Did no one else see this episode for what it is — a brilliant satire of our overly politically correct society, where short people become "altitude challenged," ugly people suffer "severe appearance deficits," and soldiers come down with "operational exhaustion" rather than shell shock? Mentally enhanced by his NZT pills, Brian's subconscious comes to the forefront in the form of a prehistoric host (Josh-O-Saurus Josh) of a defunct children's show that Brian watched as a child. As Brian's team temporarily joins an elite FBI division that tracks down pedophiles and serial killers, Josh rears his late Cretaceous triceratops head to replace the unpleasant investigation language with nice words "to make the world a better place." Thus, through Brian, we see the world revised toward family-friendliness, where a woman's soft-drink spillage (blood splatter) reveals her playing an air guitar (clawing at her attacker) before being hugged (killed) while engaged in a game of Cowboys and Indians (getting raped). It's well-meant semantic foolishness taken to the point of crassness, ultimately offensive in itself, whose appropriate chief spokesman is that of an ugly, creepy, over-the-hill and past-his-time dinosaur-man. Josh does, however, make one thought-worthy suggestion: Stop giving cool names to serial killers. His solution: Name them something they'd hate, something innocuous like ice cream flavors; thus, the Marrying Man (who collects women's ring fingers as trophies of his kills) becomes Mr. Pralines and Cream. As the series progressed, Brian became increasingly more boyish, connecting far more solidly with his inner child than what initially drew viewers to the series. This episode drives the matter full-speed ahead rather than curtail it, addressing his growing, little boy attitude through the emergence of an antiquated dinosaur personality that'd be better left extinct (yet fondly remembered) while on his road to maturity.
Review of Stop Me Before I Hug Again
