Ricky Spanish--What Up With That?

American Dad, S07E17

Steve helped Roger undo the bad rap one of his personas named Ricky Spanish had made for himself through apologies.  It all seemed to be going well until Ricky went to make amends with Daniel, an ex-coworker Ricky let take the blame for a crime they had both committed.  The two began to steal sweaters just like old times, but were going to let Steve take the fall instead.  Steve tried to believe in Ricky's ability to change until the very end when Steve got arrested by the cops and had to spend some time in jail.  In a side story, Stan and Francine tried to ditch Tungee, a boy they had sponsored from Africa who came to live with them.  They left him at a Costgo only to ditch him again immediately.

As much as the town hated Ricky Spanish, so did I.  I thought there was potential for Steve and Ricky's journey through redemption (possibly in way that started off like it was helping, but actually made things worse), but it was all a ruse for a second sweater heist.  And I thought somehow the caterpillar turning into a butterfly would be more meaningful in causing Ricky to change.  Instead it was used as some kind of metaphor to show how Steve's innocence as a child was killed just like the butterfly trapped in the jar.  I didn't really get it, but hearing someone  like Werner Herzog narrate at the end really made it feel like some kind of ending to a depressing movie (with a deep meaning that would go over my head).  Overall, a story where Roger ultimately screws over Steve and gets away with it completely is a failure of a story for me (if I'm looking to laugh, anyway).

The only thing that was good was when Steve was trying to encourage Ricky at one point and he used SNL as an example:

It's like Saturday Night Live.  The opening sketch stinks, the monologue is awful, but then Kenan does "What Up With That?" and it's all worth it.

I absolutely love that sketch on SNL.  I had my reservations about Kenan making an impact on SNL like he used to do with All That back in the day, but sometimes all I want to see is that sketch when I happen to watch that show now.  I was so happily surprised to hear that they thought the same thing  about how well Kenan steals the show at times.

The Stan and Francine story was just stupid.  It proved what horrible people they were and how they enjoyed taking granted for things as long as there wasn't someone around who could ruin it by appreciating it.  Granted Tungee was an unwanted guest, but it wasn't like he was destroying their home or making that much of a nuisance to them.  I think he was better than damn Klaus is.  At least Stan and Francine stayed true to themselves and didn't pretend like they really wanted Tungee back.  They got rid of him like they really wanted to deep down inside, no matter how nice of a kid he was.

This episode just made me mad and was a waste of time except their on-the-nose assessment of SNL.  If that line wasn't in there, I would have thought it was one of my least favorite episodes.  I definitely saw one of my least favorite Roger personas.   I like the kind that are up to schemes that try to fix problems of the other characters, not ones that pretend they are letting one of the other characters fix him.  I'll be happy not to see this episode again, but I surely will be watching some clips of "What Up With That?" after this.