Admirable/Atrocity: Kidney Kerfuffle

Show: Family Guy/The Simpsons
Episode(s): S9 E8/S10 E8
Year: 2011/1998

Writer(s): Matt Harrigan, Dave Willis/John Swartzwelder
Director(s): Pete Michel/Mike B. Anderson


No I haven't gone crazy and I'm not drunk, you are for being up this late to read a Deviantart review! For once I found a situation where Family Guy actually manages to do better than The Simpsons! These are both episodes airing around the time seasonal rot really kicked in too, so the very execution of such a plot line as giving a kidney to save a loved one is crucial. If you were given the chance to do this shit, would you? Can you honestly say you would give an organ to a loved one? I mean I'm keeping all mine! I'm not letting some fucking GHOULS harvest me! I need every single part if I'm to be frozen when I die and subsequently revived in the far future! So let's take a look and see which of these two is a better person that I...


With something like Family Guy I've come to expect the show to do a lot of stupid shit and the characters themselves to be horrifically reckless and utterly devoid of anything resembling a conscience. Shit like Fresh Heir doesn't bother me because I've seen them do far far worse when they try being serious and dramatic, failing horribly at it. But then there's those magical moments that remind me of what the show can still be and why I still enjoy the characters antics even now. And it also makes the greatest case for me to STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ENERGY DRINKS FOREVER!


I've come to expect Peter to be braindead enough to do something like attempt to create his own homemade energy drink out of poison, but it doesn't make his previous actions on red bull any less hilarious. Let me just say that I would hate to be in dialysis several times a week... to go without my favorite foods... I'd rather die! I'd rather drink Peter's magic shit what made Cagney Carnation over that indignity! Plus if I can get my skin Simpsons yellow... that must mean I can live forever! Yeah I have to admit this episode is really funny despite handling a more serious situation, since Peter got into it through his own stupidity. As for the subplot regarding Meg and Chris's battle over who gets to meet Barack Obama it does well in giving us a nice little thing; yeah they make some horrible jokes here and there but they do make up for it over the episode. Plus Seth MacFarlane has a fucking amazing singing voice so it all works out!


The actual main plot though for better focus is great. Brian really does feel like his old self being up to sacrificing his own life for Peter, even though in all likelyhood Peter would probably die anyway cuz he's so fat... plus dog kidneys are just... tiny... I will admit however that I sympathize with Stewie wanting to keep the only one who ever truly got him alive... even when he gets gross I still feel for the little guy. Yeah this episode isn't flawless by any means but it's one I can say I really enjoy.


As for The Simpsons take on a tale that's supposed to connect family at the heart or whatever organ gets transplanted? Well... it's certainly not the WORST episode of the show... but it's one I can call pretty damn bad. Despite this it actually does have some pretty funny jokes mingled in there but you kinda gotta sift through the bad to find them. The beginning of the episode, in all fairness actually does replicate how boring those ghost town attractions really are; something I believe Dan Vs. did much better. That said it has a few bits I liked such as Abe getting slapped by a robot after pinching its fake ass that flew off.


Then we get to the conflict which is caused by Homer being a negligent bastard. See, this is why adults diapers exist for this kind of emergency! I know nobody wants to be put through that indignity but when you're old and on a long-ass car trip it's either that, hold it in (which is why Abe loses his kidneys) or a catheter which hurts like hell! I know that Homer doesn't really like his father and he kinda has a right to it considering he was, kinda abusive to him in his youth; but still, not letting someone stop to go to the bathroom on such a long ride home is just cruel! And even if that was an excuse we know that Abe, despite everything else does love Homer in his own way!


So yeah, because Homer wouldn't stop for a pee break on Abe's birthday the guys kidneys EXPLODE! And no, Dr. Hibbert lampshading how Abe should even still be alive doesn't make this better. In all fairness Homer does show regret for what he did and even offers you his kidney with no questions asked (like, none at all) to make you believe he's doing a good deed despite the fact that he, y'know, crippled his father! I know he didn't mean to do it, but this is just callous and stupid even for him. Made even worse by how backhanded the episode is with making Homer into a complete and total coward. They coddle and praise Homer for being so brave for giving his kidney to his daddy as to make up for his stupidity, but when Moe scares him, he chickens out just before the operation, while his father's lay dying, and runs away!


With "New Kidney in Town" a large reason why it worked wasn't the fact that it was super funny or that it tried to take itself completely serious; but that it has the right amount of heart. Brian was fully willing to die, knowing the full ramifications of the procedure for his best friend, dangerous moron or not. Everything in that episode felt sincere (a serious rarity for Family Guy) and the emotions rang high not to wring you out and snap someone, but to make you feel for the characters that desserve it. With Kindey Trouble everything feels extremely forced and oddly touchy-feely only to smack you in your balls for showing any emotions for what's going down! Not helped by how badly they telegraph the emotional weight of everything by forcing in jokes where they don't belong.


Anyways, with Homer, they try to make us feel bad for his decision to abandon his father but it really doesn't go far enough. The episode wants to be funny in a situation that, in all honesty isn't funny; or it really doesn't try to be funny when it is. If the episode were smarter they'd use the comedy of Schadenfreude as a way to punish Homer for his cowardice and give him a sign to go back to the hospital on his own! But instead the episode opts to have us watch him mope like we're supposed to feel sorry for this slob! I think the ship of LOST SOULS is supposed to act as karma, but it really doesn't feel like it to me. And instead of Homer doing this on his own it opts for the South Park route and just has him get harvested for his kidney as he had feared! Yeah, I suppose the ending with Homer getting hit by an falling car and harvested is a little funny and cathartic, but it doesn't really makeup for anything and is poorly telegraphed all things considered.


Once upon a time Family Guy knew how to do more than just shock people, and I feel that even with its duds it still knows how to be good comedy inspite of its faults. At least with Family Guy the episodes that fail are interesting and could act as a PSA of sorts and a word of warning on what not to do! The Simpsons is the pinnacle of mediocrity at this point even exempting the good episodes in the modern era and shows that it shouldn't have lasted as long as it did. Most of what The Simpsons does now amounts to nothingness, almost like a frozen zombie; whereas Family Guy is like a zombie with Mad Cow disease seeking to infect everything it touches and I'm not making a good case for Family Guy am I?


Look, the point is, I like Family Guy inspite of its failures and it can still keep me entertained as opposed to The Simpsons which rarely if ever tries anymore... Family Guy can be very unique in what it does good or bad, while The Simpsons feels content to regurgitate and recycle whatever it pleases in any way to stay alive. Not to mention it tries too hard to be shocking when it was perfectly fit for families when Family Guy was always the more shocking show even from the start! Either way now that Disney owns these two longrunners I am hoping they can either put them to rest or freshen them up as Disney is one to do. Think of it like Disney getting an extra kidney, at a point where it has like 5 kidneys and 3 hearts...

Winner: New Kidney in Town!

youtu.be/XORwfYUH23Y


Cringe-Inducing Audio: 0
Cringe-Inducing Visuals: 0
Lakcluster Writing: 8
Annoyance: 4
Disturbing Content: 4
Unnecessary Cruelty: 6
Rancid Morality: 0
Low Production Values: 3
Unfortunate Implications: 3
Character Derailment: 5

Final Score: 33/100


The Simpsons and Family Guy are owned by Disney... I know, I'm as shocked as the rest of you...

1001 Animations and Animated Atrocities are from

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