0086 - Guy Who Would Do Anything For A Klondike Bar (Patreon)

So I believe this is the last character in this episode of Family Guy, we've finally reached it.

As a Brit, I was not familiar with the Klondike bar ad campaign this guy is a reference to. It's another example of me being introduced to American pop culture references solely though Family Guy. I understand the joke they're making here, but I'm sure the first time I saw it I was very confused.

By the end of the advert, this man is a murderer, but it's within the fiction of the advert, so we'll hold off adding him to our murderer count, unless he turns up again somehow.

It's funny that this advert that Peter is forced to watch from his hospital bed is what turns him back onto his television addiction. The man is hopelessly addicted to the candy bar to the point of mindless devotion, mirroring Peter's own hopeless addiction. The three levels to this are fascinating to me: the man's addiction, Peter's addiction, and the show's own addiction to pop culture in general. 

As we've discussed, Family Guy as a whole is not just about the Griffin family's relationship with media, but about the audience's relationship with it. The writers are often daring us not to get a joke by connecting it to real world elements - in this case an advert - and saying "take it or leave it. You either understand this or you don't." Getting the joke makes us laugh, not getting the joke invites us into a secret club where we're given the base set of tools to uncover what the joke is.

As you can imagine, this was very exciting to me as a teen, being given the keys to American pop culture and being expected to figure it out. Perhaps I too would have done anything for a Klondike bar, given the chance.

This post is part of my "Every Family Guy Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.