I would argue that pre-cancellation Family Guy had just as many pointless asides and one off jokes, it’s just that they were funnier!  So I could at least be potentially stealing from pre-cancellation as well!  I think this small flash back is more connected to the main story than the typical Family Guy flashback.

On the other hand, this horibble abomination where the characters are named Tom and Diane was blantantly ripping off the character names from Family Guy.  The sad thing is that I didn’t even realize it until Thompkins pointed it out to me!  (Note: NO ONE should ever read that attached story, it’s not even safe for society).