"Believe It Or Not, Joe's Walking on Air (Family Guy)", 10-07-2007

I'll come out by saying that as of October 2007, "Family Guy" is funnier than "The Simpsons". This way, no one can accuse me of Family Guy bashing when I say that "Believe it or Not, Joe's Walking on Air" not only raised few chuckles, but made one of the same mistakes that "The Simpsons" often makes. If you want to call that "copying", that's up to you.

The plot of the above episode deals with Joe, a policeman on the Quahog police force who is a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair. He hangs around with Peter Griffin, Cleveland and Quagmire at a place called The Drunken Clam. When their wives/new girlfriends come by to visit the Clam, the men hate it that their male hangout is no longer sacred.

Eight thousand dollars and one teetering pre "Little Rascals" structure later, the men have created their own men's club. Which fills up with men, obviously. The wives, tired of the noise, crash the place but by now the men regret the gym room atmosphere and invite the women in. As everyone dances, Joe tells his wife Bonnie to go dancing, but Bonnie tells Joe that she's happy watching.

Joe comes to conclude that his lack of vertical movement is a drag on Bonnie's happiness and takes part in a rare, Family-Guy-only procedure -- a leg transplant that has Joe mobile again. Joe decides to make full use of his new limbs and drags his three other friends on rock climbing excursions and the like. As his friends are noticeably out of shape, they complain, Joe complains, and Joe coldly drops his friends for three fit and mobile guys. Not content with clearing the chaff out of his relationships, he drops Bonnie as well.

I suppose shows like "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" could both be categorized as "Complete Idiots and the People Who Love Them". Both shows have a complete idiot (Homer, Peter), a supporting saner spouse (Marge, Lois) and other people who revolve around their suns with varying degrees of idiocy.

Matt Groening once said that the reason he hated sitcoms is because people said things to each other that would leave you with writhing in agony after a kick in the crotch if you said them in real life. Homer and Peter work because they have poor impulse control -- their obnoxious words can be excused due to the fact that they're complete idiots, they're obviously complete idiots and everyone who has had five seconds of interaction with them know they're complete idiots.

In addition, in both shows, there are "outsider characters", characters trapped in the normal world and forced to deal with a series of indignities that no man should bear. In "The Simpsons", the characters are Homer and to a lesser degree, Bart and Lisa, who are outsiders because they are kids. "Family Guy" takes the concept and runs with it, introducing a host of outsiders -- Peter Griffin, a borderline retarded (literally) man who faces disappointment both at work and at home, the hyperintelligent baby Stewie whose threats of mass destruction go unheard, and Brian, the small white dog who bears the burden of being the smartest member of the family, and a dog. (Chris Griffin doesn't count, as he doesn't know how dumb he is, and seems strangely oblivious.)

Of Peter, Cleveland, Quagmire, and Joe, Joe is the character the least suited to be an outsider. He's a cop, a hero, and he seems to have more brainpower than any of his three companions. Hell, even with the paraplegia he's still the most dependable of the three. So, no, he's not much of an outsider and when his (new) legs go to his head, it doesn't lend itself to humor. He becomes an asshole on a power trip. Patrick Wharburton's voice doesn't lend itself to making Joe's cruelty that funny -- Joe is most effective when screaming at the top of his lungs, either psyching himself up for something trivial or responding to something ridiculous that Peter has done. Joe is the aggrieved, and not the aggressor, so it really doesn't work.

Only the use of the "reset button" at the end is funny. I'm surprised they used the reset button at all -- Jillian, one of the more interesting Family Guy characters, broke up with Brian in last week's episode, seemingly to stay.

However, it's a bad sign when shows like "The Simpsons" resort to milking whatever humor is left in the premise by trying to milk entire episodes out of supporting characters. (I have a friend who cringes in dread at any Moe-themed episode.) It appears that "Family Guy" is starting to walk that path that "The Simpsons" trod may years before.