Crossovers

By: Connor Lenahan

So this fall Family Guy and The Simpsons will be crossing over for an hour long episode.

Look, I’m an optimistic person and all, and I would be lying if I claimed that I didn’t laugh a few times at the trailer above, but I am legitimately horrified of this idea. The little sensor in my brain that goes off for red flags is starting to warm up every time I hear that these two shows are crossing over. It’s a bad decision just from a comedy aspect.

I mean, the funniest parts of the trailer are the jokes that Family Guy characters make on behalf of the constructs of the shows and the crossover itself. The problem is that this might not match up stylistically as well as it was thought to behind the scenes.

Stewie’s attempt at a phone prank following Bart’s is semi uncomfortable to watch. I found the fight between Peter and Homer to be entirely out of place. There are ways that Family Guy does things – always more absurd, more vulgar – and ways The Simpsons does things – save for moments designed around jokes Springfield represents the real world almost always. Just because they are two popular shows on the same network does not mean they should crossover. That logic would dictate that Curb Your Enthusiasm could crossover with Game of Thrones which… actually might get me to watch Game of Thrones now that I think about it.

I’m going to hope they pull this off. I really am. I mean, The Simpsons pulled off a Lego episode last season that was genuinely great, not just by Season 25 standards, there’s a chance they will figure this out.

I hope they will. I’m just not sure. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

Connor Lenahan (@ConnorLenahan) is a sophomore at Boston University, majoring in journalism.