Matt Spencer-Skeen reviews The Simpsons/Family Guy crossover ‘The Simpsons Guy’….
Unless you’ve been under a rock for around the last year you were probably aware of the Family Guy/The Simpsons crossover episode that aired last night. From the viral marketing and clips that have been put out by Fox and the show runners, to the unintentional media marketing following the furore over one the episodes gags that appears in the trailer there has been a pretty steady stream of information about this episode, which had me rather worried beforehand.
Had they given away too much? The trailer had plenty of gags that were quite funny but it was nearly 5 minutes worth of clips. Despite this being an hour special were they just showing all the good stuff? Surely 2 of the most popular animated shows of the last 20 years don’t need that much selling to us? Was Fox uncertain in allowing the more PG Simpsons characters to be in this R rated Family Guy episode? Thankfully I found upon watching I needn’t be worried.
The episode is funny in all the ways you expect a Family Guy episode to be, with its crude and on the edge humour and clever subtle moments mixing great with the Simpson’s characters and world. Whilst the story of the episode is a running joke about Family Guy’s copycatting of The Simpson’s it’s done well and enjoyable. A lot of the jokes from the trailer are some of the funniest but it was fun seeing how we got to those points.
With some great gags and interaction between the core and side characters of Springfield and Quahog, especially the relationship between Peter and Homer, this was winning start to Fox’s new cartoon series. Both shows come out of this as winners but I do hope, as said by Brian, this is a one-time shot and neither show becomes as lazy as to make this a regular event. It’s been built up as special and should be left to remain that way.
Matt Spencer-Skeen
Originally published September 29, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
