Review: American Dad “Steve, Snot, and the Quest for the OG Four Loko”

Overview:

It’s the weekend in Langley Falls, which means that it’s another opportunity for Steve and Snot to go completely ignored by all of the fun, important parties that are going on in the neighborhood. Steve and Snot have become resigned to being ignored, but an upcoming rager lights an intense fire under Steve and Snot when real stakes (ie. a handjob) are added to the equation. This simple quest for gratification unexpectedly transforms into a Herculean trek that hinges on the retrieval of everyone’s favorite banned malt liquor and caffeine combo from 2005-2010, Four Loko.

Our Take:

American Dad has created an engaging fellowship of freaks between Steve and his fellow friends and outcasts. Many American Dad entries feature this plucky group operating in tandem and they’re often successful as a four-headed creature of innocence and ignorance that covers territory that would be impossible with the rest of American Dad’s cast. It’d be very easy for “Steve, Snot, and the Quest for the OG Four Loko” to feature the entire “Losers Club,” but the episode employs some discerning restraint. American Dad sends Toshi and Barry away to horse camp so that this is a hurdle that Steve and Snot must clear on their own.

Toshi and Barry are entertaining in small doses, but this becomes a stronger episode through its ability to pick its battles and specifically narrow its focus on Steve and Snot’s complicated friendship and fluctuating social currency. It’s been some time since American Dad has indulged in a Steve- and Snot-centric excursion even though such stories often become American Dad’s most entertaining episodes, like “The Unincludeds” or “Steve and Snot’s Test-Tubular Adventure.” “Steve, Snot, and the Quest for the OG Four Loko” is in good company and doesn’t just feel like a hormonal retread of past ideas even if precious handjobs are at stake this time! American Dad should rest easy and proud if “Steve, Snot, and the Quest for the OG Four Loko” turns out to be the series’ final John Hughes-ian Steve and Snot storyline.

This American Dad installment, in an appreciated piece of continuity and world-building, brings back Vince Chung (still voiced by John Cho!), a cool kid from Steve’s school who’s made about a dozen appearances over of the course of the show’s run, but is arguably most prominent in season one’s “Helping Handis” (the events of which are explicitly referred to in this episode). Plenty of American Dad episodes treat Steve and friends as outsiders to whatever “cool kid” event is on tap, but it’s smart for “Steve, Snot, and the Quest for the OG Four Loko” to actively turn to its established cast of supporting players to better insulate the story. It’s unlikely that American Dad has plans to move Steve out of high school and into college, but it’s episodes like this that take stock of Pearl Bailey High’s players and reflect American Dad’s broader timeline that do effectively create nostalgia for what might be the series’ final Vince Chung appearance or the last time that Steve gets denied access to a party because he’s not cool enough. In doing so, “Steve, Snot, and the Quest for the OG Four Loko” takes a very by-the-book American Dad storyline and helps it evolve into something deeper on the nature of adolescence and how much Steve and the rest of Pearl Bailey High’s teens have actually grown over these 350+ episodes.

“Steve, Snot, and the Quest for the OG Four Loko” is a very testosterone heavy American Dad episode, so it’s very much appreciated that all of these shenanigans end in a rather sweet, friendly manner. American Dad wouldn’t collapse if Steve did successfully get a handjob while Snot cheers him on along the way. That being said, “Steve, Snot, and the Quest for the OG Four Loko” engages in some appreciated and surprising vulnerability between its two central characters. Steve’ fear over this sexual milestone and the weirdness positivity angle that American Dad goes out on is the perfect way to conclude an average episode. This still doesn’t feel like American Dad’s best work, but this last-minute injection of empathy does earn the episode a lot of goodwill. 

“Steve, Snot, and the Quest for the OG Four Loko” is all about the different rituals that males endure to properly “become a man.” It may feel a little convenient, but it’s only appropriate that Steve matures by his own self-imposed rubric rather than society’s outdated sex-driven standards. Steve and Snot can be American Dad’s grossest characters when they’re in the right situation. It’s comforting that American Dad closes out their story in a way that has both characters reaching for the tissues, but out of emotional understanding rather than premature ejaculation.