November 27, 2006 - Ok, it is officially time to say it: Family Guy is the best animated program on Sunday nights. Sorry Simpsons, but Family Guy is just better. While Simpsons attempts to be funny through random humor, Family Guy succeeds with off-the-wall nonsensical humor that keeps us laughing. This week was confirmation of the show's quality, as "Chick Cancer" proved that the program could create hilarious flashbacks, while presenting a story that added a lick of satire to improve on the overall quality of the show.

The two main story branches this week featured Stewie as he participated in a full blown relationship with his old friend Olivia, while Peter learned the wonders of chick flicks. Both of these stories were hilarious; one contained dumb comedy, with Peter making a chick flick (Steel Vaginas), and the other had a great satirical take on dating and bitter relationships with Stewie and Olivia. By balancing the smart and stupid comedy (as they have been over the course of this season), Family Guy has made its product comparative to shows like South Park. Even though the show is not as socially relevant and bitingly satirical as South Park, Family Guy has recently started to take serious issues and effortlessly turn them into stories that are well worth your time. This week we cracked up as Stewie chased, courted, married, and supposedly murdered his old fling. Anybody who has been through a sloppy relationship will agree that even though the characters were pre-pubescent, these scenes hit the anger and angst of a sour relationship better than most dramas that we have ever seen.

FOX Peter's chick flick Steel Vaginas is a thing of beauty.

As amazing as the Stewie/Olivia debacle was, Peter's introduction into sentimental cinema was just as fun. At first we were worried that the story was going to follow Peter as he bashed chick flicks (which is like beating a dead horse), but instead we watched as he embraced these movies that are directed towards women. And much like Peter's attempt at musical theater from a much earlier episode, we saw him try to piece together a film which would show the plight of women and his road to open-minded thinking. Instead what we got was a poorly pieced together comedic short, which offended all those that viewed it. Personally we found the non sequitur film style to be hilarious. The fact that there wasn't a point, and that it was more of a way to show bad filmmaking was just fine with us. Hopefully we will get to see a sequel to Steel Vaginas in the future… as there are so many questions left unanswered at the end of the movie.

But as always it wasn't just the main storylines that kept us laughing. This week we watched as the show featured some of their funniest flashback gags in a long time. Our personal favorites were the Star Wars/Curb Your Enthusiasm bit, the foreign guy Fouad explaining sarcasm, the sounds of the eighties infomercial, and Chester Cheetah on a Cheetos binge. Each of these clips were hilarious in their own right, but being that we are big Star Wars fans on the IGN TV site, we found the Luke Skywalker gag to be our favorite. Using one of the best lines from the film: "…I used to bull's-eye whomp rats in my T-16 at home..." the flashback showed how big of a dick move it was for Luke to sandbag the rebel pilot by calling him out in front of all the other pilots. After Luke gets chewed out for being insensitive, the flashback cuts to Luke looking confused with the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme song playing. Although Larry David wasn't shown in the skit, it did feel very reminiscent to any of the countless encounters from that show.

"Chick Cancer" is the best episode of the season so far. With hilarious comedy and actual plotlines, we laughed our way through the entirety of the episode. Now lets just hope that Seth MacFarlane and crew can keep up this quality for the rest of the season!