The Three Most Popular Animated Shows Just Crossed Over For The First Time Ever
The fathers of The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bob's Burgers meet for the first time in an upcoming Family Guy episode.
Three cartoon dads walk into a restaurant. That’s not the setup for a joke but the premise behind a recent Family Guy clip where Peter Griffin has a crossover with Bob Belcher and Homer Simpson. The scene marks the first time all three of Fox’s cartoon patriarchs have appeared together on screen.
The clip comes from Family Guy Season 21, Episode 15, “Adoptation.” The episode doesn’t air until this Sunday, but the clip was posted early to Fox’s AniDom YouTube channel. Fox most likely wanted to use the unprecedented crossover between The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, and Family Guy to generate buzz for the upcoming episode.
In the scene, Lois, played by Alex Borstein, is telling Seth McFarlane’s Peter about her dream from the night before. Peter starts backing away from Lois and eventually backs out of the house and down the street. He ends up at Bob’s Burgers, joining an already-seated Homer Simpson.
It’s a short scene but stuffed full of jokes, as are most Family Guy moments. “I backed up all the way into the show before us,” Peter quips as he walks past a sign advertising a “Kevin Bacon Burger with everything till Madoff lost it.”
The best joke in the scene is easily when Peter asks Bob why the menu has two sets of prices. “One’s the Emmy winner discount,” Bob confesses awkwardly, prompting Peter to just order a cup of coffee and toast. It’s a great gag and one that highlights how eager Family Guy is to make fun of itself while roasting everyone else.
The coveted Outstanding Animated Program Emmy has eluded Family Guy despite the Griffins’ quarter of a century on television. By comparison, the 12-year-old Bob’s Burgers has won the award twice so far. The Simpsons has won a whopping 34 Primetime Emmy Awards, pretty much one for every season the show has been on the air.
Crossovers are nothing new for the three animated series. Bob’s Burgers had a particularly meta crossover with the series Archer, poking fun at the fact that H. Jon Benjamin voices both title characters. Bob’s also crossed over with The Simpsons previously during one of the show’s famous Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials.
The Simpsons, on the other hand, has had almost too many crossovers to name. Homer has met characters from shows like Rick and Morty and The Critic. The series has even crossed over with Matt Groening’s other animated powerhouse Futurama.
It’s no surprise that the most controversial crossovers have come from Family Guy. The show was burnt to a crisp by South Park in their infamous “Cartoon Wars” episode. The show mercilessly made fun of the random cutaways and lazy pop culture references Family Guy is known for.
That’s nothing, however, compared to what Family Guy did to The Simpsons.
The Family Guy episode “Movin’ Out (Brian’s Song)” features a gag where Quagmire forces himself on Marge Simpson and murders the whole Simpson family. The “joke” is too inappropriate to describe here, but you can read about it in more detail on the Family Guy wiki.
Luckily, the new clip isn’t anywhere near as tasteless. Unless you’re Kevin Bacon, that is. New episodes of Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons, and Family Guy air this Sunday on Fox.
