The Simpsons Guy (Family Guy)
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"The Simpsons Guy" is the season premiere of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series, Family Guy. It is a crossover to the American animated television series, The Simpsons. It first aired in the United States on the Fox network on September 28, 2014, with The Simpsons episode "Clown in the Dumps" airing before this one.
Plot
Peter creates a comic for the Quahog newspaper, but its misogynistic humor angers local women. When an attempt to clear it fails, the Griffin family flees Quahog to escape their ire. Their car is stolen, leaving them stranded outside Springfield. At the Kwik-E-Mart, Homer Simpson introduces himself and takes them to the Springfield Police Department, where they are turned away by Chief Wiggum.
The Simpson family puts up the Griffins in their home. Bart shows Stewie his slingshot, and teaches him how to skateboard and prank call Moe, and they become friends. When Nelson Muntz bullies Bart, Stewie tortures Nelson. Lisa tries to find Meg's talent. When she realizes Meg is a natural at the saxophone, she downplays it out of spite. Chris and Brian take Santa's Little Helper for a walk. Brian tries teaching Santa's Little Helper independence, but he runs away. Marge notices Santa's Little Helper is missing, and Chris and Brian fake his presence until he returns. Homer and Peter unsuccessfully try to find Peter's car, discovering it in the possession of Hans Moleman when he accidentally runs Peter over.
The men celebrate at Moe's Tavern, but relationships sour when Peter introduces Homer to Pawtucket Patriot ale. The drink is revealed to be an imitation of Duff Beer with a new label. Duff, represented by the Blue Haired Lawyer, files a lawsuit against Pawtucket Brewery for patent infringement, with Peter forced to defend the brewery to save Quahog. Fred Flintstone presides over the case. Similar characters from both shows interact with each other. Fred rules in favor of Duff Beer, but declares that both Pawtucket Patriot Ale and Duff Beer are imitations of Bud Rock.
The Griffins prepare to return to Quahog, where Peter faces the prospect of finding a new job. Lisa gives Meg her saxophone, but Peter throws it away, claiming no room for more luggage. Stewie points out that he took revenge on all of Bart's enemies: Nelson, Jimbo Jones, Principal Skinner, Sideshow Bob, and, for the sake of making a scatagorical pun, Apu. Bart is sickened by Stewie's violent tendencies and ends their friendship. Homer tries explaining his actions, but Peter reacts angrily and the two fight. Eventually they admit their admiration for each other while agreeing to stay away in the future. Returning home, the Griffins find the heat from Peter's comic has died down and the Pawtucket Brewery is safe when Lois doubts that the inhabitants of Springfield will visit Quahog to enforce the ruling. Stewie pretends he is over Bart, but in his room writes "I will not think about Bart anymore" several times on a chalkboard. Peter creates a comic for the Quahog newspaper, but its misogynistic humor angers local women. When an attempt to clear it fails, the Griffin family flees Quahog to escape their ire. Their car is stolen, leaving them stranded outside Springfield. At the Kwik-E-Mart, Homer Simpson introduces himself and takes them to the Springfield Police Department, where they are turned away by Chief Wiggum.
The Simpson family puts up the Griffins in their home. Bart shows Stewie his slingshot, and teaches him how to skateboard and prank call Moe, and they become friends. When Nelson Muntz bullies Bart, Stewie tortures Nelson. Lisa tries to find Meg's talent. When she realizes Meg is a natural at the saxophone, she downplays it out of spite. Chris and Brian take Santa's Little Helper for a walk. Brian tries teaching Santa's Little Helper independence, but he runs away. Marge notices Santa's Little Helper is missing, and Chris and Brian fake his presence until he returns. Homer and Peter unsuccessfully try to find Peter's car, discovering it in the possession of Hans Moleman when he accidentally runs Peter over.
The men celebrate at Moe's Tavern, but relationships sour when Peter introduces Homer to Pawtucket Patriot ale. The drink is revealed to be an imitation of Duff Beer with a new label. Duff, represented by the Blue Haired Lawyer, files a lawsuit against Pawtucket Brewery for patent infringement, with Peter forced to defend the brewery to save Quahog. Fred Flintstone presides over the case. Similar characters from both shows interact with each other. Fred rules in favor of Duff Beer, but declares that both Pawtucket Patriot Ale and Duff Beer are imitations of Bud Rock.
The Griffins prepare to return to Quahog, where Peter faces the prospect of finding a new job. Lisa gives Meg her saxophone, but Peter throws it away, claiming no room for more luggage. Stewie points out that he took revenge on all of Bart's enemies: Nelson, Jimbo Jones, Principal Skinner, Sideshow Bob, and, for the sake of making a scatagorical pun, Apu. Bart is sickened by Stewie's violent tendencies and ends their friendship. Homer tries explaining his actions, but Peter reacts angrily and the two fight. Eventually they admit their admiration for each other while agreeing to stay away in the future. Returning home, the Griffins find the heat from Peter's comic has died down and the Pawtucket Brewery is safe when Lois doubts that the inhabitants of Springfield will visit Quahog to enforce the ruling. Stewie pretends he is over Bart, but in his room writes "I will not think about Bart anymore" several times on a chalkboard.
Good Qualities
- It's a pretty interesting idea for a crossover as Family Guy and The Simpsons are both shows with similar ideas but completely different when compared to each other.
- The characters from both shows have their charm here:
- The Griffins are surprisingly likable in this episode, Stewie and Chris being their likable selves as usual, one of the few times seasons 8-14 Meg has her original personality, and Peter, Lois, and Brian being their likable, charming selves (and not being flanderized like they usually are).
- The Simpsons are also likable in this episode, with Maggie being likable as usual, and one of the few times Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa are their likable, charming selves during the Simpsons’ dark age.
- The characters make great interactions with each other and also have great chemistry scattered everywhere:
- The best example is Meg Griffin and Lisa Simpson, whom seem to have great chemistry with each other, throughout the entire episode, she tries to make Meg feel better about herself and tries to make herself say that she matters,
- What's even better is that near the end of the episode, Lisa even gives her saxophone to Meg.
- Some of the cutaway gags are pretty funny:
- The cutaway involving Homer, Peter, Bob from Bob's Burgers and Cleveland from The Cleveland Show in the Air Force is pretty funny.
- Peter singing "And now the show is over now" during the Gracie Films logo is hilarious.
- The Peter vs. Homer fight was pretty satisfying and epic to watch (though goes on for to long), there was even a reference to the skateboard scene from "Bart the Daredevil" during the fight.
- Ralph's line "I'm in Danger" during the Peter vs. Homer fight was hilarious.
- It started Season 13 of Family Guy on a high-note and it painted the 25th anniversary of The Simpsons in a good light considering the fact The Simpsons was released back at the very end of the 1980s.
Bad Qualities
- As interesting as an idea for a crossover between The Simpsons and Family Guy may be, it can be considered not that great of an idea since The Simpsons and Family Guy are both shows with completely different themes to each other despite having similar concepts of a cartoon family.
- The Simpsons often relies on light-hearted and clever jokes while Family Guy in comparison often relies on offensive, shock, inappropriate and mean-spirited ones.
- In fact, most of the writing was only written by the Family Guy staff so it lacked most of the elements that episodes of The Simpsons had which led to many characters acting out of place and led to simpsons fans confused with certain jokes.
- While it almost aged well and there are a lot of good jokes present, some of them aren't that funny.
- The part where Meg shows her cut arm to Lisa is really disturbing.
- The car washing scene with Homer and Peter is really cringeworthy to look at that it's worthy of skipping altogether.
- There was also that one joke where Stewie calls Moe to tell him that his "sister's being raped", which ending up spawning lots of controversies.
- The chicken fight scene goes on for way to long, for over 10 minutes which is basically quarter of the episode.
Reception
Even though the episode received mixed reviews from television critics and general audiences, it was mostly met with positive reception from fans of both Family Guy and The Simpsons, it was placed Number 2 on WatchMojo's "Top 20 Greatest TV Crossovers of All-Time" and currently sits at a 8.4 rating on IMDb.
Trivia
- The scene where Ralph says "I'm in Danger" later became an internet meme.