Simpsons Guy Review

I approached this crossover episode with much trepidation. I was prepared to hate it; the whole idea to me stank of desperation. One thing I could not get over was why? Why was this episode being made? I’m a fan of both shows, a much, much, much bigger fan of The Simpsons (in its heyday) and I know plenty of other fans of both these shows, never did I feel like there was any wanting this to ever happen.

Then there was the promo, my enthusiasm continued to differ. I wont dwell, but are we supposed to believe Homer Simpson a dim witted but basically well meaning man who loves his friends and family would ever become friends with the likes of Peter Griffin, who’s basically a waste of a man who does dim witted destructive things basically for the sake of being dim witted and destructive.

All my fears about this episode pretty much came true, and it was 45 minutes of television that was just wrong in every sense of the word… but, it gets away with it because it is also 45 minutes of television that is funny, at times laugh out loud funny. The Simpsons Guy would not have worked 10 years ago, and it would not have worked had been made for an episode of The Simpsons. Back in the golden era The Simpsons could easily label Family Guy as a rip off and get away with it. That doesn't cut it now because to me The Simpsons has not been fresh for a very long time and frequently falls back on tired over-used gags.

The episode would also not have worked if made for The Simpsons because the funniest moments of the episode, one moment involving Grandpa and Hans Moleman (two characters I believe remain fairly untouched by the post golden era decline) are simply way too dark for an episode of The Simpsons. The other funniest moment is the soon to be infamous car wash scene, a scene so funny because of how wrong and out of character (for Homer) this scene is.

It doesn't all work the rape joke in particular, unless the writers of Family Guy just wanted to remind us we’re watching their show, but they can easily do that without being dark for the sake of being dark e.g. Grandpa’s hit and run incident. The Family Guy humor worked when bound to the Family Guy characters. To hand it to the Family Guy writers, they were pretty damn good at making the Simpsons characters funny, when it didn't work was when they tried to insert Family Guy humor into Simpsons characters. We knew when it happened, and that’s when we cringe; Lisa’s snide Meg comment, anyone?

Basically, Simpsons fans, you can analyze how faithfully the Family Guy writers treat our beloved Simpsons characters, but you do yourself no favors but instead subject yourselves to 45 minutes of cringing. To enjoy this episode you need to step back and see it for what it is an episode of Family Guy, go digging, you’re never going to find an emotional core, just more gags. And you know what, for me that’s fine, once you realize that and stop worrying about how true to these characters are going be written and just see it for what it is, I think you’ll enjoy it. Besides how faithful have the Simpsons writers been to these characters in the last decade anyway, no harm can be done, everything will be back to normal next week.