This is MY Wheelchair...

I am a fan of Family Guy. Most "comedy" movies can't make me laugh but Family Guy gives me a good laugh or too. The humor is either just slapstick, political, vulgar, or creative. I usually find myself laughing at movie references the most because it's funny to see what they do with famous lines or well known scenes. Sometimes though, I'm not well rounded enough pop culturally (sp?) and the references fly over my head and I'm just left confused more than laughing out loud. After watching Full Metal Jacket, I found that Family Guy references FMJ a lot. I now could remember scenes that were so confusing to me before that people though were hilarious that I didn't think was funny at all, but I now understand. As I watched Full Metal Jacket, I could point out all of the scenes that Family Guy parodied in a certain episode, from the beating of Pyle with soap (parodied by Chris Griffin's beating with money) to the Rifleman's Creed (parodied by Joe Swanson and his wheelchair) and to even the song Surfin Bird, which I literally sat at my computer in awe when the song began to play in FMJ like when you finally get a joke someone told you 3 days ago, saying, "Oh I get it now!" I think that the fact that Family Guy can reference all of these scenes knowing most people (besides me I guess) will understands shows how timeless Full Metal Jacket really is. It proves that the scenes Kubrick recorded almost 30 years ago still has as much cultural impact that it did then now. Stanley Kubrick's piecing together of dark humor with the reality of war created a movie that was not only a complex visual of a soldier's psychological experiences in Vietnam, but a standing example of how you can add humor to such a sensitive topic such as war but still have a powerful effect. I think the fact that I am a fan of Family Guy and have now watched FMJ made me appreciate both more in terms of their humor and their message. I had liked Platoon more than FMJ but I don't think Platoon can do what FMJ can. Even though Platoon won the Best Picture Oscar, it isn't a classic. It doesn't have lines that can be referenced to and people will say, "Oh man Platoon, great movie." I am not saying that Platoon isn't a great movie in the slightest, I am still very much a fan of Platoon. I just feel as though I Platoon chose to solely play out a serious and dramatic tone, while FMJ had a serious tone, but had humor added to it that made it more realistic and ... funny with the final outcome being relatable. Overall, I think the script that Kubrick wrote had elements that can make anyone laugh or feel pain, young or old, and the fact that Family Guy can parody it just shows that it is a movie that people can relate to and understand even 30 years later.