what i'm watching: cartoon alert

Have you guys seen "American Dad"? (Wiki, official site, fan site.)

It's shown here on Global or Fox on Sunday nights, and I've been watching it for a few weeks, now that I'm home on Sundays. It's by the creators of "Family Guy," and it's basically "Family Guy" with a political spin. (And without that annoying baby.)

Stan, the Dad of "American Dad," works for the CIA, and the whole show skewers US post-9/11 politics. Among Stan's dysfunctional nuclear family is a Paul Lynde-style alien who saved Dad's life at Area 51, and a goldfish who has the brain of an East German athlete - after the CIA switched them at the Olympics. ("What could we do? Let them win that gold medal? Not on my watch!")

There's the obligatory liberal misfit daughter, geek misfit son (Sherman from Mr Peabody soundalike) and supportive but slightly disapproving wife (Jane from The Jetsons soundalike). The family stuff can be amusing, but where the show stands out is the political comedy.

A recent two-part episode called "Stan of Arabia" had Stan (Dad) being shipped off to Saudi Arabia as a punishment by his CIA employers. When he found out how misogynist Saudi society is, he burned his US passport and decided to stay forever. The whole show revolved around sexism and corruption in Saudi Arabia. (The left is occasionally skewered along with the right: the episode included a shawarma-cart vendor posing as a terrorist to get liberal American girls to sleep with him.) Stan fantasizes about a flight-suit-costumed Moron parachuting in to save the family from death by stoning, a la "mission accomplished". When the family escapes and returns to the US, the kids learn this invaluable lesson about their country: "It's not the worst place in the world!"

In last night's episode (a repeat), god (old man with white beard who lives in clouds) calls Moron to ask him to stop talking about him so much:

"Uh, hey, George, it's God... Hey, listen, big favor: is there any way that you could, uh, from now on, sort of downplay our relationship a little more in your public addresses? I mean, to give you an example, like when you make comments like, 'God wanted me to be President,' you know, that would be an example of something to just kind of keep to yourself." (Lifted from this review.)

While chatting with George, God gets another call: "It's Cheney on the other line, I gotta take this. [click] Yes, sir." In case that's unclear, that's god calling Cheney "sir".

Also in last night's episode, the son is running for class president, and Stan offers to fix the election for him. "You can do that, Dad?" "I'm CIA, Roger. Fixing elections is my bread and butter. You know how many votes George Bush really got in the first election? [long pause] Seven!"

Much of American Dad is Family Guy with politics - and since Family Guy is a dumbed-down Simpsons, the whole thing can get pretty derivative. But the political humour is worth the price of admission. Check it out.