American Dad! Season 14, Episode 12
Bazooka Steve
Grade: A-

I was worried with the cold open that we were in for a retread of a bad Family Guy episode (specifically ‘Jungle Love’ where Chris escapes to South America through the Peace Corps to avoid high school hazing). And the over-the-top football parody wasn’t clicking with me at first either. But the episode turned out to be a gem.

The Hayley b-plot went in an interesting direction (instead of just being a Roger scam to get free taxi service), Steve learning to love sports by becoming deeply broken on the island made some semblance of sense (maybe I just like volcanoes, okay?!) and the jokes really landed.

It is kind of funny, growing up in ‘actual’ Langley (well my school was the rival of Langley High School anyway) how little the very liberal folks cared about sports, and I do have a bug in my butt about how football concussions are far fewer than for sports like cheerleading and soccer and lacrosse, but the raw dedication to having the town overpoweringly love arena football won my heart.

Random Observations:
We get a free scoop at half-time. The widow picks the flavor.

I got a Zooka Zinger. That’s Goldschlager and Mountain Dew.

You should leave Steve.
…And come back right after school because I’ll always be loved here?

How does overnight sound?
Probably me best chance of me getting there alive?
Well that’s not how you’re going .