You Can't Handle the Booth! (Family Guy)

"You Can't Handle the Booth!"
You definitely can't handle Lois' behavior in this episode...
Series: Family Guy Part of Season: 17 Episode Number: 16 Air Date: March 24, 2019 Writer: Damien Fahey Director: Greg Colton Previous episode: "No Giggity, No Doubt" Next episode: "Island Adventure"

"You Can't Handle the Booth!" is the sixteenth episode of the seventeenth season of Family Guy.

Plot

The Griffins record the DVD commentary for a recent episode, which leads to a surprising and dramatic clash between Peter and Lois.

Why It Intentionally Can't Handle the Booth!

NOTE: It was most likely that the episode was made to be bad on purpose.

1. This episode is a very badly written sequel episode to an otherwise really good episode, "Inside Family Guy" from the fifteenth season.
2. Lois is at her absolute worst in this episode alongside "Throw It Away"; she freaks out over the smallest things in this episode and treats Peter like absolute crap in the most insane and wrathful way possible.
   • She finds out that Peter makes more money than her, which is actually understandable given the fact that Peter is the main character of the show.
   • This is also because of some lousy issue over an "ex-wife" of Peter's (Sarah Paulson) getting paid alimony.
   • Lois gets angry just because Peter never told her he has been married before and his "ex-wife" is Sarah Paulson which doesn't make any sense; you don't get mad at someone just because they were with other people before you.
   • Lois says she deserves better than Peter for lying to her, when she's worse.
3. Having a whole episode about Lois starting some unnecessary drama with Peter all because Sarah Paulson was his "ex-wife" has nothing to do with the concept of the episode whatsoever; it's just there because it's there.
   • That never makes for a good story premise to both a story plot and even an interesting concept at all put together either, making the episode not stand out and come off as really hard to watch.
4. Lois' voice in this episode is extremely annoying and grating to listen to. An example of this is when she screams "Baloney Sandwich Sarah!".
5. This is a Peter torture episode as whole drama going on in the background with Lois would make you feel extremely sorry for him than Lois because of how badly he is treated for the rest of the episode, and it's taken way too over the top and taken quite up to fifty. Not even British rip-off Full English was this petty and mean towards its characters.
6. Plot hole: The episode reveals that Philip Seymour Hoffmann was almost Chris' real father. Neither one of them are related, nor is Chris Griffin existent.
7. The episode tries to mix the plot in the commentary and the plot in the episode, but the way it does so makes it hard to focus on either one.
8. The latter part of the commentary is the real voice actors and actresses mingling with their characters, which isn't really a bad thing, but gets too confusing in the end.
9. There is a very unfunny and disturbing cutaway that shows Peter strangling a sea turtle with phone chargers, which is considered animal abuse.
10. The episode itself (the one that's going on in the background) really isn't all that interesting. It's just really dulled, forgettable, and confusing at the same time.
    • The episode (the same one in the background) is about Lois getting irritated with everyone in her family using their phones and goes very little anywhere.
    • Peter tricks everyone into thinking he's sick; somehow, he gets stuck in the banisters.
    • Everyone out of nowhere is suddenly stuck in the banisters. That's really it. Even Stewie acknowledges it.
    • When the robbers sing Peter's song, Peter briefly escapes the banister and then gets back in when one of the robbers notices. This means the whole team knew that Peter could have escaped, but he didn't.
11. Continuity error: Lois claims in this episode that Chris was born as a result of an affair between Lois and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, making Chris an illegitimate child in the process. However, the prior episode “Emission Impossible” states that Chris was born as a result of a defective condom that Peter used, which resulted in a lawsuit that allowed the Griffin family to purchase the house they normally live in.
12. This episode was seemingly made in response to criticism towards the writers of Family Guy for the continuous abysmal and lackluster writing in many recent episodes: the fact that the writers decided to overlap character commentary to drown out the plot and dialogue of the episode being commented on shows that the writers made the episode to viciously mock the viewers making these criticisms.
13. Overall, it's a terrible way to start the Disney-era of Family Guy.

Intentional Redeeming Qualities That Can Handle the Booth

1. The idea of the Griffins doing a commentary is actually a cool concept.
   • The idea of them doing of an episode that never aired before is even funnier, despite causing confusion and anger.
2. There are quite a few funny moments in this episode.
   • The part where Lois tries to call Fox or Disney payroll but then the phone says, "Please hold" and then the theme song from The Simpsons plays with a robot continually saying, "Thank you for continuing to hold" is funny.
   • The part where Peter (in the episode that is being commentated over) sings "Halfway Down the Stairs" from The Muppet Show is funny, especially when in the commentary Lois claims that no one would get the reference but then Sarah Paulson says that she knows the song.
   • Peter's line "Holy crap, it's the mouse from Sing" when Seth MacFarlane appears is also quite funny.
   • There is also a funny scene where Jesus comes back and causes mayhem in the church.
3. Everyone except Lois is likable, and Peter, Brian, and Quagmire aren’t flanderized like they usually are.
4. The "Overly Short Haircut" cutaway is enjoyable.
5. The original non-commentary of this episode is way better than this episode because there isn’t a lot of Lois screaming.

Reception

"You Can't Handle the Booth!" has been critically panned by critics and fans since the episode's release. It gained a very low 4.2/10 rating on IMDb, mostly due to the poor setup of a great concept and Lois's constant screaming fits in the episode; in fact, it's currently the lowest rated Family Guy episode there altogether.

Trivia

• Philip Seymour Hoffmann actually played Chris in "Fifteen Minutes of Shame".
• The background episode can be viewed without the commentary on the Season 17 DVD.
• In one scene, Peter mentions that "a fat guy plays me in every Comic-con," which is a reference to the YouTuber Rob Franzese A.K.A "Real Life Peter Griffin".

References

1. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9652794/
2. ↑ Family Guy: The Complete Seventeenth Season DVD
3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUy5cuM4P28TeMlA2V_KDVw

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