'Family Guy's' 200th show review

But what's so funny about any of this? Well, watch Peter Griffin get in a fistfight with a giant chicken -- specifically Ernie the giant chicken, and in reverse, naturally -- and I dare you not to laugh . . . out loud. It's pretty much impossible not to. This said, at 200, "Guy," like any other late-middle-aged show, is doing what it's done the past 199 episodes -- going to reliable punch lines and playing to the audience's pre-pubescent bordering-on-Neanderthal sense of humor (which, by the way, works for me).

Yes, this show has contributed mightily to the coarsening of American popular culture -- a feat it's particularly proud of -- but also think of "Family Guy" as a running commentary on that debased culture and TV in particular. Remember that old ad, "this is your brain on drugs"? "Family Guy" effectively insists that this is your brain on television: Watch too much of the boob tube or "Family Guy" and you, too, could turn into Peter Griffin.

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