‘Something, Something’ to Talk About

Since the release of the epic parody “Blue Harvest,” fans of Family Guy have been clamoring for the sequel. Just like the Emperor’s formula for great Star Wars dialogue, the Empire Strikes Back parody is named, “Something, Something, Something, Dark Side”

The great thing about “Blue Harvest”” was how it was less of a parody and more like Star Wars with jokes. They pretty much kept the same story, made some great choices of which Family Guy character played which Star Wars character, and  threw in some jokes by tweaking the scenes from the movie to fit the Family Guy atmosphere. If you’re  a fan of both Family Guy and Star Wars, it was impossible not to be entertained.

“Something, Something, Something, Dark Side” follows the same basic formula as it’s predecessor carrying everything over from the last one even the renegade paragraphs floating through space, though this time armed with big budget CGI effects. The “casting” is the same as last time with some additions. Carl, the owner of the convenience store, comes in as Yoda. Him and Luke pretty much talk about movies the whole time, just like regular episodes. The best is the Giant Chicken as Boba Fett. Just as the Fett man is Han’s enemy, the Chicken is Peter’s, an excellent choice. Though they actually make it work pretty well, the hardest get over is Mort Goldman as Lando Calrissian. The only Jew on Family Guy becomes “the only black guy in the galaxy,” which just looks weird. From a purely aesthetic perspective, MacFarlane and company could have made Joe R2D2, he’s in a wheelchair and therefore shorter than the rest of the characters like R2, and saved Cleveland to be Lando, however it’s hard to say if the personalities would have matched up. Besides that everything is great. The few celebrity and Family Guy character cameos work very well, and Meg even gets a line. If you didn’t guess who Meg is, when you find out, you’ll hate yourself for not getting it.

Throughout the hour, there are a few really funny observations about the actual movie. (Minor spoiler)The one that will garner the most attention is of course at the very end when Chewy (Brian) asks Lando (Mort) why he is wearing Han’s clothing. The he looks to the audience and tells us to look at the actual movie to see Lando wearing Han’s clothing. That certainly prompted everyone whose seen this to check out the end of The Empire Strikes Back.

The biggest complaint about Family Guy in general is that they don’t know when to quit on a joke. Like the awful Conway Twitty appearances, there’s one part where they do a training montage copied from Rocky IV, which goes on for way too long. It’s a nice chuckle for a few seconds, but after a minute and a half, you want it to be over. The other problem Family Guy consistently has is how they just throw out joke after joke, hoping you’ll find some of them funny, it’s a very hit and miss type of comedy.

Not being on television yet, MacFarlane was able to let loose and cross the line they so often touch. There are plenty of expletives throughout, even taking the place of one of the most famous lines in the film, and a ton of over the top gay jokes, about half of which are funny.

Any fan of Blue Harvest will enjoy this parody. It’s not quite as good as the first one, but the jokes that hit are quite funny, the animation is a good as you’re going to see, and the story is so Star Wars like, it’s hard not to be entertained. Hopefully the third one doesn’t take another two years to come out.