YMMV / Family Guy S 2 E 20 Wasted Talent

• Franchise Original Sin: This episode was the first one to feature a noticeably Overly Long Gag in the form of Peter hurting his knee and going "ssssh...aaaah" over and over again for around 30 seconds. It's tolerable here because of how funny the gag is, overly long gags weren't all that common in the show's earlier days, and it tied into the Charlie and the Chocolate Parody (plus, 30 seconds isn't too long). Later seasons would turn the concept of an Overly Long Gag into a major annoyance of many of the show's fans through several different factors:
  • The gag would more often than not be a Cutaway Gag that had zero impact on the episode's plot.
  • The gags would last a lot longer than the one in this episode, sometimes reaching as long as three minutes.
  • The gags would be just plain unfunny or lazy as it is, without considering how long they are. Examples include:
    • The times when an entire song (or music video or TV show opening) is played without a hint of irony.
    • Peter standing at a karaoke machine for about a minute before saying one word.
    • Three gentlemen coughing and clearing their throats.
    • A character's Overly Long Name (read: about 50 or so middle names) being said three times.
    • One particular Cutaway Gag going on for so long and being so disjointed that the characters have forgotten about what they were talking about in the next scene.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Peter's reaction to beer that never goes flat is to tell Brian that beer will still be carbonated long after the dog dies and the family buys another one to help the kids forget about him. The joke became much darker after "Life of Brian" aired and dealt with this exact scenario.
• Padding: Peter trips on the sidewalk and hurts his knee, causing him to hold it in pain and loudly wince with labored gasps as he attempts to tough it out for almost 30 seconds. This gets mirrored in "FOX-y Lady" where Lois goes through the same gag, but winds up injuring her boobs.