Surprisingly Not Awful

Family Guy, S11E08

Peter told the family the story of the first Christmas, starting from the first meeting of Joseph and Mary.

When I saw the promos for this episode, I was really wary.  After all, I wasn't sure how badly they were going to spoof this story, nor how inappropriate they would make it.  But I have to say that it wasn't that bad at all.  It's not my favorite (it reminded me that The Simpsons had done the same thing a while ago, although it wasn't great either), but I don't think it was too offensive.  I feel like they mostly poked fun at how primitive life was back then and how harsh it was (such as Peter sneezing blood and Lois claiming she had to poop in the open streets).

Before Peter got into the story, there was a really good joke about Northwest Airlines.  They basically said that if you didn't want to see your family during the holidays, then their airline is the perfect one to use.  I really liked the guy's line at the end of the joke:

Thanks, Northwest. I hate my family.

Another joke that I liked was when Joseph was at the inn with Mary, trying to convince the innkeeper to give them a room:

But, sir, please, my wife is with child and about to give birth.  And I am with burrito and about to do the same.

The last joke I found pretty funny was when the Wise Men arrived at the stable and explained how they got there:

[Wise Man] Hello, we are the three wise men.  We came here following a star.
[Joseph] Those two statements contradict each other.

I did also enjoy that the Southern guy (can't remember his name) was the angel.  He's just an all-around funny guy no matter what he's doing.  Apparently, thanks to him offering God some "cheeses" is why Jesus got his name.  Not funny enough to make me laugh, but a good try.

It was a little messed up that Peter told that story and then sent away a pregnant woman and her husband at his door.  It was predictable, though.  I knew once Lois was talking about people coming together and such that someone would pop up to show how the Griffin family could do the opposite.  But I wondered why that couple didn't just run to another house?  They have so many neighbors.  I know she was going into labor, but they had the opportunity to knock at everyone's door they could.

It's nice to see that even if I expect the worst of this show, they might surprise me and not go too overboard.  Although, I think anyone who would really be outraged with this show's version of the first Christmas shouldn't be watching this show in the first place.  It pokes fun at everything and everyone, so it's not the best thing to watch if you're sensitive.  It was a little funny overall, but not incredibly funny.  I don't think this would be one I would be able to laugh at again if I rewatched it, but I also wouldn't put in my list of "never watch again."  In general, it was still a much better Christmas story than any other sappy stories they try to shove down people's throats during the holidays.

Christmas Baby Woes

Happy Endings, S03E07

The gang found out that Jane was really born on Christmas and tried to celebrate her birthday without letting Christmas sneak in.  Dave tried to help Penny give Pete the perfect gift and failed to see the sentiment of Pete's gift for her.

Everyone would have been able to pull off the no-Christmas birthday party for Jane if it wasn't for Max and Alex.  I wasn't too surprised that Max was unable to stay away from something he loves to consume--that's like telling a fish not to swim.  Alex's fetish with unwrapping gifts, though, was so out there and a little creepy.  But she is very childlike, so it's not uncharacteristic of her to enjoy the process of opening presents.  Still, I wish she could have shown a little restraint.  Max was a lost cause, but if he wasn't and hadn't had that "back nog" on him, Alex would have stabbed him in the spine!  Then it would just be blood spraying all over the place.  Somehow, though, for Jane being a Christmas baby, I'm sure she would have preferred that.

I really identified with Jane's problem.  I have a birthday in what I call the "Christmas Radius" where any date that falls within it gets swept under the carpet by Christmas (and sometimes New Year's as well).  If you've never had a gift that seemed to just be an unimpressive extension of a Christmas gift, then you can't really relate.  It is a little sad when you feel like the one day you are allowed to make it a little about yourself is ignored or made light of.  Because of this, I thought Jane's idea to tell people her birthday was a completely different date was a pretty damn good idea.  People aren't going to remember the real date anyway, so what's the harm in that?

One thing that I thought was interesting in that story was Jane macing all of her friends.  She had just woken up from bed and was still in a robe, yet she had two bottles of it ready to go.  I know she doesn't like surprises and is always prepared, but damn!  I couldn't imagine carrying mace in my own house at the crack of dawn.  If she's that worried that a robber or rapist might be waiting for her on the way to the kitchen, she should invest in a security system.

I sort of wish that Dave's claim to "gift whisperer" was nothing more than hot air from him (as usual) and his gift for Pete had been a bust.  But it turned out to be just right.  Ugh.  Nothing more than I hate than seeing Dave feel superior no matter what insignificant thing he's gloating about.  It was nice, though, that he turned out to be dead wrong about Pete's gift for Penny.  It did seem like Pete hadn't put any thought into it at all, but it turned out to be a big symbol of his love for Penny.  Yay.  That shut Dave up for a second.  It's annoying that he thinks that he could possibly know the depth of Penny and Pete's relationship.  He needs to back off.  Even if he's unconsciously showing some kind of untapped affection for Penny.  I still hoping that road will never be taken again.

This was an okay episode.  Nothing too bad that made me upset.  I think what I liked most was that the story was something I could relate to.  With all the crazy things these friends get involved with, I'm fairly sure there won't be many more stories like that for me.  And I don't think that I'll find many more stories I like in general as well.

Mannequin Love

Bob's Burgers, S03E09

Bob was left a storage unit from a deceased relative and found a man named Chet living there.  The family took him in until Christmas and got a lot of business thanks to Chet's talent for making eye-catching window displays.  The family was forced to help find Chet's mannequin wife when Bob refused to believe's Chet's story about being a mannequin and the town was expecting a final Christmas Eve display.

First of all, I was really reminded in this story about how broke Bob is.  He couldn't even afford to give Tina a dry-erase board, the most financially feasible of his kids' Christmas requests.  I think sometimes I forget how poor they are until something like this makes it obvious.  In the end when the kids were happy to get things like exit signs and shoe sizers, you can really see how they are low on funds but imaginative enough to appreciate such meager gifts.  The family may be annoying, but at least they're not spoiled.  After all, they gave up their Christmas money so a crazy man could have his "wife" back.

Second, I'm glad that Bob at least didn't believe Chet's story.  It would be cool if he was an actual mannequin (and possibly explain why he is so good at creating displays), but people just tend to be insane in the town where Bob lives.  I sort of wished that there would have been some good evidence to prove that Chet was just crazy, so that Bob wouldn't look like a jerk.  I mean, why does he have to humor the guy?  Yes, he was helping their business tremendously, but surely that kind of behavior has to be destructive.  Bob was trying to help him, as Chet had helped Bob.

Third, I sort of liked Chet's displays for some reason.  I guess it was because the kids got involved and were forced to freeze-frame in a holiday-themed pictures.  My favorite was when they were elves.  I guess the kids just looked cute.  Then again, when Chet was depressed about Nadine and made this horrific scene of a disemboweled snowman and reindeer below an elf that had hung itself, I really loved it too.  I don't know if I could technically call it a display since they never used that one.  Still, as sick as it was, it was pretty good.  Especially the ketchup bottle squirting to make it look like blood coming out of the snowman's neck.  My least favorite was the nativity scene because it turned out to be a "love-triangle" fight and a make-out session with a head.  The latter was especially gross.  I don't mind if the guy wants to love an inanimate object, but no one should have to watch him actually kiss it.  I mean, it's a little funny he was doing that while dressed as Joseph and the mannequin dressed as Mary, but not more so than it was gross.

My favorite joke in this story was when Chet kept pointing out that Bob and Linda were loud whisperers.  They also needed to back up a bit if they were going to talk to someone because both times Chet mentioned this, they weren't that far from him.  I also thought it was sort of funny when Bob was yelling at the kids to stay when Linda tried to make them go so she could scold Bob for hurting Chet's feelings.  Linda won in the end, but the kids were at odds at which parent they should listen to for a while.  Plus, I just like H. Jon Benjamin yelling sometimes.

I would say I liked this episode, but I think I was mostly annoyed that Bob was treated as heartless because he wouldn't believe a ridiculous story.  Still, I liked the displays Chet made and the fact that the kids showed that they could be selfless to help someone.  If anything else, at least this episode was different.  You don't see many Christmas stories about mannequins, I guess.

"I'll Be Homeless For Christmas"

The Cleveland Show, S0E06

Cleveland pretended to be homeless in order to get free sandwiches and other things that were donated to the homeless during the Christmas season.  Roberta tried to encourage Kendra to become Santa, despite what the owner of Grundle's said.

Seeing Cleveland act like a homeless man just to get a ham sandwich doesn't really surprise me.  I'm more surprised that he didn't get found out sooner.  I didn't even think that Cleveland would learn anything from his misdeeds, especially when he tried to apologize and kept making his situation worse.  I guess overall, it turned out to be an okay story since Cleveland didn't just act like an ass and then smooth it over too easily.  Cleveland admitted that he was going to abandon his new friends at the shelter, but at least he got other people in town to perhaps think about giving to said ex-friends more often than a few days in December.

Nothing was really funny in the Cleveland story, but one moment almost got there.  This was when Tim saw Cleveland in line for food at the shelter and he thought he was looking at another black guy:

Come on, Tim the Bear, they don’t all look alike.  Don’t let Lester start rubbing one off on you.

Besides that, I could almost like the parody of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" that Cleveland did.  That song was a rare song in the whole Seth MacFarlane world that didn't make me cringe.  I'm not saying it was a great song, but it wasn't so bad that I wanted to mute the TV.  It was a good attempt to be funny, but just didn't get there for me.

In the Roberta story, I was excited to hear Nick Offerman as Mr.  Grundle.  He has the perfect voice for some kind of old-fashioned, sexist man.  I wish he had more lines because he almost made me laugh when he told Roberta:

I don’t hire boys to see their legs, and I don’t hire girls to hear them talk.

I think that was a nearly good joke because no matter how right Roberta is about something, her voice is so annoying that I want her to be quiet regardless.

The combination of Kendra and Roberta was kind of interesting since you don't see them in stories together.  But I didn't really care too much whether Kendra got the role of Santa or not.  I did like, though, that when she failed to bring presents for the kids, she told them to just quietly and confidently steal one present from the store.  At least she's resourceful.

There obviously wasn't enough Rallo or Junior in this episode, but Rallo did have a line that was also almost a good joke when Roberta told him not to be nervous:

Nervous? I got on five pair of underwear.  He ain’t getting in there.

I just like how nonchalant he is about a Santa molesting him or something.

Well, for a Christmas story this could have been worse.  It was all right, especially for this show because it usually makes me irritated.  Cleveland sort of fit in too well with the homeless, even if he was taking things from the needy for his own selfish needs.  It was nice to see the writers try and team up two characters who don't usually interact with each other, but this wasn't much of a match made in comedy heaven.  I would have rather seen Rallo get revenge on Santa or something (much like Riley from The Boondocks) than these other stories.  Can't help but feel disappointed in every episode where Rallo and Junior are just pushed to the background.

Save Santa! ...Or Else!

Big Bang Theory, S06E11

The guys played a holiday-themed Dungeons and Dragons quest, excluding the girls.  Raj joined the girls to the bar after he had been too quick to get himself killed in the game.

The best part of the guys playing their role playing game was Sheldon's seemingly hatred of Christmas, yet signs that he might be fighting the holiday spirit for some reason.  Being a know-it-all, it wasn't too surprising he could sing a song no one else knew (in its entirety), but him talking of the details of snowmen and drinking eggnog made me really wonder if he wasn't just bitter about something.  We found out as Sheldon took the quest to a grim end for Santa that as a child Sheldon had asked Santa in the mall to bring back his Pop-Pop, but of course, Santa never did.  You sort of wanted to console him, knowing that Christmas had been ruined for him ever since the only person who encouraged his scientific endeavors had died, but at the same time he was pretending that he was leaving Santa for dead in an ogre cave.  It invoked a little less sympathy because Sheldon is well old enough to realize that he's only playing a game and not really getting revenge on Santa Claus.  I wanted to concentrate on the fondness he had for his grandpa, but it was hard to think of it with his psychotic actions.  However, it made a pretty interesting end to the game, even if he ruined it for the others.

I didn't expect anything else to come out of that game, but Sheldon's dream provided a bonus conclusion.  I loved that Santa came not to just apologize, but get his own revenge for Sheldon leaving him for dead with the ogres!  Woah!  And he brought a canon, of all things, to take care of him--nice!  Sheldon has the weirdest dreams, but they are usually pretty good ones.  I hope that dream made an impact on the grudge he's kept on old Kris Kringle.

 

The second funny thing about their game was Raj's short participation.  Before he got killed by his rash actions, Stuart kept calling him out on the suggestively gay things he was saying.  The first time, he was simply excited to start killing some enemies:

Oh, man, the first monster I see, I’m gonna sneak up behind him, whip out my wand, and shoot my magic all over his ass.

I think someone could have let that go if he didn't make a similarly bad comment about a rod a few minutes later:

Wait, d-doesn’t anyone have a… a rod of resurrection?  Because if you’ve got one, I need it bad.  Get in here with your rod and give it to me.

Poor Raj.  He has a natural talent for saying things people could misunderstand.  But at least he has colorful language and is cute.  He's not like dirty or anything intentionally.

I felt bad that he had gotten killed so easily until Penny allowed him to go out with the girls.  I was even happier with this turn of events when the girls decided to help Raj get a girl.  Yay!  However, he got shot down pretty quickly by a girl who gave him a fake email.  I was pretty disappointed that the focus soon shifted from trying again to find a girl who could just chat with Raj to how Raj didn't find Amy attractive like he had Bernadette and Penny.  I wanted to yell, "Who cares--what about hooking Raj up??" but it did make me notice that Amy and Raj had some similarities.  Still, Raj has similarities with a lot of his intellectual friends--they've all had problems attracting the opposite sex easily.   Once Raj had started to like Amy, they left the bar and there was no more talk of trying to help him.  Dang.  They got my hopes up.  I know Raj probably isn't going to find the girl of his dreams in a bar, but he could have gotten somewhere at least.  Come on, already with this.  Raj needs some love.  He's getting weirder by the second.  Haha.

This was a pretty good story.  I liked the quest about Santa being kidnapped by ogres.  That was an original Christmas story for TV.  And it was made even better by Santa getting revenge on Sheldon with a canon in his dream. I liked some of Raj's jokes, but I wish that he had been able to have a successful night out with the ladies.  It's getting too sad to see him just hanging around Stuart all day.

Being With Loved Ones

Suburgatory, S02E07

Ryan freaked out after learning he was adopted and stayed at Malik's house during his identity crisis.  George set up avacation package for Tessa and Alex to enjoy during the holidays, so they could spend time together.  Dalia wanted Carmen to come home for Christmas and made a music video that expressed her feelings.  Carmen and Jill didn't get along well, and Carmen considered whether she wanted to stay at that house.

Ryan was sort of acting like a mixture of the Hulk and some kind of wild animal once he found out he was adopted.  I knew he would be mad and confused, but I could have never predicted that he would jump on his parents' car and start banging on it in a fit of rage!  I really loved how he scared the hell out of his family.  It was so funny.  Especially when he went to Lisa's window calling her a liar and she quickly rolled up the window in fear.  He probably would have pulled her out of the car and started swinging her body around like a bag or potatoes.  Ryan is so crazy!  He even hit things like parking meters and lamp posts like some kind of maniac.

I loved that he somehow happened to be running on the street when Malik's family was driving by.  It was cute how Malik coaxed him into coming near with a Starburst.  He's such a simple guy!  Then it was really weird that Malik threw him into the trunk and closed it.  Malik's dad responded in a funny way:

Did you just put a human being in our trunk?

I'm assuming that Malik did so because there was no room in that little ass car for one more person, but I felt kind of bad for him.  But at least he had a place to go.  While there, he apparently had time to print out business cards with his new "opposite name," Eugene Goldfarb.  Horrible name.  Doesn't fit him at all.  It was funny that he had "no longer living a lie" written on there.

The best part of Ryan's story was when Lisa asked Tessa to go talk to him.  It seemed that she had straightened him out and made him realize that the Shays were his real family because they raised him, but he ended up running away.  However, I was so happy that Tessa admitted that she had a crush on Ryan too and kissed him.  It was adorable how happy he was about it because she had used tongue.  It was the only thing he wanted for Christmas--Aww!  Ryan and Tessa forever!

Speaking of Tessa, I'm surprised that she missed George so much.  She just seemed so gung-ho about spending time with Alex that I thought she would be super excited.  But I guess during Christmas you just really long for your traditions and those that you remember spending them with.  It just didn't feel like Christmas when she was in a spa and sitting in a hotel lobby with a mother she barely knew.  Also, there was that incredibly clumsy hug the two of them did.  Ugh.  It was nothing like the quick one George had to remind Tessa to give him before she left.  So it only made sense she would want to come back.  I was a little touched by her feelings because it reminded me of my own feelings for my father during Christmas.

There were lots of great things in the other stories, but Dalia blew away all the other stories with her music video "You Missed A Spot."  That was hilarious and cute!  She even had her stepmother in there sort of rapping in a futuristic flight attendant outfit.  And I loved seeing Dalia making a heart with her hands but seem so emotionless doing it.  I think I enjoyed every second of that video.  I had high expectations, but Dalia exceeded them.  Wow.

Another "wow' thing was that Dalia called George "Daddy Altman."  I don't know if she meant it sincerely (because her voice always sounds the same), but it was sort of sweet because it caught me off-guard.  Has she already started to think of George as a father figure?  Because that would great. He might have scored enough points to earn that right since he managed to get Carmen back for Dalia.  I thought he might, but I hoped Carmen wouldn't have to actually be in a box (she must love Dalia to sit in a box with packing peanuts just to surprise Dalia).  He also scored points with Dallas too--good job, George.

Great Christmas episode.  It's a little earlier than I was expecting, but I suppose it's all right since it's already December.  I guess that just means that they won't be showing any more episodes for a while?  I hope that Ryan goes home soon and gives up that stupid name he invented.  I'm happy that Tessa hasn't forgotten about her father in exchange for her mother.  Dalia's hilarious music video also helped get herself reunited with her loved one.   She really needs to have another reason to make another video again--I don't care what the song is about.