Perhaps it was the Noid who should have avoided ME

[vovat]

I liked both The Simpsons and Family Guy tonight. The Simpsons episode didn't have a lot of real laugh-out-loud moments, but it was pretty clever. I liked the take on outsourcing, and how it was eventually defeated by Homer's introducing the Indian workers to American benefits. There were some good jokes in the India scenes, including Homer finding Apu's cousin almost immediately, the cousin working all of the different phone service jobs, Homer's misidentification of the Hindu gods, and the Bengal tiger bit with Lenny and Carl. As for the subplot, it kind of seemed long overdue. I wouldn't be too surprised to find out the idea had been on the back burner for a while. It demonstrated some of the oddities in a show where no one ages, since MacGyver was still on the air when The Simpsons started, and now they have Bart and Lisa not even knowing what the show was. I thought it was a good callback to some of the earlier seasons' Patty and Selma appearances, what with the focus on their MacGyver obsession, and their showing boring vacation slides. They used to do that a lot in the earliest episodes, but I don't think it's been used in an episode since the third season or so. So both plots were good, but I do wish they'd tied them together somehow. It seemed sort of like the writers had two good ideas, but neither one could fill an entire episode, so they combined them into one.

Family Guy had a somewhat meandering plot, but I tend not to care so much about that as long as they keep the jokes coming, which they did. What made me laugh the most was Stewie trying to watch Mr. Belvedere when people were talking, but I also liked Adam West's fight with the Noid, Kermit the Frog as Deep Throat, and Chris lecturing his parents on marijuana. And while I totally saw the Scarecrow and Mrs. King gag coming, it was still hilarious. Definitely a reference-heavy episode, but that's often what FG does best.

Also last night, bethje and I watched Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning. It was kind of an odd concept, because it had the same actresses from the first two movies playing characters with the same names, the same relationship (i.e., sisters), and similar personalities to the characters in the first two films, yet they were living in the early nineteenth century. I guess it's kind of like how there are a bunch of different Links and Zeldas in the Zelda games. The characters' speech patterns struck me as possibly being too modern, but I really don't know for sure how people talked in nineteenth-century Canada.

It seems like my recent posts haven't been getting very many comments. Yeah, I know I probably haven't been commenting on YOUR posts, either, but I'm trying to catch up.

Comments

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

Well, clearly time to start making stuff up, a little subplot in your life, totally made up, though.

Start with teasers ".. oh and noticed that someone was following me all day! I know that's silly, but I saw the same elderly couple in three different places where I was .....so, anyway..."

[vovat.livejournal.com]

But if no one comments on real things, what makes you think they'd comment on imaginary ones?

[kristenjarrod.livejournal.com]

Family Guy last night was great. I loved Stewie watching Mr. Belvidere the best. Was he screaming the theme song? I can't remember the theme song to that show.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was definitely the theme song. I don't remember the words or anything, but I remember basically how it sounded.

[revme.livejournal.com]

It's one of those things where with the Family Guy ep, I noticed that it really did have a lot of more referential gags, and that it was sort of a "see!" for all the folks who say Family Guy uses references as a substitute for real humor, but, y'know, it was funny, so I don't care.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. It sometimes seems like, if the reference itself is kind of funny (like the Noid), they can get away with not doing much of an actual joke. Like you, though, I don't particularly care, as long it makes me laugh.