Roger's Sacrifice

American Dad, S08E12

Roger was determined to be free to walk around without an outfit when Jeff was home, so he pretended to be Jeff's imaginary friend.  Klaus later revealed to Jeff that Roger was real, and Stan refused to let both Jeff and Roger live if Jeff wouldn't be able to keep Roger a secret.  Steve also struggled to avoid ridicule about his flat ass at school.

Roger was being a straight dumbass  thinking that being naked whenever he felt like it was worth risking his life.  That's what it boiled down to when he tried to find a way to be outfit-less around Jeff.  He really makes dangerous decisions based on silly or small benefits.  He could have either worn less heavy clothing (tweed--really?) or stayed up in the attic when he wanted to be nude.  It wasn't that hard.  But it is Roger and he likes to have his cake and eat it too.

I was almost lured into the false impression that Roger would sacrifice the freedom he enjoys on Earth so that neither he nor Jeff would have to die.  After all, he was disappointed when he found at that the gun pointed at him in the garage didn't have bullets after all.  He doesn't give a damn if Jeff lives or die or about Hayley's feelings.  So to see him pack up and see that montage of him to the tune of M.A.S.H.'s theme song, I was just waiting for Roger to pull the rug from underneath everyone.  He did have me going for a while--it was nearly the end before he betrayed Jeff and shoved him into the beam of that spaceship.  Nicely played, Roger.  It was funny that Stan was impressed by Roger's move and not upset at all that Jeff was gone.  I just wonder if Jeff will stay gone (probably not, though).

My favorite part of this story was the very beginning when Stan was reading a newspaper.  He was caught off-guard by a bra ad on the second page and kept searching for a real article:

Finally, here's an article.  "A woman choked on her own bra."  What newspaper is this?

I'm curious to know what kind of specialty newspaper he was reading too.  It's rare that I'm laughing that early on in an episode.

I also liked what Roger said when Stan had tackled him later for being naked in front of Jeff:

This is the talkiest rape ever.

I don't know why he is so calm about being raped.  I guess because he's no stranger to committing that crime himself.

Steve's story was a nice twist on puberty.  Instead of making fun of someone for their boobs or something not growing in, it was asses.  That school Steve goes to keeps getting weirder and weirder.  I felt bad for Steve, though, because all of his friends had enough behind to dance appropriately to the "Wally World" song.  Plus, Barry showed what a ham-crazy bastard he is by exposing the hams Steve had used to stuff his pants.  That idiot isn't much of a friend to him.  I think he probably would have still eaten Steve's hams even if Steve had explained to his friends what he was trying to do.

My favorite part of the story was when Steve went to "Ba-Donkin Donuts."  That name for that place was great, but it was even greater that the fire started there was because a fat guy in courdoroy pants had his thighs rubbing together too fast.  That had me cracking up.  I couldn't even feel sorry for all the people who got trapped in there knowing that fat thighs were the cause of the fire.  That was hilarious.

It was nice that Steve realized that his mom was right about his flat ass having a purpose since he was able to escape from the restaurant, but it was strange to me that all those people couldn't escape.  There were two windows in the front--couldn't someone have thrown a chair or something at it to make a hole? That was crazy.  As crazy as Steve calling 9-11 to  report to the dispatcher that he had overcome his hatred of his own ass.  Steve essentially killed all those people in there.  That was a pretty unexpected ending.

This was a pretty good episode.  I thought I would be over stories about Roger being exposed as an alien, but this one went down a different path.  I never thought they would have Roger leave Earth because they need his wacky ass on this show, but I didn't really imagine that he would send Jeff away either.  You never know what Roger will do.  The same sort of applies for Steve.  I wouldn't have figured that his ass would have saved him from a burning restaurant, nor would I have thought that he wouldn't help the people stuck in there.  In a way, Steve's as crazy of a bastard as Roger is sometimes.

Meg Can't Let Go Of The Fantasy

Family Guy, S11E07

Meg finally went out with the boy she's been fantasizing about, Kent, to find out that he was gay and liked Chris.  Wanting to live through Chris, Meg schemed to roofie Chris so that Kent could have sex with him and Meg could hear the details later.

Well, for an episode about Meg, this one wasn't too bad.  I think that's mainly because even though she still couldn't catch a break, the one who made things worse for her was Meg herself instead of someone victimizing her.  Yeah, it sucked that Kent ended up being gay after she finally asked him out, but her refusal to accept reality was really pathetic.  She could have easily been Kent's friend, at least--that was better than him hating her like he did at the end.  Meg was also pretty selfish, wanting to disregard Chris's feelings just to fulfill her fantasy.  I don't know.  Meg should really take the small victories when she can.  She wanted the gold prize (a real relationship with Kent), when she could have been really content with bronze (friendship).

Also, Meg was really rude when she kept denying that Kent was gay because he didn't act like a stereotypical gay man.  I would think that she would be smarter to know that you can't cook-cut people like that.  But maybe she was too blinded by her desire for Kent to use her brain.  Just one more reason that Meg looked like a horrible person who sort of deserved to be bullied upon like she always is.

Anyway, there were a few moments that I liked.  My second favorite was when Meg was squealing with joy about successfully asking out Kent.  Stewie came to the door and before closing it said:

I’m gonna go ahead and shut this for you.

Stewie's irritation at her loud voice just made me laugh.  It's like he was doing something so important that Meg was interrupting or something.

My favorite part, though, was when Meg told Kent that Chris had a dark side.  I wasn't sure if she was making it up (because she was lying about Chris being gay in the first place), but that cutaway was so creepy!  Chris was sitting in their room in the dark, sitting in a rocking chair or something.  Then he got up started to gently stroke Peter's face while Peter was trembling in the bed.  I don't know what the hell was going on, but it was so uncomfortable that it was hilarious.

I also thought it was kind of funny that one of Meg's teachers informed her and her friends that he would be in the park later, which was one of his technically not illegal invitations.  That teacher is like intentionally being the bare minimum sleaze-bag that he's allowed.

There were some disturbing things as well in this episode.  The number one thing was the plant that kept raping things.  First it raped a roofied plant, and then it raped a roofied Stewie.  Eww!  It was almost funny because you wouldn't expect a plant to do that, but instead it was just a frightening thought to imagine a plant attacking a person like that.

Another thing was when Meg went to get roofies from Quagmire.  That wasn't too weird because it was Quagmire, but his comment after she left was a bit unsettling:

That’s what it’s all about, Glenn.  Don’t rape it back, rape it forward.

Yeah, let's not rape it forward or back or at all.  I can see why Quagmire would be willing to be Meg's contact if she got arrested for those roofies because he has no business having them nor giving them to unbalanced teenagers.

There was this moment when Peter was on the slip-n-slide and a giant spider was pulling him away wrapped in a web.  That wasn't disturbing, but more like what the hell was going on??  I almost wish that it had come back later in the episode to sort of answer that question because it was so random (but not unwelcome).

Finally, the last thing I wanted to comment on was how I was a little annoyed with that cutaway about how women and men differ in friendships.  I don't think that the difference is as simple as women use half-insult compliments to their friends, while men are straightforward.  I guess what bothers me the most is that whenever there are gender-difference jokes, it's always to paint women in a worse light than men.  I can't think of time when it was the other way around.  Just gets a little tiring to see that constantly.

I liked this episode, even though Meg was being an obsessive jackass. It's not the first time she's let her fantasies run wild, nor will it be the last.  For someone who is so desperate like her, these sort of stories are kind of a given.  She doesn't get affection or positive attention, so if she has a chance for it, she's definitely going to use unorthodox methods to get it and not give up easily.  Luckily, there were quite a few jokes to distract you from Meg trying to help someone unknowingly date rape her brother.  I can't imagine how horrible it would have been if there wasn't some good comedy to shift the focus away from that.

Always Carry A Gun In The Hallway

American Dad, S08E05

Stan pretended to put Snot into witness protection so that he could keep Steve and Snot apart.  After spending time alone with Snot, Stan bonded with Snot and fought Steve for Snot's friendship.  Roger kept attacking Jeff in the hallway after Jeff cleaned his room for him.

I usually don't care for Snot, but in this episode he was just such a nice guy about the cruel things Stan was doing to him to keep Steve away that I sort of grew to like him.  I mean, Stan is such a hard person to reach on an emotional level and Snot was able to break through Stan's wall and befriend him.  You just have to love someone who could make Stan cut loose and stop being so callous.  All the things that Stan didn't like that Steve was doing with Snot became the same things that Stan enjoyed.  It's not surprising to see Stan contradict himself, nor try to compete with someone else.  It was just kinda funny to see him competing with Steve for Snot.  Although, if you think about it, it might have been crazier if they were fighting over Barry or something.  At least in this story Snot seemed worthy fighting for.

I can't say that the Roger story was better than the Stan story, but it definitely grabbed my attention more.  Um, Roger is such a psycho!  Usually, he has some kind of selfish reason for screwing someone over, but I don't think he had much reason to attack Jeff beyond wanting to just terrorize him.  At first it seemed like maybe he was doing it just to get back his money so he could get free cleaning services from Jeff, but it went beyond that.  I guess what was the funniest about this sick scenario was that Jeff had no idea that Roger was the same person attacking him, due to that weirdness where some of Roger's personas can't be detected by family members (although I don't know if Jeff even knows that Roger is an alien).  Roger kept attacking Jeff in ways that were impossible for him to pull off because he was basically in two places at the same time.  It made me feel worse for Jeff because he had no chance to escape Roger when Roger could defy the laws of physics.

Another funny point was how the hallway back to Jeff's room kept looking more and more like a creepy alleyway or just the outside of some ghetto apartments or something.  It was all dark and overly long, and at one point I could hear a baby crying.  I liked that ridiculous element of it because you started to forget that Jeff was just walking around in the house, probably not that far away from the attic in the first place.

Roger made the mugging more twisted when he decided to pull down Jeff's pants after assaulting him.  Luckily, Roger said that he didn't have time for it and walked away, but it was very unnerving!  Roger is the best at contradicting the statement that things couldn't get worse.  Even though it's sick that he was trying to violate Jeff, it was funny before Roger's last mugging attempt that he said to himself:

I’m gonna rape him this time.

I just don't get Roger.   With all of his talents (he seems to be able to fake a thousand different professions) and disguises, he could have his choice of real jobs and function outside of the Smith house as a normal person.  But instead, he spends a lot of time at home messing with people.  I mean, it was wonderful that Jeff had a gun to shoot Roger because he seriously was going to rape him.  And for probably no reason more than that he could get a kick out of knowing that Jeff wouldn't know it was him.   But despite all of Roger's flaws, he does spice up an episode with his horrible actions.  And you can't really know what he's going to do in the future because he's some kind of crazy, awful person (err...alien).

This was a good episode to make you appreciate Snot as a character more and possibly it was good to remind you that Stan is pretty pathetic in the friend department.  Roger, as usual, is so insane to the point you can't figure out why he's doing unspeakable things to friends and family.  However, if he didn't do all these shocking things, the show would be pretty dull.  I just really hope I don't have to see him top himself with something worse before the season ends.