REVIEW: AMERICAN DAD ”Why Can’t We Be Friends?”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Stan’s not the biggest fan of Snot and tells his son that he is forbidden from seeing him ever again due to the fact that the guys tickle each other and start bands with ass-less chaps. Despite the warning, Steve refuses to listen to his dad so Stan opts to take Snot out for ice cream to try and smooth things over. All of a sudden, a gang banger drives onto the ice cream shop’s lawn and just starts blasting people left and right causing Stan to grab Snot and throw him into the Witness Protection Plan. Fortunately, we find out that the whole shootout was a ruse put together by Stan so that Snot can stay away from his son forever! That said, Snot has no idea about the setup and has to call his best friend Steve to break the news.

Stan makes it a habit to go to Snot’s Witness Protection house at least once a week to buy him food and make sure he’s OK.  But, being in Witness Protection can get lonely, so Snot opts to invite Steve for dinner, desert, and then a sleep over where they stay up all night playing girl talk.  Later on, Steve finds a stack of letters he wrote to Snot in his dad’s desk which catches the attention of Francine of whom had been in a similar predicament years earlier with her black ex-boyfriend, Darnell. Steve quickly tracks down the hideout, meets Darnell, AND catches Stan and Snot playing in their OWN fake rock band!!

Snot finds out about the whole lie but Stan tries to explain that after getting to know him, he can see why his son likes him. This causes a big argument of which Snot decides to be friends with everyone despite the fact that Stan wants Snot all to himself.  To make matters worse, Stan decides to drive Snot and Steve to the carnival so they can all hang out which usta be just a Steve/Snot deal. While hanging out at the carnival, Steve and Stan are obviously in a competition to win over Snot’s affection of which Steve decides to bounce. Feeling pretty bummed that his best friend just left the carnival, Snot decides to go home of which Stan does too now knowing that he fouled up. Snot heads on over to the Smith residence, and whilst outside shows that air guitar unites the world, and in this case makes sure Steve is at his side once and for all.

Roger gives Fed $50 for cleaning up his attic, but quickly changes into a disguise, beats the shit out of him, and takes back the cash. This causes Fed to get scared and needing an escort to get back to his room of which Roger opts to take him, but guess what??? Roger kicks the shit out of him again!  The next day Kevin has to clean up Roger’s bathroom and the same thing happens, he gets paid, then Roger dresses up and beats the shit out of him only this time with a motorized scooter. Fed has had enough, so the next time he is on his way through the hall way, the sorely beaten bastard child of the Smith household brings a pistol and puts an entire clip into his would-be assailant!!

Overall, this week’s episode gave focus on a couple of characters that we almost NEVER see in American Dad, Snot and Fed. I mean, Fed at least shows p in some Francine stories, but this week the young husband and wife don’t even cross paths leading Roger to fuck with him with no one around in a pretty funny tale that might’ve worked in ANY other episode. That’s not to say the plot wasn’t good, its just the the main plot with Stan/Snot/Steve was SO good, I felt the episode should’ve been written JUST for them.

There were a TON of funny moments with the main plot. For one, the whole phony massacre was classic Stan funny stuff, but part of me thought the Stan/Snot story was going to be muddled with just that. Stan keeping Snot away would’ve made for a pretty standard. Stan/Steve plot  Turns out, Stan becomes friends with Snot and the friendship provides for a bunch of laughs with unexpected twists. The fun really gives way when Stan tries to make Steve into the third wheel as instead of giving us the initially expected keep Steve away from Snot, we get Stan keeping Snot away from Steve which works out great in the carnival scene leading to the climax of which sends Snot home confused. But, the real treat that kind of synched this  whole episode together was the end air-guitar scene with Snot to Steve providing for one of the coolest endings in American Dad and maybe the coolest ending I’ve seen in cartoons since maybe Metalocalypse’s “Dethcamp” episode which certainly makes it a winner in my book.

Score

9/10

Bubbleblabber's Review System