dream”. The height of irony and satire was almost felt by the mass of world historians at the end of 1999.
Family Guy is more than five big stories. Until a small chunk of season 4 returned in 2005, the show was pure genius and each of Seth McFarlane’s vignettes of the suburbs of Rhode Island It was discussed over and over again.
