Brief Family Guy Related Post

I don't watch Family Guy much anymore, but I used to. Not because I think I outgrew its humor (I doubt my taste has progressed any), as I just don't remember to watch new episodes and Adult Swim has run the older ones (which I found a lot more funny) into the ground. But when I did watch it semi-regularly, I always liked those two vaudevillians, Vern and Johnny.

Well, "always" probably isn't accurate. I think the first time I saw them, watching Alex' DVD sets of the early seasons, I was left wondering what the hell it was all about, this fellow talking about how vaudeville was dead, and TV was the box that killed it, then trying to jump through a hoop and falling flat on his face. But they grew on me. I think Johnny gets credit for that, the way he energetically played his piano*, whether Vern's bit worked as intended or not. Sure, times are probably tough for these holdovers from 1920s stage acts, but that doesn't mean Johnny's going to bemoan his fate. No, darn it, he's going to play his jaunty tune, because a man's got to make a living, and that's what he does. Good for him, living his dream**.

Of course, then Stewie decided he'd had enough of them and killed them both, and that was the end of that. Nothing ever lasts.

* Or is it a pianie? Pianny? That way of pronouncing "piano" that's usually reserved for the saloon style plunking away at the keys from Westerns and such.

** Assuming, of course, that was Johnny's dream. Maybe he wanted to play that amphitheater Alvin and the Chipmunks always destroyed during their opening sequence. Maybe he didn't want a musical career at all, maybe he wanted to be an investment banker, or a roofer. In which case, his is just another sad case of dreams left unfulfilled.