Family Guy Season 14 Episode 12 Review: Scammed Yankees
Lisa Babick
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Money can buy a lot of things, but it can't buy brains.
And Peter and Carter being alone together is never good, but things go to the extreme on Family Guy Season 14 Episode 12.
Carter falls for an email scam from a Nigerian prince, and Peter, being Peter, encourages Carter to send the fictional prince money.
What happens afterwards is supposed to be funny, but it pretty much falls flat, as does Brian's attempted seduction of Meg's friend Patty.
The whole Peter and Carter storyline was a little odd. In fact, the whole episode was a little odd.
After Lois and Babs leave for a mother/daughter spa day, Peter and Carter are trying to figure out what to do. Peter starts focusing on the idea that they are alone, and he and Carter end up in the bathtub together.
I'm sure I'm missing something here, but it wasn't funny. Not even when Carter tried to make the moment less weird by pulling out plates of spaghetti. Then they are sitting right back on the couch and Peter suggests they watch porn.
Maybe it's just a guy thing, but Carter thinks it's weird too. Eventually Peter shows Carter a YouTube video, which he finds amusing, decides to email it to Babs, and that's when their adventure begins.
It's not surprising that Peter would encourage Carter to send money to a stranger. And it's not surprising that Carter would be ticked when he finds out it was a scam. Of course, he blames Peter for it and makes him go to Africa with him to try to get his money back.
When they get there, they come across a warlord who is terrorizing a bunch of kids. They make fun of Alonzo "Hamburger" Jones, a comic from the 90s who ends all his jokes with "hamburger" and this is what the warlord does. It was really stupid, but maybe that was the point. Unfortunately, it wasn't funny.
When the two are held at gunpoint by the militants, Peter's phone rings and he makes an excuse to answer it. "It's imperative," he tells his captor.
That was sort of amusing. They are then thrown into jail, but released when the warlord learns that Carter was the one who sent the money, which he used to make improvements to the village.
Carter is just a cranky ass and demands that everything be torn down, and he actually pays them to do it. He is just as stupid as his son-in-law. The story drags on with Lois eventually saving Peter and knocking some sense into her dad, who was just apparently angry that he is getting old.
The village ends up getting money to rebuild everything, and everyone is happy. Plus, we got to hear a Paul Simon parody song along the way. Wow. That really made the episode better.
It wasn't all bad, though. The Kwanzaa exchange between Carter and the warlord was entertaining, as was the jab at Walter Palmer, the idiot who killed Cecil the Lion. Neil deGrasse Tyson's appearance and parody of himself was probably the highlight of the episode.
I also appreciated the ending with Peter taking the picture to post on social media. I wonder how many likes he'll get. Hopefully a lot, but it was more of an "I get it moment" than a laughable one.
There were many of those this time around. Cutaways were pretty dead for the most part. The only one that was somewhat amusing was the ants at a picnic one.
As far as Brian's storyline, I don't even want to go there. Brian has just been beyond annoying lately, and him pursuing one of Meg's friends was just idiotic – great body or not. Yes, we know Brian is shallow. I understand what they were trying to get across, but I'm watching Family Guy for amusement, not for moral or social issue lectures.
After two superb episodes, this one was one big fail, perhaps even the worst so far of the season. Maybe it is time for Family Guy to hang it up.
If you want to see what all the nonsense is about, you can watch Family Guy online right here at TV Fanatic!
