If I ever had any doubt that "Family Guy" is pandering to the frat boy crowd, "Quagmire's Dad" quashed those doubts.  In a nutshell, Quagmire's dad turns into a woman, and everyone is disgusted.  Because that kind of thing is SO SICK AND WRONG, amirite?  Well, it is if you're a narrow-minded frat boy.  And if you are, then you will have thought this Sunday's episode was a laff riot.

I was unable to disengage the logical thinking for this episode.  At first, we are led to believe that Quagmire's dad is gay.  Since he is a decorated and highly respected Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy, I thought we were going to get a lot of "don't ask don't tell" jokes.  But in fact, the show never acknowledges the schism between who Quagmire's dad is, and his involvement in the military.

For example, when Quagmire finally confronts his father, he does so at the Navy Ball in front of all the Navy guys.  I would have thought the show would at least tip a nod to the fact that openly confessing to homosexuality in front of military peers would have ruined Quagmire's dad's career.  

Nope!

Then, to pile worse atop worse, it turns out he's in Quahog for a sex change operation - what normal adults call "gender reassignment surgery."

Here's the thing: in order to get cleared for gender reassignment surgery, you have to live as your new gender for at least a year.  And you have to spend a lot of time working with a therapist, who has to write an official letter certifying you for the surgery.  You have to take a course of hormones which will radically alter your secondary sex characteristics.  

Not on "Family Guy," though.  On "Family Guy" you just go to the doctor, and later that day you emerge all pretty!

Okay, fine.  It's a cartoon.  Fire engines don't really hunt gazelles for dinner.  I get it.  But what about those niggling little practicalities.  Stitches? Post-surgical care?  Nope - Ida is out for drinks that night, and hooks up with Brian at the hotel bar.

It's funny because Brian slept with a man!  Except he didn't.  He slept with Ida, whose conversion was so successful that he never noticed anything unusual at the time.  It's only later the next day when he compares notes with the other Griffins that he learns about Ida's past.

I really had higher hopes for Brian.  It was only a few months ago we had the episode "Brian's Got A Brand New Bag," where he openly defends his relationship with a much older woman.  I had hoped Brian of all the characters would be open-minded enough to say "I like Ida for who she is, as a human being."  

But no.  Brian scrubs down in the shower while shuddering in horror.  A stronger reaction, by the way, than he had last week to eating Stewie's poop out of a diaper in cold blood.

Brian, didn't you have fun last night?  Didn't you make a human connection?  You're the one talking about a soul mate.  Isn't that what really matters?

Apparently not.