Death Is a Bitch

Death is a Bitch is an episode from the second season of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. First aired on March 21, 2000. Written by Ricky Blitt, and directed by Michael Dante DiMartino. Guest stars Norm MacDonald as Death.

Plot summary

Peter's breast lump turns out to be a benign fatty corpuscle. But Peter does not want to pay the hospital bill, so he declares himself deceased on the insurance form. When Death shows up at his house, Peter tries to run away and Death sprains his ankle. Death demands that Peter say nothing about Death's injury and the fact that no one can die while Death recovers, but Peter instead blabs about it to his drinking buddies. He is forced to take over Death's job and gets assigned to kill the kids from Dawson's Creek, but fails to do so because he says "If I do, then I have nothing to watch on Wednesdays". Instead, Peter unwittingly kills two airplane pilots, forcing actress Karen Black to land the plane.

Cultural references

• 60 Minutes After Dark, a show Peter and Luis watch is a combination of the news show 60 Minutes and the raunchy variety show Playboy After Dark [1]. It shows 60 Minutes anchors Morley Safer, Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley, and Lesley Stahl in bed together.
• Peter passes a black cat, a raven and an African-American man, the former two of which are traditionally seen as forbearers of bad luck and latter of which particularly frightens Peter.
• Peter thinks his doctor is talking about Fatty Arbuckle rather than a fatty corpuscle.
• When Peter asks Death “Who are you?” he answers “I’m Calista Flockhart,” referring to the actress’ thin and bony frame.
• Stewie says that his last helping of white meat was “dryer than Oscar Wilde", referring to the Irish writer’s sense of humor.
• When Death eats an entire turkey leg in one bite, he attributes the ability to “some films” he appeared in. This is a reference to the act of deep throating in pornographic films.
• Death's remark to Peter, "Hey, I caught FloJo," is a reference to the untimely death of runner Florence Joyner.
• When Death decides to stay with the Griffins, Peter objects saying, "How are we supposed to explain you to Mr. Roper?" referencing the landlord from the sitcom Three's Company.
• Luis and Death play Life, the Hasbro board game.
• Death exclaims that the Griffins' TV is so old that they could get the DuMont network on it. Ironically, FOX grew out of the Metromedia TV stations, which in turn were a successor to DuMont. As such, Clarke Ingram, who maintains a DuMont memorial site, has suggested that Fox is a revival of DuMont. [2]
• Meg gives Death a copy of the magazine Glamour. Death asks for a copy of Entertainment Weekly, saying that the latest issue features a photograph of him sneaking up on sixty-plus-year-old television host Tom Snyder.
• Peter asks a group of bikers if one of them is effeminate fitness guru Richard Simmons.
• Death borrows a Providence College sweatshirt from Peter. This could be Peter’s alma matter as Peter is a Rhode Island Catholic.
• A cutaway shows an alternate version of the 1997 film Titanic where Jack lives.
• When Meg suggests Death “kill all the girls who are prettier than me,” Death remarks that “that would just leave England.
• When Death tells Peter to kill the cast of teen drama Dawson's Creek, he says that they are on their way to Los Angeles but their plane is making a stopover in Rhode Island. Because Rhode Island is a tiny state located on the opposite coast as Los Angeles, this seems unlikely.
• When Peter says "Note to self, don't go to the bathroom", this could be referring to Norm MacDonald's reoccurring bit of recording a note to himself on a tape recorder which was seen during MacDonald’s stint as an anchor on Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update segments and in his 1998 movie, Dirty Work.
• When asking Peter to imagine a world where Adolph Hitler is still alive, a cutaway shows Hitler as a talk show host interviewing actor Christian Slater.
• The pilot of the plane points out the San Fernando Valley beneath the plane where his brother “makes a very nice living directing porn.” San Fernando Valley is the epicenter of the US pornography industry.
• As Peter looks at the cast of Dawson’s Creek, the show’s theme song “I Don't Want To Wait” by Paula Cole plays.
• A cutaway shows a scene of Dawson’s Creek, showing the character Pacey in bed with teacher Tamara Jacobs. Unlike in the actual episode, Jacobs corrects Pacey’s grammar.
• Actress Karen Black successfully lands the plane, as her character did in the film Airport 1975. Newscaster Tom Tucker calls it "an obscure reference." He also mentions her other films Five Easy Pieces and Nashville.
• Death gives Peter of boxed set of singer-songwriter Boz Scaggs.

Trivia

• Stewie's e-mail is loismustdie@yahoo.com.
• At the end of the Hitler parody scene the number to call is '213-DU WERDEST EINE KRANKENSCHWESTER BRAUCHEN'. This translates into '213-YOU WILL NEED A NURSE'. (A translation of an old german death threat, using derogatory phrasing instead of the more formal,'SIE BENÖTIGEN EINE KRANKENSCHWESTER' which would be the appropriate way to say it.)