I know just as much as anyone else that this is the worst episode ever that modern Family Guy has to offer us. So what awful things did Andrew Goldberg do here to try to get Family Guy canceled?
1. We got to start with Peter using a whip that was delivered to him by mistake instead of Quagmire to harm Meg, Stewie, 2 people at a concert that just so happens to be one where they are playing the song Whip It, and driving all the way to The now-canceled Cleveland Show to get Cleveland as well. And when he could finally do something good with it for once to get rid of the tough guys who stole his booth, he chickens out and almost everyone, even their colleagues and family members, become mean-spirited to Peter, Quagmire, and Joe for being cowards and want nothing to do with them. 2. He actually tries to make Brian the permanent antagonist by giving herpes to his best friend Stewie when they become blood brothers together! And he did it to Chris too! This made me really happy when they started to ruin his life later in the episode. And this was produced 9 episodes after Stewie went back in time to save Brian's life in Christmas Guy. 3. When Peter, Quagmire, and Joe finally do something to stand up to the tough guys who bullied them, they lose again anyway because the bullies are praised for being soldiers and Peter, Quagmire, and Joe, who were disgraced by everyone for being cowards, are now disgraced again for not being cowards! I could have forgiven this episode for its incompetent writing if it wasn't for Adam West's These 3 Guys day celebrating the bullies who got away with being bullies for being soldiers instead of the main characters who actually tried to stand up to them.
But there was still a few things I don't hate about it, and the gross-out things with the herpes didn't really affect me that much. For one thing, after the way Peter acted with the whip at the beginning of the episode, I thought he deserved Chris and Meg making fun of him for once, instead of the other way around. I was also glad that Lois didn't also berate Peter for being a coward and actually convinced him to stand up to the bullies. The fight scenes at the bar were also cool to watch, and it was also really funny when Bryan Cranston sneezed and got an Emmy for it, and when Peter told the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz that fear is a rational response to danger and he told Dorthy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man that he was the Rational Lion now, and the argument that he made on why the booth was his towards the end. I also liked it when Stewie and Chris ruined Brian's date with Jenna because it was comeuppance for him giving them herpes.
Of course Andrew Goldberg was probably out of ideas, and he had to go to the bottom of the barrel for this because it was even worse than Seahorse Seashell Party, but at least it had more bad stuff of interest going on in it and that probably makes it more infamous. Considering how awful these plots were, it's no wonder that almost half of this episode was filler, and I'm almost glad that it was so we didn't have to endure too much of this awful storytelling, because I doubt it was even meant to be funny. Peter eating spinach to gain strength like Popeye was also pretty funny, but that sequence could have been made 30 seconds shorter if they didn't want to show us every minor detail of him opening the can of spinach. And Stewie, Chris, and Brian having herpes is so permanently bad that for once I would thank negative continuity for wiping this episode out of existence with any earlier or later episodes.
1. We got to start with Peter using a whip that was delivered to him by mistake instead of Quagmire to harm Meg, Stewie, 2 people at a concert that just so happens to be one where they are playing the song Whip It, and driving all the way to The now-canceled Cleveland Show to get Cleveland as well. And when he could finally do something good with it for once to get rid of the tough guys who stole his booth, he chickens out and almost everyone, even their colleagues and family members, become mean-spirited to Peter, Quagmire, and Joe for being cowards and want nothing to do with them. 2. He actually tries to make Brian the permanent antagonist by giving herpes to his best friend Stewie when they become blood brothers together! And he did it to Chris too! This made me really happy when they started to ruin his life later in the episode. And this was produced 9 episodes after Stewie went back in time to save Brian's life in Christmas Guy. 3. When Peter, Quagmire, and Joe finally do something to stand up to the tough guys who bullied them, they lose again anyway because the bullies are praised for being soldiers and Peter, Quagmire, and Joe, who were disgraced by everyone for being cowards, are now disgraced again for not being cowards! I could have forgiven this episode for its incompetent writing if it wasn't for Adam West's These 3 Guys day celebrating the bullies who got away with being bullies for being soldiers instead of the main characters who actually tried to stand up to them.
But there was still a few things I don't hate about it, and the gross-out things with the herpes didn't really affect me that much. For one thing, after the way Peter acted with the whip at the beginning of the episode, I thought he deserved Chris and Meg making fun of him for once, instead of the other way around. I was also glad that Lois didn't also berate Peter for being a coward and actually convinced him to stand up to the bullies. The fight scenes at the bar were also cool to watch, and it was also really funny when Bryan Cranston sneezed and got an Emmy for it, and when Peter told the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz that fear is a rational response to danger and he told Dorthy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man that he was the Rational Lion now, and the argument that he made on why the booth was his towards the end. I also liked it when Stewie and Chris ruined Brian's date with Jenna because it was comeuppance for him giving them herpes.
Of course Andrew Goldberg was probably out of ideas, and he had to go to the bottom of the barrel for this because it was even worse than Seahorse Seashell Party, but at least it had more bad stuff of interest going on in it and that probably makes it more infamous. Considering how awful these plots were, it's no wonder that almost half of this episode was filler, and I'm almost glad that it was so we didn't have to endure too much of this awful storytelling, because I doubt it was even meant to be funny. Peter eating spinach to gain strength like Popeye was also pretty funny, but that sequence could have been made 30 seconds shorter if they didn't want to show us every minor detail of him opening the can of spinach. And Stewie, Chris, and Brian having herpes is so permanently bad that for once I would thank negative continuity for wiping this episode out of existence with any earlier or later episodes.