We’ve now reached Day 25 of Spooky Season!! As you know, American Dad! and Family Guy are some of my all-time favorite tv shows! If you’ve seen both shows as much as I have, you’ve probably noticed they have similar plots, like when both Meg and Hayley tried roller derby, or when Stan and Peter got into horse racing. One of my favorite storylines both shows did was when they parodied the horror film, Poltergeist! I first decided to compare these parodies, then I realized how difficult it would be to compare them so I decided not to. Now, I decided to just give it a shot anyways, so I hope you enjoy and let me know which episode you like more! (SPOILER ALERT!!!)

I’m going to start with the plots in both episodes! In Petergeist, Peter tries to build a new theater in his home to upstage his neighbor Joe. While he’s digging, he discovers Native American remains and the spirits uncovered haunts the family and pulls Stewie into their realm. In Poltergasm, Francine’s lack of sexual satisfaction manifests into a vengeful spirit that terrorizes the house and it’s up to Stan to learn how to please her properly and stop the hauntings. When it comes to the storylines, the advantage has to go to Poltergasm. The story was much more original and the dug up remains in Petergeist was just too cliche.

Now onto the parodies themselves. Although Roger played a fantastic version of Zelda Rubinstein’s character (Rudy Zeldastein), I feel Petergeist did a better job at parodying the entirety of the film. They took the major plot points and gave us hilarious additions to it. From Peter ripping his face off in the mirror, to Chris being abducted by a giant tree outside, they hit all of the marks on this one! I will say that Poltergasm did do a great job with Zelda’s character and I have to give the episode props for giving me a jump scare that actually made me jump the first time I saw it.

I have to bring up the pacing because pacing is important to me, and in this case, Poltergasm  definitely wins. Family Guy has a knack for long punchlines that seem to bring the episode to a standstill and unfortunately, Petergeist has one of those moments. However, the fact that Carrot Top played himself in the Petergeist episode was just fantastic. Now we get to the endings! I’ve seen both of these episodes so many times, but the Poltergasm ending STILL makes me laugh when I watch it! Roger is just too funny! To conclude, when it comes to parodying Poltergeist, I think Petergeist did it best with all of its references and jokes. However, if I’m going by personal preference, I have to pick Poltergasm. It was just so entertaining from beginning to end!