"Family Guy" strikes a blow for the politically incorrect


Sept. 28, 2005, midnight | By Henry Loeb | 18 years, 6 months ago

Popular comedy returns for a fifth season


"Family Guy" starts out season five with Lois asking Peter if he could please go to the PTA meeting in her place. When Peter asks her, "What are you high?" she replies, "I was a few hours ago but I binged it off. By the way, we are out of popcorn, chips and chocolate."

Politically incorrect comedy is back. The first episode leads a direct assault on James Woods, Helen Keller, McDonalds, "Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation." When Brian the dog goes to the PTA meeting, he falls in love with Meg's schoolteacher and begins to date her. She and Brian band together to try and rename the James Woods High after Martin Luther King. They are thwarted by Peter, who brings in James Woods, the actor making a guest appearance to do his own dialogue, to save the school's name, This episode marks the first effort of the writers to explain the unusual name for the school.

Shortly, James ends up replacing Brian as Peter's favorite companion. However, it soon becomes apparent that James is psychotic. One remarkable scene has him hovering over a turkey menacing Peter and Brian with a carving knife. Brian and Peter set out a trail of Reese's pieces to trap Woods in a box. When asked where James is, Peter replies, "He is being studied by top men… top men." This quote is accompanied by the classic Indiana Jones scene with the box being wheeled in amongst millions of other crates.

Also returning in this season is Stewie, the baby bent on world domination and the elimination of his mother. In this episode he satirizes the seemingly endless supply of Helen Keller jokes. When Brian mentions that he is going on a date with Meg's teacher, Stewie replies, "Ah, Brian on a date hmm, that'd be more pathetic than that game of Marco Polo I played with Helen Keller." The visual accompanying his remark is an endless loop of a bug-eyed Helen Keller standing in the shallow end of the pool, with water-winged Stewie swimming around in the deeper end droning, "Marco. Marco. Marco. Marco."

The show next targets women's book clubs, and incidentally, the intellectual capacity of females as revealed in their preference for short chapters. Lois recommends "The DaVinci Code" by exclaiming, "Bonnie, the chapters were so short, it made me feel smart completing one!"

No viewer is safe from politically incorrect barbs this season. "Family Guy" may be on its fifth go-round, but the demented geniuses who write the show have plenty of material to work with.



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Henry Loeb. Henry Loeb is a teen who would like nothing better than to play X-box all day long. He is a little obsessed when it comes to Halo 2 and Fable but he doesn't let that get in the way of his writing abilities. In the … More »

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