After watching “Family Guy’s” “Star Wars” parody in 2007, I had “Time of My Life” stuck in my head. After watching its “Empire Strikes Back” parody, which hit DVD on Tuesday, I have that old Juicy Fruit commercial jingle stuck in my head. That right there is an improvement.
Overall, though, the “Empire” parody (“Something, Something, Something, Dark Side”) is about 75 percent as good as the “Star Wars” parody (“Blue Harvest”).
Any complaints (I’ll get to my one major gripe in a moment) amount to quibbles, because it’s a lot of fun to watch this 50-minute episode. I remember when the “Star Wars” episode aired, I thought, “I can’t believe they are being allowed to do this,” while also marveling at how good the animation was.
With the “Empire” episode, my anticipation was considerable (I bought it at 3 a.m. on its release day and watched it at 4 a.m.), and it mostly left a smile on my face. Still, this is one sequel that had no chance of being as good as the original, because “Empire” is a less flawed film than “Star Wars.” That means fewer obvious moments to make fun of (like the repeated special effects shot of the TIE fighter attacking the Falcon in “Star Wars,” which is turned into a four-times-repeated shot on “Family Guy”).
There are no such technical missteps in “Empire,” which means the “Family Guy” writers have to be more inventive. With this series, the jokes range from brilliantly funny (the extended “I’m taking this couch” gag in “Blue Harvest”) to off-putting (pretty much any joke at the expense of wheelchair-bound Joe). “S.S.S. Dark Side” is the usual “Family Guy” mixed bag, but it’s totally worth digging into.
Among the stuff I really liked (spoiler warning; skip to the second-to-last paragraph if you haven’t seen “S.S.S. Dark Side” yet):
- Peter’s exaggerated pause amidst “And I thought they smelled bad … on the outside.” This is insider humor at its finest, on par with the repeated TIE fighter effect.
- The Imperial walker getting tripped by cables, and then grabbing its knee in pain and sucking in its breath, a callback to a favorite piece of everyday “Family Guy” humor.
- Dack feels like he could take on the whole Empire himself, so he flies his snowspeeder into space, yells “Get ready to suck some Dack!” … and gets blown up with one laser blast from a Star Destroyer.
- Leia telling the Rebel pilots that even though space offers a limitless array of escape vectors, the plan is to fly directly to where the Star Destroyers are waiting. This is one of the rare logic flaws in “Empire,” and this joke exploits it very well.
- Darth Stewie’s torture rack featuring a boom box blasting Paula Cole’s “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone.”
And one joke that misfired:
- Brian turns to the audience and points out that Lando is wearing Han’s clothes (in that final scene where the Falcon is departing on its search), asking us to watch “Empire” again if we don’t believe him. Two problems: First, the writers forgot that the people watching this DVD are “Star Wars” fans, not a hodgepodge TV audience, so we obviously are aware that Lando is wearing Han’s clothes; it insults us to suggest we didn’t know that. Second, it’s not at all weird that Lando dips into Han’s wardrobe. He escaped Cloud City with only the clothes on his back, and Han is frozen in carbonite. Lando didn’t have time to shop; it’s an entirely practical move to grab an everyday outfit from Han’s closet.
It should be noted that the major difference between “Family Guy” on DVD and “Family Guy” on TV is more swearing. For example, when Artoo gets spit out by the swamp monster, he yells “F**********k!” On TV, I suppose it would’ve been “Craaaaaaaap!” To me, the two versions would be at an equal level of humor; in that case, I’d argue that the swearing should be dropped — might as well keep it clean and broaden your audience.
One instance when I think the swearing adds to the humor is Han’s response to Leia’s “I love you.” In “Empire,” when Han says “I know,” it shows how he is kind of a badass. He’s so cool that he can be romantic without actually having to bother with being romantic. But, if you really think about it, as the “Family Guy” writers do, “I know” is really just one step short of “F*** off.” So, naturally, they have Peter/Han say exactly that to Leia. I’ve reflected on this line a bit, and I conclude it is funny.
All told, there are dozens of jokes that hit, dozens that miss and a lot that fall somewhere in the middle. Bottom line, though: “S.S.S. Dark Side” is totally worth the $15 or so. The DVD also has the usual creator commentary and a version of the episode with pop-up factoids, so the disc provides fun beyond just one viewing. I can’t wait for “Return of the Jedi,” or as the “Family Guy” episode will be called, “We Have a Bad Feeling About This.”
What were your favorite and least favorite parts of “Something, Something, Something, Dark Side?”