Episode: Too Many Conway Twitty had 55 number one singles on Billboard, a record that stood until 2006. He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and if you're old enough or had grandparents into it, you might have caught him on TV any number of times. Why did he wind up as a running gag on Family Guy? Well, Seth MacFarlane gave us an answer... but it wasn't very good. See, Family Guy uses a formula for some jokes, according to MacFarlane in an interview with Kevin Pollak: really good-horrible-Hilarious. In other words, drag stuff out after starting strong, and the jokes will become so terrible they're hilarious. The problem is, it's a flawed formula, because not every drawn out joke is going to work, and even for those that do, once the joke has been done once, the second time, it doesn't have the same impact. It's what keeps jokes like these from having the re-watch factor. Even Darth Twitty fell flat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJVCjnAolp8 The other idea behind the joke is that MacFarlane thought it was hilarious to waste expensive airtime on something as inane as an old Conway Twitty clip. Seriously, that's the joke: Seth MacFarlane wanted to waste advertiser's money, since they were paying to have their ads appear during the show, and he figured it would be hilarious to serve up crap (not that Conway Twitty is crap, but he's horribly out of place here). It looks like the Conway Twitty gags are done for good on Family Guy, but they never should have gone on as long as they did. Agree/disagree? Add your own below.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
