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"A Hero Sits Next Door" - Season 1, Episode 5 (The Family Guys Podcast)
121 Plays11 months ago
Join Tougie and Cyn as they discuss "A Hero Sits Next Door." The episode features the introduction of Joe Swanson, who would become a main character in the series. Peter Griffin must find a replacement player for an upcoming softball game. Peter eventually convinces Joe to play for the team after learning that he played baseball in college. When Joe shows up the following morning, Peter realizes that Joe is in a wheelchair. Joe turns out to be a great player, and the team wins the game. Peter becomes jealous of Joe and tries to become a hero. In a subplot, Meg Griffin tries to get Joe's son Kevin to notice her.
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Transcript
Return from Break & Personal Updates
00:00:16
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of a lovely little show that we like to call the family guys. It is Toogie joined once again by my good friend Mr. Sin for the win as we return from a brief break between episodes because
00:00:34
Speaker
Man oh man, have you and I had horrible luck in 2024 when it comes to illnesses? Yeah, it was my turn for COVID. Yeah. The voice isn't even still fully recovered. It's not to its most strong state either.
Family Guy Episode 'A Hero Sits Next Door' Overview
00:00:48
Speaker
But hey, we're pushing through it, and we get to meet Joe Swanson today, and that's the best part.
00:00:54
Speaker
Yes, indeed. We're covering season one, episode five of Family Guy, a hero sits next door in this episode. And well, I mean, we have a lot to cover. I think we can get right into it. You know, the pleasantries have pushed them to the wayside. Let's talk about this episode originally airing on May 2nd, 1999. I was five. That was nine.
00:01:22
Speaker
Written by Matt Weitzman, I believe, and Michael Barker. Both of them would go on to eventually, at certain points in time, be the showrunners for American Dad in the future. That's how a white man writes an episode. Oh, man. Please, please watch the longest yard if you haven't, those of you out there. Yes, the 2005 Adam Sandler version.
Evolution of Comedy in Films
00:01:48
Speaker
Yes. The longest yard, which
00:01:53
Speaker
That that's a film where I'm like, I'm not gonna be able to go back and watch this and it's just not gonna It's just not gonna look like I saw it a couple years ago. It was still pretty funny Chris Rock ties it together. But also Adam Sandler's great. It's it's honestly holds up again. I'd probably need to watch it I think the last time I watch it was like pre pandemic or during the pandemic. So who knows? It's fair
00:02:17
Speaker
Comedy films, I mean once you're talking about things that are like over or close to 20 years old Yeah, you're playing with a little bit of fire in terms of like what was you know?
Rewatching Family Guy: Jokes That Aged Poorly
00:02:29
Speaker
All right back then and what isn't now just simply like what is relevant to yeah, like I Earlier this year. I watched dodgeball
00:02:38
Speaker
And there's some moments in that where you're just like, ooh, that didn't age too well. Oh, man, I love that movie. But yeah, I'm sure there is. I'll actually go back and watch. But I mean, on the topic, I mean, we're watching Family Guy back and there's a lot of that same kind of stuff in there where it's like, yeah.
00:02:58
Speaker
especially one big joke in, well, it's a big joke in this episode simply because of a topical thing happening right now. We'll cover that when we get to it. But yeah, I watched that. I was like, oh my God, that would be real bad if that came out right now.
00:03:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's just that's how it works, right? It's like for certain content like that, you just you have to try and view it from the perspective of what was going on at the time where society was at the
Personal Growth Reflected in Old Social Media
00:03:26
Speaker
time. And, you know, it's one of those things where it's like, OK, if you can watch something like that now and just be like, oh,
00:03:33
Speaker
That's a sign of growth. I equate that to God forbid. I still have Facebook. I use it mostly to keep up with older family members and stuff like that who aren't as good with texting or whatever else.
00:03:47
Speaker
And Facebook memories are the, my daily dose of cringe are my old Facebook memories. And that's the beautiful thing about them though is because it's just like, Oh God, what was wrong with me? But that's a sign of progression and that you're not the same person you were before. Like if you can look at a Facebook memory of yours from like 15 years ago and you don't cringe at it,
00:04:15
Speaker
That doesn't speak very positively to you, I would say, unless, of course, you were like 30 and now you're 45. Yeah, unless it's actually funny. You might want to see some personal growth. Yeah, it's so funny you brought that up. I came across one today that I looked at. I'm like, who the fuck is this person? Like, it was I was 2011, so I was 21 at the time and I was just like,
00:04:40
Speaker
Like it was stupid. Oh, I hate it. I hated reading it. I just wanted to like delete it, but I was like, no, no, that's fine. I'll just just leave it up. It's funny because obviously most people that know about this podcast, of course, know us from, you know, our our hockey stuff and everything like that and YouTube side of things. And in regards to that, this time of year, especially for Facebook memories is huge.
00:05:03
Speaker
in regards to just like, yeah, the Boston Bruins won. Oh, the Boston Bruins lost. And especially back in my latter years of high school, I had a friend. She was a massive New York Rangers fan. So it's just constantly us. Facebook memories are just us two bickering back and forth about those two teams. Oh, that's great. But there was one I spelled the word really.
00:05:31
Speaker
R-E-L-E. Ew, that's not even good. I'm like short term it, and that's the thing. Yeah, but, oh
Slang & Spelling Trends of Youth
00:05:40
Speaker
man. Other memories I've seen from people were also spelling it that way, so apparently that was just- It's like, relay. It's like the name Rene with an L, it's relay. God, yeah. Why didn't you just do R-L-Y, like a fucking civilized- I don't know if that was a thing yet, man. Maybe not, yeah.
00:05:59
Speaker
Oh my God. Well, here's the thing. I used to say I used to I used to just change spellings of things that didn't make sense. Like for chilling, like, oh, yeah, I'm just chilling. I would literally instead of just being like C H I L I N, you know, short version, you leave off the G. I'd put an E N chilling. I don't know why I have a mom's an English teacher. You know, she she would have hated it. But like, yeah.
00:06:24
Speaker
I have a couple of those where it's like, you know, chill, and then I-N, apostrophe. If you're gonna type the fucking apostrophe, just put the G, you fucking loser. Or like, you know what, you know back in the day when like, I don't know if it was a big thing there, but like, here in California at least, it was a big thing to say like, late for a while, like it was goodbye. Alright, late. That was not a thing. No, yeah, that definitely seems like a West Coast thing. So you got to shorten to later to late? Yeah, late.
00:06:54
Speaker
But even pre that, I used to say like laters, but I would. Oh, this is like back when I was playing fucking Warcraft two. So that's how long ago it was. Like Warcraft two and Starcraft online to send to my like clan mates, I would say L A T A Z laters.
00:07:18
Speaker
I mean, yes, my name had X X X underscore cool name underscore X X X. Well, like I did like L eight R. But that's solid. That's a good. Yeah, that's good. That's good texting language.
00:07:37
Speaker
God, all right, we were both just terrible people. That's what we're discovering. Yeah, pretty much.
Character Analysis: Stewie vs. Brian in Family Guy
00:07:45
Speaker
So this episode of Family Guy that we're allegedly talking about, the episode opens with Stewie reading Machiavelli and Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Which I love. Machiavelli, you've taught me nothing. Oh, God, Lois takes the books and turns on the Teletubbies.
00:08:05
Speaker
As Stewie protests, those books may hold the secrets to enslaving all of mankind. Ooh, fuzzy. I love it. This is, I love this as much as when they have Brian be a dog. You know, those moments where they have Brian be a dog to acknowledge that Stewie is like, in fact, a baby is, God, it's so funny. I don't know. I don't know why. That's like one of the things I love the most about Family Guy.
00:08:30
Speaker
Stewie is mesmerized by the show, as I don't know if you caught this. Each Teletubby had a different antenna on their head, such as rabbit ears or a satellite dish, instead of like their actual designs of whatever the fuck was on their head. I never watched the Teletubbies. And I think my parents are thankful for that every day. It's it's bizarre. Like it's a fucked up concept when you think about it.
00:08:59
Speaker
It is very weird and like the sun baby and just. Who's like a 20 year old woman now or like, yeah, that's the craziest part. It's like they showed a picture of the sun baby where she is today. She's just in the fucking college. I'm like, cool. I felt there's there's a Reddit thread
Nostalgic TV Shows: Nick Jr. vs. Family Guy
00:09:17
Speaker
dated two years ago stating that she is now 27 years old. So she's almost 30. This this the sun baby from television.
00:09:29
Speaker
Yeah, I was too busy at four years old watching Barney and Nickelodeon. Yeah, I never watched Barney too much. I did watch a lot of Nick Jr. I remember Gullah Gullah Island. That was a show that I remember the most. I remember the name, but I don't think that was ever something I watched.
00:09:51
Speaker
That was the one with the frog, right? Yeah. Uh, I think so, yeah. Yeah, that was a big yellow frog or whatever. Oh, man. There were some weird shows back in the day, and we're talking about one of them, and it's a weird show. Yeah, yeah. We keep your fun tangents right now. That's what the show is. I love it.
00:10:09
Speaker
Peter changes the channel on Stewie, releasing Stewie from his trance as he then promises Peter a quick and painless death as a reward. Also, just like those Teletubbies look like they're fucking on hallucinogens the size of their pupils. I don't know if that was purposely done or if that was just an animation choice, but like, because like all they're doing is looking at a cataphone and they all look like they're tripping ball sack.
00:10:36
Speaker
Basically, yeah, I mean, if you look at like the the actual Teletubbies to like, they're fucking horrifying looking. They are. Like, I'm sorry, those things are nightmare fuel to this day. Yeah, by the way, Peter changed the television to the documentary about the other guy from lamb, aka Andrew Ridgley. Yes. Which
00:11:06
Speaker
You know? There's worse outcomes than to be known as the other guy from Wham. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. That was the main guy in Sympathy Ends. No one fucking knows who that is, do ya? No, that was my metalcore band in my early twenties. Oh, man.
00:11:25
Speaker
Uh, shout out to, uh, shout out. So, you know, it's funny. I just, I literally had to look it up. I'm just like, okay, Andrew richly, he did three albums with wham released one soul album in 1990. And then it was just like, I'm good.
00:11:40
Speaker
You know, he's like, I don't need I don't need the public spotlight. And the funny thing is, it's probably because he saw like what George Michael's life was like. Yeah. Where it's like he was just constantly in the goddamn spotlight. And it's like I would imagine seeing somebody like you're going to go one of two ways about it when you have
00:12:01
Speaker
You know, career paths go a different way. You're either going to be like, oh, fuck, I wish I had that. I wish I had that fame and fortune. Or you're going to have that viewpoint of like, fuck that. I don't need that. And yeah, you know, good for him.
TV Show Memories: MASH & Beyond
00:12:18
Speaker
I hope he's had a fulfilling life. Yeah. And I mean, he married the lead singer of Bananarama, which I don't know who that is.
00:12:27
Speaker
Uh, sir. Cruel summer, sir. The Karate Kid soundtrack, sir. Oh, I have our friendships being tested by episode five. Yeah. That it just, it rings no bells. Looking at their fucking eighties as hell. Holy crap. Oh yeah. It was Jesus. It was the style at the time. Dope ass style.
00:12:55
Speaker
I can see where this emo scene got a lot of its ideas from from the eighties. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good for him. Wood. Anyway.
00:13:08
Speaker
We cut away after the opening credits to Happy Go Lucky Toys, where Peter's boss, Mr. Weed, is trying to rally the team for their upcoming softball game, recalling being embarrassed by the team that they played, the novelty toymaker softball team, who had glasses that would remove people's clothing. And Peter was the only one to wear underwear. Oh, yeah. Strongest opening joke. Yeah. Oh, that's that. Yeah, it was.
00:13:36
Speaker
I figured the whole, I didn't even notice no one else was wearing underwear, I guess. Yeah, not the strongest opener. Peter mentions that he hates that other team more than spinach, traffic jams, and the last few years of mash, where Alan Alda took over and the show got too preachy. Yeah, I'll take his word for it, because I've literally never watched a second of mash. That's just one of those words, like that's one of those 10 percenters that they love to throw in, like at least one per episode.
00:14:05
Speaker
That was one of those shows where it would be on before or after a show that I'd actually be interested in watching. Yeah. Um, like I could have sworn MASH was on like TV land at a certain point. And it's like growing up, I'd like to watch like Gilligan's Island on TV land with my dad because he really likes that show. Yeah. Um, or like the monsters or something like that. And then it would be like up next MASH. Okay. What else is on?
00:14:35
Speaker
But maybe, I mean, it's one of the most famous shows of all time, and I mean, maybe it does hold up, but you're also talking about a show that aired from 1972 to 1983, like, you know. Yeah. We're a bit removed at this stage. Yeah, just a little. Mr. Weed introduces his ringer for the softball team, Guillermo. Oh, man. And someone that coincidentally during the interview, Mr. Weed perved on by using said novelty glasses from the year before.
00:15:04
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was established pretty early on that Mr. Weed was homosexual. Yes. Yeah, because it was the statue of David Penis, right? Yeah. Oh, you only know. Peter is trying to get Mr. Weed to take on a new idea of his a new project as Peter tries to introduce the facts of life transformers.
00:15:32
Speaker
um where for for Blair cute as a button fat as a cow radioactive scorpion are the three levels oh my god i thought that joke was mean as hell it's mean as hell but it's it's so ridiculous that it's funny holy hell and what's funny to me is i never i never really watched the facts of life
00:16:01
Speaker
Um, that's another show that was just before my time. But Lisa Welchill, who played Blair on the facts of life, um, in like 2011, 2012, she was on Survivor, a season of Survivor.
00:16:16
Speaker
And that was like a big part of the season is because every time on Survivor where it's like, this person's famous. Get the fuck out of here. They don't need the money. I think she finished in second. Hmm. And it was one of those things where, you know, a lot of like the story of that season was covering her being like, I've had a I've had a rough life thanks to being like a child star and stuff like that. But this time kind of isolated allowed me to kind of process things and stuff like that. It was like, oh,
00:16:45
Speaker
That's nice. And then here's family. Here's some more trauma. Jesus Christ. A little bit mean.
Trivia & Humor: Dinosaurs and Jurassic Park
00:16:57
Speaker
Peter also has an idea where Natalie turns into one of the spitting lizards from Jurassic Park. I like that he calls it a spitting lizard. That's just so, so Peter Griffin.
00:17:08
Speaker
So fun fact, I was watching because my wife and I are gigantic fucking nerds. I was watching Jeopardy. And in fairness, super nerdom, they're doing a master's tournament on Jeopardy. Yeah.
00:17:24
Speaker
And it's amazing to see these fucking superhuman robot brains be like, which one of our superhuman robot brains are the smartest? Yeah. And one of the questions tonight was like, Oh, it was discovered that T-Rex has had this. And the answer I thought was going to be feathers or whatever. Cause there's that whole conversation over the past like 20 years, but oh, how many dinosaurs actually had feathers. Apparently T-Rex had lips.
00:17:51
Speaker
And I don't know how to feel about that. So it's a fucking 21st century glow up to your ex. It just keeps getting more new spokesperson for the for Khloe Kardashian's slip line. It's just the fucking to your ex from Jurassic Park.
00:18:12
Speaker
with this fucking lip filler. Popping the lips. Yeah. God. You ever seen that video where they replace all the dinosaur screams in Jurassic Park with Yas. Yas, I have.
Family Guy's Comedic Style & Comparisons
00:18:26
Speaker
So there you go. There's the ad right there. I should be in marketing. Back at home, Peter, Chris, and Brian are watching Wheel of Fortune with the board reading Go Uck Yourself.
00:18:39
Speaker
A woman solves go tuck yourself in. As Chris says while Peter to his dad that his dad was close. While Peter can't believe he missed the clue my hairy aunt. No, no, it's 10 out of 10. That's a 10 out of 10 joke. Did South Park top this with naggers? Seven years later or whatever.
00:19:05
Speaker
They push the envelope with it more, I'll say that. They push the envelope more, but I think this nails it a bit more. Just because, like, it's... It's mostly a sight gag, because when you see it, like... Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. For me, I'm biased, because it's Family Guy, but yeah, I think they nailed it a little bit more.
00:19:28
Speaker
Peter looks to head to softball practice to avoid meeting the new neighbors, recalling the time he let a previous neighbor borrow a toaster. Oh, yeah. Leading to a divorce, suicide joke, like... Yeah, it's probably borderline. I still chuckled.
Cultural Sensitivity in Jokes Today
00:19:49
Speaker
That's fair. Yeah. Lois says they might be very nice people as Peter predicts they'll have skeletons in their septic tank.
00:19:59
Speaker
Cut to practice where Brian another example of him being a dog Brian's on the bleachers panting resulting in a woman thinking that he's hitting on her Yeah, it's like and that's that's one of the things I love so much when he's clearly being a dog But then he's still being anthropomorphized by people around him. Yeah, it's great The happy-go-lucky team is missing their starting picture due to his wife giving birth and Peter asks if the baby's coming out of him That was a good one. Yeah
00:20:29
Speaker
Brian asks, what's more questionable, Peter's pitching arm or Bill Clinton's integrity? Leading to a laugh track in awkward waiting. Yeah. That's how long ago this was. Bill fricking Clinton, man. Yeah. He had, I mean, think about it, right? The presidents that we've had. Two Bush terms, two Obama terms, a Trump term and a Biden term.
00:20:55
Speaker
And this show, I mean granted, it was canceled for a little bit, but it's on the air, it's still relevant. And the funny thing is about this particular show, right, is I was thinking about this the other day. I was seeing a lot about The Simpsons. And The Simpsons have, over the last couple of seasons, actually undergone a bit of a revival.
00:21:20
Speaker
Um, they're starting to get better reviews for their more recent seasons. And in saying that... I can't believe they're still making new shows. That's actually incredible.
00:21:33
Speaker
And, you know, Seth MacFarlane's talked about, like, I'll just keep doing the show for as long as they let me do the show. I feel like, you know, we're talking about, oh, man, we've already seen, what, four presidents and everything, technically five, since Clinton was around at the time.
Longevity of Shows: Family Guy & The Simpsons
00:21:46
Speaker
But if a show like The Simpsons can really undergo, I mean, dude, there have been video essays in regards to the decline of The Simpsons.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yeah. Wikipedia right now lists them as having 35 seasons with 767 episodes. Jesus. If they can undergo this kind of resurgence in these latter seasons, I mean, it's not going to be surprising at all to be like, yeah, no, family guy is still on the air 10 years from now, 15 years from now. I mean, The Simpsons debuted in 89. Jesus. So who would that would have been Bush senior then, right?
00:22:23
Speaker
Fucking hell. So they had Bush senior. Yeah. Was there anyone in between him and Clinton? I was so young. I don't think so, but I can't remember. No, it did go. H.W. And then. Yeah. H.W. And then Clinton. So. God damn. Anyway, let's just continue our tangents. Why not? Just let us be.
00:22:49
Speaker
Peter ends up drilling Guillermo in the knee with a pitch injuring him as Mr. Weed promises to fire Peter if he cannot find a replacement ringer. But shout out to Peter who has a submarine release. He's a real one for that, man. Submarine pitchers are king. The bane of my existence in any baseball video game. And that's the only windup I will use playing as a pitcher.
00:23:16
Speaker
Jesus Christ, there is nothing worse than playing a game of MLB The Show, and the next thing you see is a picture with that underhand submarine release. Yeah, it's a picture to hit off, but dude, I would always make a picture. Last one I made was a submarine-ing knuckleballer. You're going to hell. Yeah, it was just the biggest fuck you to ever, everyone.
00:23:41
Speaker
Peter fears that he won't be able to find a ringer and will once again have to become a Calvin Klein model, leading to them spoofing a commercial of inner monologues as Peter wonders what the bad guy's name from Tron was. Do you know? That was such a short-lived commercial, I'm pretty sure. I remember watching the DVD commenter to this years ago and they mentioned how flat this joke hit because it was such a short-lived Calvin Klein thing that
00:24:10
Speaker
Probably even by the time it came out, it was already dated. Did you ever see Tron? I can't say I did either. I had to look it up. Ed Dillinger was the bad guy from Tron.
00:24:26
Speaker
Don't even know what else he's been in, so... Don't blame me there. That was the character name. Oh, oh, oh, oh. He was played by David Warner, who... Uh, let's see. Del David Warner. All right, he was a theater actor, and he was in some stuff. He was in A Christmas Carol. He was in Titanic. Scream 2. Well, clearly not the Australian cricketer. There he is. Star Trek V and VI. Dude, this guy had fucking range to him.
00:24:58
Speaker
Anyway, look up David Warner. I'm sure he was a phenomenal actor. It certainly looks like he was based off of his body of work. Holy shit. I'm trying to see if he was in anything that I have watched. Dude, he was in turtles 2, the secret of the ooze.
00:25:13
Speaker
What? Yeah. Oh, he was a professor. Yeah. Oh, legit. He was also an ice cream man, a horror movie starring Clint Howard as a murderous ice cream man. Jesus. This is one of those actors where you're just like, oh yeah, if you see him, you know him. Clearly. He just worked and worked and worked. Wow. He's like Danny Trejo.
00:25:42
Speaker
the Danny Trejo of his time.
Unnoticed Character Design Changes in Family Guy
00:25:46
Speaker
We cut back to the Griffin House as well technically the Swanson House as they're in the driveway next door as Lois meets Bonnie, a brunette for this episode only before they change her hair color. Oh, Bonnie's always a brunette. No, she's got like the jet black hair.
00:26:04
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. But doesn't she have jet black hair in this episode? No, no, it was, uh, it was more of a brown brunette color. No. Yeah. I don't believe you. Well, I'm sorry. Kevin Bacon wasn't in full. What the fuck? Yeah. I know. It caught me off guard too. Cause I watched that scene and I'm just like, wait a minute. And then I went back and say, Oh, that's, but I mean, they did have a couple of times in regards to character changes very early on, you know,
00:26:34
Speaker
Oh, yeah, it was Auburn in her first appearance. How did I legitimately did not. Oh, my God. Yeah, she has Auburn hair. I it legitimately. I didn't notice. It's like C3PO silver leg. No one notices. They just assume he's all gold. Exactly like that. You nailed it. It's the definition of mental effect. That's insane. I just saw her with black hair. That's crazy.
00:27:04
Speaker
So Lois meets Bonnie in the driveway as her and Joe, her husband, have moved from Providence. Lois talks about Kohog having excitement like the big city, recalling the bingo caller losing an eye last week. Which... Look at it. It's decent, yeah. You think it's going one way and it goes the other. Yeah, it's not the strongest. Stewie tries to run away, but he's on a leash. Frustrated, he states. Oh, to be the Lindbergh baby right now.
00:27:33
Speaker
Which was a much better show. Yes. And much darker, but fuck yeah. They will reference the Lindberghs quite a bit in these early seasons as well. Yeah. For anybody who somehow doesn't, I mean it's a story from almost a hundred years ago for God's sakes.
Dark Humor in Early Family Guy
00:27:52
Speaker
But yeah, the 20-month-old son of Charles Lindbergh was fortunately abducted and killed out of the Lindbergh home in 1932. Supposedly, yeah. Yeah. And we won't go into the questionable character of one Charles Lindbergh himself. That is worthy of its own podcast. Yeah. But yeah, a darker joke to say the least. Our next podcast, The Lindbergh Files.
00:28:21
Speaker
He's on the lookout. Joe backs out of the garage in his truck as Stewie promises that Joe will bow to him. I just love that. In the backyard or no, Meg's in the kitchen. She's in the kitchen. She's looking into the Swanson's backyard as she's daydreaming of the Swanson's son, Kevin, asking her out as Chris states that he's definitely gay.
00:28:51
Speaker
Peter's concerned about not being able to refine the replacement, as strong as Guillermo, who he once saw benching Mr. Weed in the locker room. That could have all kinds of implications. Yeah. He could have been benching him, but... Yeah. Just, you know, it's good. You gotta work the upper body a little bit and develop your power game. And nothing better than a spotter who can just get up.
00:29:18
Speaker
Peter's frustrated that he'll have to meet the new neighbors as Lois always tries to make him socialize. Cocktail parties, school functions, and planting trees in Jerusalem where he can't tell the difference between Israelis and Arabs. And that is the thing that would not come out today, anytime in the past few months, honestly, anytime in the past few years, but especially not since late last year. Yeah.
00:29:48
Speaker
Moving on. Peter's dismissive of Joe, who finds Peter funny. Joe asks to borrow a screwdriver leading to Peter saying soon he'll be using his dry cleaner, his supermarket, and even his postman as he states to Brian, can you believe that guy? What an ass.
00:30:06
Speaker
And he looks very different in that scene, too, the way he's animated. He looks very small, to my eyes. I don't know what it was. It just stood out to me. It's almost like when they would animate him as a child. It was like in between full Peter's size. Maybe it's because of the hat he's wearing. No idea. Peter and Brian are watching TV, as Peter recalls, trying to recruit a Japanese ringer to entice him. As Peter's pitch is, he'll love him long time, a full metal jacket reference. Uh-huh.
00:30:33
Speaker
As Brian leaves to chew on the back of his ass for five minutes. Which apparently on TV, it's censored the back of his leg, but Hulu at least. Yeah, who was the real one? Yeah, no censors on that. Any thoughts on Fullmetal Jacket or have we had too many? Yeah, I too many side streets. Honestly, I've only ever seen that movie full through like once.
00:31:00
Speaker
Same. I have to probably make myself watching. There's just so much other stuff on my list. But I do love the reference to just like Japanese superstar baseball players because like they're even bigger now. But like back then they were like really starting to like come into the to the MLB and stuff like that. It's a good it's a good call out to that. Hopefully that guy doesn't get into betting trouble.
00:31:23
Speaker
Yeah, there you go. Yeah, just, you just got to make sure you're careful who your friends with. Yeah, that interpreter that he had was a little shady. Yeah, he's going to jail. Lois has invited the Swansons to Peter's game, where Lois mentions Joe having played baseball in college, leading Peter to bring over the screwdriver to the Swansons. As Peter walks in, Joe is putting stuff away and Peter says, oh, don't get up.
00:31:52
Speaker
as Peter blames Tourette's on his previous outburst. Peter gets Joe to play promising it'll be as much fun as copyright infringement as Peter turns into definitely not Mickey Mouse. Yeah. Well, hey, no, we can say it now. He is. He's fucking Mickey Mouse. Then it's now public. What's it called? Free access now. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm pretty sure at least very recently Mickey Mouse became at least the drawing for it kind of became public domain in some kind of way because the copyright was so fucking old.
00:32:22
Speaker
Uh, the Steamboat Willy version. Ah, okay, okay. Just the Steamboat Willy version. Well, hey. Ah, whatever. Damn. I really thought I had a gotcha moment right there, but... At the game, a member of the Pawtucket Pranksters gives a happy-go-lucky employee a new gum that makes him addicted to heroin. Which is a fantastic pit. I'm cold.
00:32:49
Speaker
Like, it's just I love those. They're just so fucking out there. Like, joke up. You're addicted to heroin. Peter panics as Joe is revealed to be wheelchair bound with the line. Holy crap. He's a crapple. Hard cut to commercial. Yeah.
00:33:10
Speaker
Which, so up to this point, obviously, they had done a good job of hiding it with Joe, right? Like he had been covered by boxes when he was putting trophies away. He was in his truck, stuff like that. So they did build up to the, like you said, subverting expectations. They did it right out of the gates with Stewie and everything like that. And I mean, you know, it's a common theme throughout the show. Yeah. Peter tries to calm down Mr. Weed by saying maybe they won't hit too many balls to him, to which Joe responds by calling shortstop, which I thought was great. That's a good one.
00:33:40
Speaker
On the bleachers, Stewie's tortured by Lois and Bonnie's household conversations while Meg can't get any reaction out of Kevin. Joe makes a good play defensively. Peter yelling a way to earn that parking space. Yeah. Don't care. Fucking. That is hilarious.
00:34:07
Speaker
Oh, as Stewie becomes convinced that Joe was a cyborg. Go cyborg! God.
Stewie's B-Story Patterns
00:34:19
Speaker
Yeah. So every single B story so far has been a Stewie B story, right? Like we have yet to have any other B story besides like Stewie's sub is it's plotting something. His weather machine, the man in white, um,
00:34:37
Speaker
Yeah, I think you're right. Mind control device. Yeah. Yeah. Everything has been a Stewie B story so far. And I cannot remember when the first story comes out that isn't evolving him, but it works like their formula has just crack on. It's just bang on in those early seasons. Like they found what worked and they just
00:35:16
Speaker
The game comes down to Joe who hits an inside the park homeroom for the win. Peter pretty much immediately becomes jealous that no one's thanking him for finding Joe.
00:35:26
Speaker
The Swansons host a celebration party, leading Peter to be even more jealous, trying to jump into the pool to steal attention, which doesn't work. And I'm pretty sure he says when he falls into the pool, Peter fell into the pool with his clothes off instead of on. I replayed this a couple of times. I'm pretty sure he's supposed to say, oh, yeah, I fell into the pool with my clothes on. That's so Pete Griffin. But he very distinctly says off.
00:35:55
Speaker
I didn't catch that some fair enough. Has always bugged me. Hide on the scoreboard for things the other didn't notice. Yeah, here we go. Mr. Weed at the party is enthralled by Joe's idea of a line of toys to promote positivity amongst the physically challenged. Peter hates the idea of Beanie Baby in a bubble, selling his idea of 2D turning into a stink bug. Yeah. No, that's
00:36:23
Speaker
That's crazy. This came out in 99. Bubble Boy wasn't released till 01, so I wonder where he got the bubble idea from. Because I was wondering that and I had to look it up. I was like, Bubble Boy wasn't that old, was it? And no. I mean, I'm sure it was just an idea at that point. Like, oh, yeah, put him in a bubble. Keep him safe. I don't know. I mean,
00:36:42
Speaker
You know, you already live in a world where the iron lung exists or it's just true. Why this is this is the part of family guy where it's so far in the past that I think we could start our own conspiracy of them telling the future. You know, I mean, people have done it with the Simpsons. Exactly. I think we should be the ones to start that here on this podcast. A viewers don't tell anyone. Mr. Weed tells Peter to go get a drink for Joe, leading Peter to saying he's stealing his friends. The way he wears his hat.
00:37:13
Speaker
Well, no, you can't take that away from me. He can't take that away from me, which apparently... Song reference? Is a song reference. I had to look this up. I had no fucking idea. Gershwin and Gershwin. George and Ira Gershwin. Yes, that makes sense. In 1937. Jazz, baby. Yep. I played so many Gershwin and Gershwin songs in school, jazz bands, man.
00:37:44
Speaker
I I had never heard of this before in my life. Yeah, I'm assuming most people would. And that that but that that hurts my heart as a as a jazz man. I'm sorry. I'll have to. It's fine. Yeah. In fairness, this is a song that has been covered. Oh, yeah. Quite, quite a few. Yeah. Any song written back in like the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s is going to be at 20,000 covers. Shout out to Gershwin and Gershwin. Fun name.
00:38:16
Speaker
Stewie points at Joe, embarrassing Lois. Joe then tells the story of how he was paralyzed, trying to stop the Grinch at an orphanage.
00:38:28
Speaker
from stealing presents. It's just disgustingly heroic and can't can do no wrong. And I love that about this because the way that his character develops and eventually devolves into like pathetic at times is pretty brilliant. But yeah, in the early going, he's just like cannot do anything wrong type character, which is hilarious given the fact he's in a wheelchair. But yeah.
00:38:53
Speaker
It leads to a rooftop brawl where Joe falls off, becoming paralyzed, but he still hands the present to the little boy. Merry Christmas, Timmy. Like you said, it is set up for him to be like this perfect person. Spoiler alert. The very first time on this show, I think. Spoiler alert, everybody. Be careful if you don't want to be spoiled, I think, for an episode that came out in like 2010. This story is retconned.
00:39:25
Speaker
In a later episode, Joe, it's discovered that Joe made this up. Holy shit. I don't know if I've seen that one. And that he was paralyzed in a different way. Oh, wait, I think. Oh, yeah, I'm I'm getting glimpses of it now. I've seen so much family guy. But yeah. So, hey, you know.
00:39:51
Speaker
Like you said, his character changes quite a bit as time goes on throughout the show. So Peter walks around. Actually, I skipped over one here. Stewie doesn't care about Joe's story, demanding to know Joe's technology behind the wheelchair. Peter tries to promise his family a trip to Hawaii to get their attention, which does not work.
00:40:18
Speaker
He states to Lois, you're not supposed to admire wheelchair people, you're supposed to feel sorry for them. To which Lois responds, basically saying, Joe's great, he's remarkable. And Peter prances around saying, look at me, I'm a remarkable man. The amount of times I've used that while doing something cannot be counted.
00:40:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It's been a while, because that's an old-ass episode. But he's seeing that again. I was like, oh, yeah, I used to do that a lot, just doing basic stuff. Even Brian is won over by Joe, and his magic fingers of being able to scratch behind Brian's ears. Joe's a hero. So Peter recalls the time he also made the world a better place by singing to kids at Sunday school, where he sings the skippy peanut butter jingle.
Parody Style Highlights in Family Guy
00:41:09
Speaker
Jesus loves me. He loves me a bunch because he always put Skippy in my lunch. Holy shit. Like just tremendous. Tremendous. That's all I could say. God damn it. Peter convinces himself that he can get attention by putting himself in danger. As he runs away, Brian wonders, why are the pretty ones so dumb? Wait, do we have to do the police scanner thing?
00:41:41
Speaker
Or no, or is that coming next? That's coming next. The police scanner bit is one of my favorite lines in this season. It's literally the next line I have. Stewie is attempting to stalk Joe, leading to him like Tarzan swinging out of a window. As Peter is listening to a police scanner, as Brian walks into the room, he states, is it me or is rap music getting lazier?
00:42:11
Speaker
So fucking good so many songs so many great songs by great artists have featured some Police scanner things obviously one of the most famous ones is the blind song April April 1992 or 96 is I think they did a later version of it or maybe it was 94 anyway, but yeah so many police scanner things It's it's a perfect perfect gag. I loved it
00:42:37
Speaker
Peter overhears on the scanner that there is a bank robbery. So he decides to head there. First, he heads to the Batcave and runs into actual bats. Yeah, legit Batcave. Peter drives his family to the bank as he looks to walk in the robbers, say, let's give Tammy the cashier a hand, a round of applause. It's her first robbery.
00:43:07
Speaker
but the robbers eventually turn on the crowd once Peter arrives. Back in the car, Meg asks Lois what to do about Kevin, and eventually she just says, well, have you tried showing off the goods? In the bank, Peter and Brian, who of course accompany Peter, are hiding under a desk, leading to Peter thinking of the Super Friends in a time where he won a game of strip poker against Wonder Woman.
00:43:35
Speaker
leading to everyone staring at her, except for Robin, who was staring at Peter. The age-old trope, Robin is gay. Goddammit. Goddammit. The robbers try to leave as more police arrive.
00:43:53
Speaker
Peter though finally does devise a plan as he gets the robbers to do improv, which works to secure the gun. But Peter refuses to escort the hostages out of the bank when he realizes his family are no longer or realize that his family is no longer in the car, having gone to a shop to buy Meg a new dress. Yeah.
00:44:13
Speaker
We did skip over some funny ass lines from Meg. It's earlier on. I think they're at the soccer game. She says that I can't taste salt blind to Kevin, which, of course, I did not get for years until you get older. And then it made me think I'm like, why would that work on a guy? Because how would they know what gum tastes like? You know, I was wondering how you were about to phrase that. I'm just going to say it. It's a cum joke, kids.
Awkward Moments in Family Guy's Humor
00:44:44
Speaker
It's a dirty, dirty cum joke. You see when a man and a woman love each other. Welcome to the birds and the bees podcast starring two cis white men. Yeah.
00:45:02
Speaker
There's a cigar. Let me tell you what women want. Oh, God. Harrison Butker, calm down. Jesus. Yeah, I love it. I love the line the cop says in this part where she's trying to get Kevin's attention. I don't know if you're going to bring him up, but I'm going to bring it up right now. But yeah.
00:45:22
Speaker
Um, just I'm am I skipping something or can I bring this up now? I got like two lines before it. So, all right, go for it. Um, the cops outside see Peter with the gun, so he's nearly shot by police. Um, and then Peter ultimately loses control of the gun back to the robbers. Um, at the Swanson's Bonnie is watching the story break on the news leading the Joe heading downtown.
00:45:46
Speaker
Back at the bank, Peter puts himself in the line of fire for correcting the speech of one of the robbers, but is still happy when Joe arrives because he thinks the bank isn't wheelchair accessible. So there's no way for Joe to save the day. Peter's still on the case.
00:46:01
Speaker
Yeah, even though he just leapfrogged a guy on his way to home plate not that long ago. Yeah. Stairs will stop him. Meg continues to fail to break through to Kevin, but a random officer suggests that she ask him questions about himself. Leading to, this is what you want, is it not? Oh yeah, just like, ugh.
00:46:30
Speaker
I just love that line. Ask him about him. It's like talk to him about him instead. And it works immediately, which is very, very good for. Just as a joke, I feel like, but yeah, is I love I love this line so much because he's talking about the music he likes because he is not a robot as he shouts. And then he immediately follows it up by saying, I also like Radiohead, which is the most robot band ever. Sorry, not sorry.
00:46:59
Speaker
I listened to Garbage Fish Blur. I also like Radiohead. Joe convinces the robbers to surrender to which Peter, I believe it was Peter, damn stupid robbers and your guns and your make out parties. Joe was carried away by a happy crowd, allowing Stewie to commandeer the wheelchair, but he can't figure out how to get it to work.
00:47:29
Speaker
as Stewie proclaims that victory will be his, which has been a little bit since we recorded the first episode of this. Was this the first or? It was one of the first, like it very much was before, I think. Yeah, I think we did the act of grenades. Yes, victory is mine as he gets his way back. Yeah.
00:47:52
Speaker
But yeah, victory shall be mine. I don't know if that was, I don't know if we've heard that part before, but yeah. Yeah, Lois pacifies him before he can even finish the sentence anyway. So. Lois reaffirms the family views Peter as a hero for all the brave things he does, like changing the channel when something boring comes on or eating the last lights of pizza so they don't have to fight over it.
Celebrity Cameos in Family Guy
00:48:15
Speaker
Meg thanks him for helping her realize how to manipulate Kevin.
00:48:21
Speaker
And Chris is happy that his dad's a psycho because it'll get him attention at school. And Michelle Kwon thanks him for taking her to practice. Shout out Michelle Kwon, man. She was huge back in that day, man. Voicing yourself, too. Yeah, Michelle Kwon.
00:48:42
Speaker
a two-time Olympic medalist in figure skating, a five-time world champion, a nine-time US champion, and currently,
00:48:54
Speaker
The U.S. ambassador to Belize. What? She was she assumed she gets to live in fucking Belize. December 5th, 2022, she took office as the U.S.'s official ambassador to Belize. That's just a fucking paid vacation. Oh, crap. But yeah, shout out to Shout out to Michelle Kwan. That is quite the.
00:49:23
Speaker
Quite the history. I thought you were going to say something like that. Like, she's in prison. No. I'm like, oh, no. I guess she had a history. She has an article on her Wikipedia page of diplomatic positions, even dating back to 2006. How? She was named as a diplomacy ambassador by Condoleezza Rice. And then, yeah, like I said, is now the fucking US ambassador. Whoa, when the kid's over with this.
00:49:55
Speaker
So Peter is a hero in his own way and happy to be the hero to his family as he tells an old woman essentially to go away who's yelling for help as her purse was stolen. So lessons learned. Not the strongest second half to an episode. Yeah, I'd say my opinion, it peaked quite early. Once it became
00:50:24
Speaker
more about, but the first half is really strong, right? Like we talked about this episode coming up in the introduction to Joe and how it is a strong introduction, right? Like they throw the curve ball at you, baseball pun, softball pun intended. They throw the curve ball at you of, oh, Joe's handicap. And I don't hate the concepts of Peter becoming jealous of that.
00:50:53
Speaker
But at the same time, I don't know. To me, it just wasn't the. It wasn't like the strongest set of jokes, but it did establish the idea that Peter's family kind of knows he's an idiot, but they still love him anyway. And in their own ways, the family are also kind of dumb, but maybe not quite as dumb as Peter. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think the first half of the episode is like.
00:51:19
Speaker
like A tier. And then it does kind of fall off after that into more like average territory, but still an overall solid episode. And it's hard to make an incredible episode all the time when you're introducing a character who's probably going to be there for a while. Right. Yeah.
00:51:35
Speaker
So that is episode five, season one of Family Guy. We have two episodes to go. Next up, episode six, The Sun Also Draws. If I recall, this is a really good episode. The synopsis being, the episode follows Chris as he is ejected from the youth scouts and Peter drives his family to scout headquarters to get him readmitted.
00:52:04
Speaker
During a rest stop at a Native American casino, Lois gambles away the family car. Yes, yes. This is honestly one of my favorite episodes. Yeah. Peter pretends to be a member of the tribe and attempt to get it back and is sent on a vision quest to prove his heritage, giving him and Chris an opportunity to bond. Yeah, this is going to be the first. Oh, wait. Is this not the one where Chris becomes a famous artist?
00:52:32
Speaker
No, that's a different. Oh, fuck. I was combining two episodes in my head, but this is still an episode, but yeah.
00:52:40
Speaker
So that happens a lot when we were talking about Joe earlier. And I'm like, yeah, he, you know, it comes out that it's a lie about how he was paralyzed. I was first confusing it with the episode where he loses like this dude, the thief, and he loses him and is just heartbroken. I lost the purpose. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I'm like, I don't remember the alternate cripple story in that episode. But yeah, it must not be that one then, huh?
00:53:09
Speaker
Yeah, because they do end up retconning. Like I said, I looked it up. It's season 11, episode five from November of 2012, where, I'll read this now, because who knows if we'll ever make it to this episode, Bobby the shirt Briggs, the criminal who shot Joe years ago, leaving him in a wheelchair becomes a fugitive.
00:53:35
Speaker
Maybe it is the episode. Maybe it is that. Is that the one where he? Maybe it maybe it is the same episode. I don't know. That doesn't I don't remember that name character. I remember I lost the perp and doesn't he go to the Special Olympics after that? Like I thought that was that episode. It's so crazy how like they can just bleed together sometimes. Yeah. These stories. Holy.
00:53:57
Speaker
Yeah, but anyway, yeah season season one's almost done. Like I said, we got this episode and then episode seven Brian portrait of a dog which is It's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one. Well, so and then you know season one seven episodes season two and
00:54:20
Speaker
Um, a little bit longer, 21 episodes. So we'll see how that works out for us. But for now, everybody, we are done here for today. We want to thank you again for listening or watching this particular podcast again. We are still in the very early stages of it. So if you could, whether or not you're watching on the YouTube side of things,
00:54:39
Speaker
Make sure to do the typical YouTube stuff. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Leave a like, all that happy, fun stuff. And of course, if you are listening on an audio platform, hey, leave us a review. Preferably a positive one, unless you don't like us 54 minutes into an episode of something, in which case, you know what? You've earned it. You've earned that right to say, these guys suck. You're 54 minutes into this episode. You've earned it at that point. Sin, last word goes to you. Until next time.
00:55:09
Speaker
What's the word? Oh, hello everybody's head, about the bed. We have a new outro song.