“Family Guy”
“Whistle While Your Wife Works”
Nov. 12
FOX
As Chris, Meg, Lois, Brian, Stewie and Peter elegantly sing and
dance down the famous cabaret-style steps of the opening credits of
“Family Guy,” Peter stumbles, lands on the ground, and
squashes one of the backup dancers.
After the suggested death of the poor girl under the weight of
the American fat man, Stewie politely suggests to the cameraman,
“You might want to turn that off.”
Into its fifth season, the satirically successful “Family
Guy” lacks the luster and pleasantly offensive humor of its
younger years.
In “Whistle While Your Wife Works,” writers opted
for a physical vulgarity uncharacteristic of even an especially
raunchy episode of “The Simpsons.” Peter loses his
fingers only to find them scattered around the neighborhood in a
sequence that is unnecessarily cringe-worthy, more gross than
funny. In lieu of offensive content, the writers choose to visually
offend only for the sake of shock value.
Meanwhile, the carefully crafted, drawn-out scenes which
characterize the off-beat humor of the show are painful. And even
with Stewie at the helm, the musical charm of the show runs
dry.
The jokes, like the story line, are only funny because we laugh
at stupidity. Frequent guest star Drew Barrymore plays
Brian’s new girlfriend, a woman who thinks the sun and the
moon are the same thing (“Think about it, you never see them
at the same time”), to which Chris and Peter respond,
“Oh, yeah!”
It is funny, even hilarious at times, but it is generic. We
never fail to laugh at ignorance.
But for a show as smart as “Family Guy,” the episode
contains relatively few cultural references or gags. The new
“Family Guy” does not take chances. We are waiting for
a societal comment, a point to the story line or possibly a
political jab (this is the time of year, right?), but small-town
America remains as devoid of excitement as Brian’s
girlfriend’s brain.
I know we all love “Family Guy.” But maybe Stewie
was right. You might want to turn that off.
E-mail Dickau at ddickau@media.ucla.edu.