Lethal Weapons

Infobox Television episode
Title =Lethal Weapons
Series =Family Guy


Caption =Peter putting Lois in action.
Season =3
Episode =7
Airdate =August 22, 2001
Production =2ACX18
Writer =Chris Sheridan
Director =Brian Hogan
Guests =Michael Chiklis, Peter Gallagher, Alastair Shearman
Episode list =List of Family Guy episodes
Season list = Infobox Family Guy Season 3
Prev =Death Lives
Next =The Kiss Seen Around the World

"Lethal Weapons" is an episode from the third season of the FOX animated series "Family Guy". It is the 35th episode of "Family Guy". Michael Chiklis guest stars as a "leafer".

Plot summary

The quiet of Quahog is disrupted when the leaves start turning fall colors and "leafers" from New York invade town.

Bonnie invites Lois to a Tae Jitsu class where Lois quickly advances to black belt. Peter exploits Lois' fighting abilities to drive the leafers back to New York. This gets Lois aggressive enough to challenge and successfully beat her teacher.

Her victory over her teacher makes her so assertive she immediately kisses Peter and then grabs him by the crotch, to which she claims ownership (the gender opposite of what O.J. Simpson was reported to have done to his late wife [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Simpson/Dardenca.htm A transcript of the prosecutor's closing argument in O.J. Simpson's murder trial] ] ). That night Lois rapes Peter, who is too frightened to object.

The next morning, Peter feels emasculated and cries. While sharing his feelings with Brian, he eats graham crackers belonging to Stewie. Stewie promptly strikes Peter, with a baseball bat. Lois blames herself for serving as a bad role model, and decides to rid the family of anger.

Family therapy fails to rid Stewie of his rage issues (he bites the psychiatrist's ear in a manner reminiscent of Mike Tyson), and so does an attempt by Brian to convince them they've taken mood elevating drugs, when he really gave them placebos.

The family ends up in an all-out brawl to get it out of their system. They start to realize how ridiculous the fighting is after Peter gets his head stuck in a picture of a horse's rear end, but continue fighting after Stewie hits Lois from behind with a chair.

Finally exhausted, and showing visible wear and bruises, they eventually blame the violence on TV. Peter wonders how come the government does not control television in order to stop its violence. He then blames "the network" (FOX) for allowing such violence on this very show. Lois nervously warns him not to badmouth the network. Peter doesn't seem afraid, not thinking their budget could be cut. He says he's going into the kitchen for a beer. He then exits in a very slow-transition-of-frame motion, implying that some vengeful network types just slashed the show's animation budget in retribution for his remarks.

Cultural references

* Peter says "brothers and sisters fighting is as natural as a white man's dialogue in a Spike Lee movie", leading to a cutaway parodying Lee's movie "Do the Right Thing".
* Lois says she is cutting loose just like "Julie Andrews in that movie where she shows her breasts", leading to a cutaway of "Mary Poppins" in which Andrews inexplicably opens her blouse. In reality, the movie Lois is referring to is the 1981 film "S.O.B.".
* Peter says Lois "floats like a butterfly and stings like when I pee", a reference to Muhammad Ali's famous quote: "Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee". Peter refers to the Tae Jitsu instructor as "Ralph Macchio", the star of "The Karate Kid".
* At the bar, Peter says "Krypton sucks", angering General Zod and his partners, the Kryptonian villains from "Superman II".
* Lois challenges Jared by saying "Spin the wheel, raggedy man", a quote from the 1985 movie "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome".
* When Stewie attacks the therapist, he says he is "Martin Lawrence on a bender", a reference to the comedian's spouts of violence and supposed drug abuse.
* Peter calls Lois "Martin Mull" because of her bleaching the facial hair in her upper lip. Mull is famous for sporting a blonde upper lip moustache and has sometimes guest-starred in the show. In the Spanish version he says Burt Reynolds.
* Stewie's blocks spell out "Red Rum", which is "murder" backwards. This is the famous phrase said by Danny Lloyd during Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining".
* When Lois grabs Peter's crotch and says "This is mine! This is where my babies come from!" it is a reference to testimony of Denise Brown during the O. J. Simpson murder case claiming that she had once witnessed O. J. Simpson do that to her sister, Nicole Brown Simpson in public.

References

External links

* S. Callaghan, "Lethal Weapons". "Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3". New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 152–155.
* A. Delarte, "Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 3" in "Bob's Poetry Magazine", 2.August 2005: 42 [http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Au.pdf http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Au.pdf]
*FGwiki