The very first Family Guy Star Wars spoof (Blue Harvest) was hilarious because one could tell that the writers put a lot of thought into it. "Something, Something, Something Dark Side" had a few good laughs, but was definitely not worth sitting through for those few. When they reached "It's A Trap!" however, almost anything resembling humour was completely gone. I was actually planning to completely avoid it until it just happened to be on TV and nothing else was on.
Seth Macfarlane acknowledges the fact that he is phoning in this last special in the opening crawl. He blatantly states that he knows it is not very funny. The way I figure it, given Macfarlane's past few years of television, if he knows something is unfunny, it really must be.
I was keeping careful count of the things I considered funny. I counted four things: an Ewok eating the limbs of another Ewok who had fallen in battle, Han making Imperial troops dig their own graves (although this joke went on too long, so it was only partially funny), the ghost of Darth Vader blaming Luke for killing him, and Meg being the Sarlaac.
There were at least six things which were hypothetically funny, but the execution ruined them. Most of the special was just plain insipid and had no respect for its audience's potential intelligence (I say potential because, given the fact that Seth Macfarlane's new stuff is still popular, intelligence might not be entirely applicable).
This is all to say that the scene at the end where all of the Griffins who are not played by Macfarlane wind up completely ripping on him was not very inaccurate. I like to think that it's Macfarlane's subconscious acceptance of the fact that he is no longer funny.
After viewing this special, I can now say that I have officially given up on MacFarlane's animation. He has nothing more to offer. All of his new stuff is devoid of humour and I've already seen the old, good stuff enough times that I'd rather preserve my good memories of them than continue to taint the experience by remembering what Family Guy would become in years to come.
Seth Macfarlane acknowledges the fact that he is phoning in this last special in the opening crawl. He blatantly states that he knows it is not very funny. The way I figure it, given Macfarlane's past few years of television, if he knows something is unfunny, it really must be.
I was keeping careful count of the things I considered funny. I counted four things: an Ewok eating the limbs of another Ewok who had fallen in battle, Han making Imperial troops dig their own graves (although this joke went on too long, so it was only partially funny), the ghost of Darth Vader blaming Luke for killing him, and Meg being the Sarlaac.
There were at least six things which were hypothetically funny, but the execution ruined them. Most of the special was just plain insipid and had no respect for its audience's potential intelligence (I say potential because, given the fact that Seth Macfarlane's new stuff is still popular, intelligence might not be entirely applicable).
This is all to say that the scene at the end where all of the Griffins who are not played by Macfarlane wind up completely ripping on him was not very inaccurate. I like to think that it's Macfarlane's subconscious acceptance of the fact that he is no longer funny.
After viewing this special, I can now say that I have officially given up on MacFarlane's animation. He has nothing more to offer. All of his new stuff is devoid of humour and I've already seen the old, good stuff enough times that I'd rather preserve my good memories of them than continue to taint the experience by remembering what Family Guy would become in years to come.