How Not To Get Rid Of A Man In A Wheelchair

The Cleveland Show, S03E19

Cleveland's suspicions that Donna was cheating on him turned out to be about half right.  She was trying to secretly let down her ex-boyfriend Maurice who had been in Iraq and thought he and Donna were still a couple.  After seeing that Maurice was in a wheelchair, Cleveland helped her lie until Maurice proposed to her.  Maurice stayed at their house, punishing them for their deceit by being a general nuisance.  They tried to appease him by giving him a parade in his honor, but it wasn't until Cleveland punched Maurice and treated him like a normal guy that Maurice forgave them and left.  Junior pretended to be Christian to win a girl's affection and had to compete with Hunter, another boy doing the same thing.  When they unintentionally sang about their deceit in front of Vanessa she was attracted to their "bad boy" ways and wanted to have sex with them both, to their horror.  Junior was saved from losing his virginity by a fire that Hunter started.

I think that Donna has had lots of opportunities to cheat on Cleveland, so the idea of her suddenly sending her husband off to have one now didn't make sense, so I couldn't agree with Cleveland's friends that her buttering him up with ham was to distract him from her cheating.  Cleveland, too, found it hard to believe that Donna was having an affair, but he had to go with what a typical man would think:

Then again, what kind of man would I be if I didn't automatically think the worst about a woman?

Because that line was funny, I couldn't get mad about Cleveland listening to his friends and accusing Donna.  He did a horrible job of tailing her, and later when he knew the truth and Maurice showed up, he did a horrible job of lying.  In fact, he had to make sure that he didn't forget the name he made up for himself, "Cleveson."  That terrible name did set up for some good jokes by his friends, however:

[Tim] Wow, I am so embarrassed.  I’ve been calling Cleveson, “Cleveland” for years.
[Lester] And I didn’t know he was married to his sister.  I approve.

I don't know which of their comments is stupider, but I liked that they were sucked into the lie better than Cleveland was himself (who forgot his own fake name).

I only felt bad for Maurice when he first found out about the lies and had a very pathetic and weepy exit out of the room, where he fell and had to eventually crawl.  However, I was glad that Cleveland got pissed at him and punched him.  Donna and Cleveland are bad people, but there was no reason they needed to be continually punished when they had already apologized.  I really liked Cleveland's statement about this:

We only lied to spare your feelings, and we apologized.  So either forgive us or don't. But stop being a dick.

True dat!  This story made a good point about people who walk on eggshells around people with disabilities.  We're all essentially people, so no one should be able to get a free card to be a jerk.  I'll admit it's hard not to be extra nice and forgiving to someone who can't function the same as yourself, but when someone is being an unnecessary dick, you need to be able to call them on it, regardless of what kind of person they are.

Junior's story wasn't that great.  I guess it's because it's not the first time that he has fallen for a beautiful girl that he ultimately won't get (I just assume).  I thought the song that the mission team choir had some clever lyrics, although the tune wasn't particularly pleasing.  I admired how they had a song that praised Jesus and God by using social media terms and technological trends like texting that teenagers would be interested in.  Because of that, I was less annoyed that I had endure another Seth MacFarlane world song (not to say that The Simpsons has come out with a good song in any recent years).  I also like Darren Criss' voice ever since I watched Glee (but have given up on since their last terrible Christmas special), so it couldn't be too angry about it.  Junior started singing too, to my dismay, but I liked that while he was having his moment, you could see Roger in the stained glass.  Nice touch.  When he stopped singing, I wondered to myself if he had done it out loud, and Junior immediately said the same thing to himself.  That was funnier than him being dumb enough to sing about a girl he liked right in front of her.

Junior and Hunter's duet about their plans to fight each other for Vanessa was cute (though I still didn't care for the lyrics) and funny just because it was stupid.  It was the stupidest when they continued to sing until Vanessa showed up and they had to be honest with her.  I didn't think that she would be so turned on by their deceit.  I was going to be happy for them that they got the girl they wanted after all, but the two were turned off by her sexual aggression.  I forgot that Junior wasn't ready for that yet (according to the episode with his teenage wife whom he couldn't sleep with) and Hunter seemed to be the same.  It was just funny to see two teenage boys crapping their pants because they girl they were after wanted to jump their bones--any other typical boy their age would have acted like they won the lottery.  I mean, Vanessa was a little intimidating, but for those two, that might have been the opportunity of a lifetime.  In the end, I'm glad that Junior got out of it and that he and Hunter went from being enemies to being friends.  I mean, they have a lot in common (both think it's a good idea to lie about their faith in order to date someone), so friendship seems like a more feasible conclusion than the two getting lucky with a girl.

This week we had a double-dose of this show, but I think the episode that preceded it was better than this one.  It lost points for having songs (even with Darren Criss' beautiful voice) and failing to utilize Rallo very much. After seeing that episode where Rallo was shining, it was hard to be satisfied when he only popped out for a random line or two.  I seriously think if they made it "The Rallo Show," it would be an even better show now that Cleveland isn't as half funny as he used to be on Family Guy.

Ya'll Know Dr. Penguin Is Roger, Right?

American Dad, S07E13

Okay, so Roger or Steve explained in one episode that Roger has at least one character that each family member, for whatever reason, doesn't know that it's Roger in costume.  However, when it comes to Dr. Penguin, the family therapist, all of them clearly seem to know that it's Roger, but act as if they don't know.  It's amazing that Roger is a sort of jack of all trades and is fairly knowledgeable about a lot of professions that seem impossible for him, but for the most part, it is understood by everyone that he is playing pretend.  I just couldn't get over the fact that they were sharing their deepest secrets with Roger, who is known to screw with others for his own amusement or when it might benefit him.

I also thought Roger's Sergent Pepper character was random, even for him.  I guess he just likes to be well-rounded and do every kind of character he can.  He really commits to these personas--it's ridiculous.  He knows full well that he isn't really in the army or anything, yet when Klaus tricks him into thinking he got a draft letter for Iraq, Roger goes without a single thought.

I almost felt bad that no one listens to Klaus, and I thought he might be a better therapist than Roger.  I don't know why I thought it was funny when Roger, during one of his many moments of ignoring and belittling Klaus,  hit Klaus and said, "Punch a fish, make a wish."  I guess it was just amusing that Roger didn't take Klaus seriously even for a second.  My hopes that Klaus might give the Smith family a wake-up call about lying to each other were for not; it turned out that when the lies came out, everything turned to shit, and Klaus was to blame.

Everyone had pretty bad secrets, except for Hayley, whose was only hurtful to Jeff because he is a moron.  If the stories all interlocked (instead of being struck from the record each week), I doubt the family would be able to get over all that (despite that Klaus via Sergent Pepper's voice worked it all out).

I kinda liked White James.  I guess he was just in this episode so Klaus would have a way to travel to Iraq (why he used him, who knows?).  Before he showed us his business card that boasts he is a "purveyor of bitches" he has a nice line::

If you ever need bitches, remember: White James.

The story this time wasn't so bad, even though it focused on Klaus and how pathetic he is.  Roger wasn't too outrageous this time, but I didn't mind that as long as we didn't have to hear about the other family members too much, mostly Stan.  I would have liked to see better Roger characters, though.  With this show, Roger's characters are the best part of watching.