It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One

Infobox Television episode
Title =It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One
Series =Family Guy


Caption =Adam West and Lois Griffin run for Mayor.
Season =5
Episode =17
Airdate =May 13, 2007
Production =5ACX12
Writer =Alex Borstein
Director =Zac Moncrief
Guests =Keith Olbermann
Don Most
Episode list =List of Family Guy episodes
Season list = Infobox_Family_Guy_Season_5
Prev =No Chris Left Behind
Next =Meet the Quagmires__NOTOC__"It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One" is a season five episode of the FOX animated television series "Family Guy". The working titles of this episode were "Lois Pewterschmidt-Griffin" and "Commander in Queef". The title is a parody of Hillary Clinton's book, "It Takes a Village". Keith Olbermann is a guest voice in this episode playing the voice of Bob Grossbeard.

Plot summary

The Griffin family is vacationing at Quagmire's cabin. While there, the family goes swimming in Lake Quahog, but something in the water causes them to go almost completely bald. They see that the Quahog Oil Refinery is dumping toxic waste into the lake. After their hair grows back, Lois complains to Mayor Adam West, who admits that he sanctioned the dumping in exchange for free oil for his hair. Outraged, Lois decides to run against West in the upcoming mayoral election.

Peter and his friends, meanwhile, become the strongest supporters of Lois' campaign, realizing that they could get away with anything because of their relations to Lois if she becomes mayor. As such, they do everything in their power to gain the town's support so she can win.

Though clearly a better choice than her opponent, Lois' campaign falters as Mayor West proves more politically savvy than she is—while Lois bores voters with detailed plans to improve the city, Mayor West uses glittering generalities and statements completely unrelated to his questions. Realizing (through Brian) that it would be hopeless otherwise, Lois then resorts to similar generalities, dropping controversial terms such as "Jesus" and "terrorists" in meaningless ways. She also answers questions about her policy plans only by saying "9/11." She eventually gains the support of the populace and wins the election.

Lois uses fear tactics to raise funds for cleaning up the lake. She has cash remaining after the clean-up and embezzles $600 to purchase a purse, much to Brian's chagrin. He scolds her for spending taxpayers' money in such a way. Peter, of course, couldn't care less as he has also succumbed to the perks of being the mayor's husband. Later, at the Britches and Hoses store, Lois is tempted to buy a $4,300 fur coat. Bob Grossbeard, the president of the local oil company, offers to buy the coat if Lois allows him to dump his oil runoff in the lake, and Lois reluctantly accepts. At the opening of the new runoff pipe, Lois realizes the error of her ways and shuts the pipe, resigning as mayor because the position corrupted her. Adam West arrives and takes back his position as mayor, but two bystanders say West does not have legal justification to do that. West pulls a gun and shoots the objectors and asks if anyone else has a problem and a resident says that his wife does. The screen goes black and a shooting sound ends the episode.

Censorship

The following edits were made to this episode when it aired on FOX, TBS, and in syndication (with the scenes shown in their entirety on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim line-up):
* After the cutaway of Cleveland on the Plinko board (after the Griffins fall off the game with "The "Price is Right" yodeler"), the FOX & syndication version cuts to the Griffins pulling up in the driveway. On Adult Swim, there is an extended scene where the Griffins pull up to Quagmire's driveway and Lois wonders if they've found the right cabin (the scene then cuts to an overhead shot, where the driveway resembles a penis with the tops of two trees as the testicles) and Brian replies that it was a safe bet that the cabin they were pulling up to indeed belonged to Quagmire.
* After the family catches Quagmire with the Asian woman, his line, "And here I am, cream on my face, hair a mess, and in mid-coitus. I must look a sight!" is cut out of the FOX & syndication version.
* On the FOX version of the song Peter plays about "Brokeback Mountain", Peter sings that the two cowboys are having "gay sex". The Adult Swim version uses the original, more explicit line "butt sex". The syndicated rerun doesn't show the part where Peter sings about Brokeback Mountain at all and goes straight to the scene where Quagmire tells a scary story about a one-night stand who wouldn't go away.
* When Stewie discovers Brian has a Ziggy tattoo (after the Griffins go bald), Brian mumbles "Ah, geez." under his breath on FOX & in syndication. On Adult Swim, he sighs, "Jesus." The TBS version, however, has Brian saying "No".
*On the FOX & syndication version, the part where Stewie imitates Mozart (when the family is wearing the white, aristocratic wigs after losing their hair), Stewie lifts up his shirt to reveal white bloomers. On the Adult Swim & TBS version, Stewie's bare butt is shown.
* On FOX and in syndication, in the part where Adam West is hitting on a woman at a street corner, he says, "Hey baby, wanna take a gander at some Adam West penis?" On Adult Swim, the original line, "Hey baby, want some Adam West penis?" was used instead.
* During the Channel 5 newscast, when Tom Tucker reports on whether or not the town is ready for a female mayor, Tom Tucker says in the FOX & syndication version, "Can a woman really be mayor, or will she just menstruate all over the city?" The Adult Swim version changes the line to "Can a woman really be mayor, or will she just bleed all over the city?".
*In the FOX & syndication version, when Quagmire replies to Peter's accusations that he hasn't done anything to help Lois' campaign with the fact he's been sleeping with women around town nonstop for two days, he adds "You know how many sperm I got left? One! He's all alone and he's scared, alright? He's scared!". In the version shown on Adult Swim, as well as on TBS, two other lines were used: "If I tried to masturbate right now, you know what would come out? A little flag with the word 'BANG' on it!" and "You know what would come out if I tried to masturbate right now? Dust!"

Cultural References

* Peter recalls his family vacationing with the yodeler from the Cliff Hangers pricing game on "The Price Is Right", while Cleveland vacations at the Plinko board, only to fall into the 0. When the Griffin family falls off the Cliff Hangers mountain, the famous Price is Right "Losing Horns" play, even though the sound effect isn't used for a loss in the game on the actual show (the sound effect of a crash plays as the mountain climber falls, which happens when a contestant's difference on three products exceeds $25).
* The legend of Donny Most appearing every hundred years, as well as the scene where he did, parody the play and film Brigadoon.
* When Lois proposes a tax increase, the audience begins chanting, "", words spoken by former president George H. W. Bush.
* As Lois earns a standing ovation from the voters, the scene cuts to a video of Ashley Ferl crying during an American Idol performance by Sanjaya Malakar, a highly publicized live blooper.
* Jason Voorhees appears twice, once in an interview with Trisha Takanawa, and again as the manager of the "Britches and Hose" clothing store. Jason also appeared in the Simpsons episode Stop, or My Dog Will Shoot! (which aired on the same night as this episode), apparently having been killed by the family's dog.
* After the Griffin family loses their hair and don 18th-century wigs, Stewie and Peter parody the scene from "Amadeus" where Mozart mocks Antonio Salieri’s music after a disguised Salieri requests it. Music used in the scene includes "Heart and Soul" and the "Dies Irae" from Mozart's Requiem.
* Peter reanimates the corpse of Jim Varney (intending to raise John Belushi), best known for his character Ernest P. Worrell, a talkative redneck who always seems to be talking to his unseen neighbor, named Vern.
*A Family Guy book of the same name as the episode title was released in 2007.
*At one point, during the press conference, Lois states that "Hitler is plotting with the Legion of Doom (a group of supervillains from Challenge of the Superfriends) to assassinate Jesus... Using the lake as a base". At this point, we see the hall of Doom coming up from the water as a narrator that sounds like William Woodson says "Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom". Then it goes inside where we see all of the LoD (except for the Riddler) watching the press conference, and Lex Luthor shouts "How did she discover our plan?", at which point Solomon Grundy stands up and says "Me, Solomon Grundy... Kinda... dropped the ball on that one." It is also confirmed that "Darth Vader tried to buy Yellowcake Uranium from Unwed Teenage Mothers!".
*Brian tells Lois that she connects with the townspeople "the same way Disney connects with its audience". The scene then cuts to a movie theater, where a parody of the animated Disney film Home on the Range is playing. The spoof features two talking cows talking slang; an African-American comments to his friend (also black), "Disney gets us!"