I watched the third Family Guy Star Wars spoof recently and, whileobviously the weakest of the three, I still found it quite good (bitlike Jedi itself I guess). However what I was looking forward to themost was the third Robot Chicken spoof because I had laughed myselfhoarse at the first one they did and even the weaker second one wasvery funny. Sadly though the third film seems to be running out ofsteam, with all the really sharp jokes on the subject gone already andthe material having a feel of reaching or being the material taken fromthe cutting room floor of the first two films.

Perhaps it was an effect of this special having a lot of material fromthe three newer films because I am less familiar with these and do nothave the affection for them that helps any spoofing. Perhaps it is thisbut undoubtedly the material is just not as funny as the previous filmsand there were a lot of misses in here. The emperor being the narrativeframe didn't really work for me and there were too many jokes thatdidn't really work or that ran on too long. The storm trooper drivingthe deathstar was one, Luke at the gas station was another (althoughclever it wasn't that funny and lasted too long) and there are manymore examples. It is a shame because the first spoof was so good and sosuccessful (in terms of bringing non-RC viewers to the series) thatthey HAD to do another one and another one, even if the ideas areharder to come by as they go.

I did laugh during the special but it was much more sporadic and fortoo much of it I was sitting with that dumb smile on my face – thesmile of a man waiting for a laugh because one must be seconds away,only for it not to come at all. Overall, this was more a case ofamusing rather than hilarious, which for those who saw where theystarted, can only be a disappointment.