Episode 16 - April in Quahog
12 April 2010
Synopsis: Peter gets called to jury service and so is thrilled to hear that the Earth will be sucked into a black hole in 24 hours. Quahog loses its inhibitions as its inhabitants react to the news. In the final seconds before oblivion Peter admits that he doesn't like spending time with his kids. The Channel 5 news team then admit it was all an April Fool's joke and Peter is left to live with his disgruntled family.
The Good: I quite enjoyed this. In the absence of disciplined plot and joke structures I encourage Family Guy to become joke heavy rather than plot heavy. So this was a nice easy setup, the world is about to end and everyone reacts to that situation.
Not that all the gags were funny but some had broad appeal like Quagmire trying to sleep with Bonnie and Tom Tucker making threatening phone calls on air. Peter was his usual fun self going around riding lions and shooting muskets. His decision to go into a black neighbourhood to shout the 'n' word was a funny idea, though the payoff wasn't. The stream of jokes also had a nice effect of building on top of one another, you knew some of it would be funny and by presenting them like ducks in a row it's easier to ignore the lame ones. Once the April fools was revealed of course Diane Simmons was able to announce "And with only 87 suicides and widespread looting we think this was a pretty successful practical joke."
The story then turned to Peter's attempts to make up with his kids which was occasionally funny. The story did actually fit with how Peter treats his children in general and the X-Box solution was sadly not an unrealistic end to the story.
Before the end of the world was even announced the episode was in decent form with surreal jokes like "How Henry Kissinger Met Your Mother" and Quagmire claiming there were sexy monkeys at the zoo. I even enjoy Peter bringing back "Surfin Bird" once in a while. Seeing him set up the song with an unsuspecting person is the fun part and as long as they don't play the song for very long it could be a fun running gag. So credit to the writers on this occasion for telling a bunch of jokes and seeing what would stick rather than wasting viewers' time.
Flashback ratio (good-medium-bad): 0-6-0
The Bad: Peter taking crystal meth was a dull way to avoid writing any real interaction between him and his children. And obviously there were plenty of jokes which just didn't work. None of them were bad enough to warrant much attention. Though I will point out that Stephen Hawking jumping out of his chair was a lame joke. Sometimes the writers take someone with almost limitless parody potential and write a punch line which is as generic and toothless as possible.
Best Joke: In one of those lines that I love, Lois comments on the end of world to Brian: "The only thing that's nice about this is that even though it's a Tuesday it feels kinda like it's a Friday."
The Bottom Line: Plenty to enjoy if you like Family Guy humour.
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