No Meals on Wheels

"No Meals on Wheels"

"No Meals on Wheels" is a season 5 episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. Its title is a parody of the Meals on Wheels program. The episode accumulated a Nielsen rating of 5.0/8 HH, meaning about 7.97 million viewers tuned in.

Plot summary

Peter is annoyed by Mort constantly borrowing his things, so he makes a "ScareJew" out of an old suit, which is actually a scarecrow modeled after Adolf Hitler. Furious, Lois takes him to a secondhand clothing store to get a new suit, where Peter finds some flannel pajamas. While wearing them, he begins to notice that he can shock people with static electricity by rubbing his feet on the carpet. Annoyed by this, Lois has the carpet completely removed. When this is done Quagmire finds an old coin under the carpet, which is sold for fifty thousand dollars. With the money, Peter and Lois decide to live their dream of owning their own restaurant, naming it Big Pete's House of Munch. The restaurant at first is a complete failure, however, Joe promises to bring his friends. Peter is at first excited because he believes it will become a hang out for police officers, only to find that Joe is actually bringing in fellow paraplegics. The restaurant becomes a huge success among handicapped people, however, Peter is convinced handicapped people are "uncool" and he bans them from entering. The handicapped people come back, and when not allowed into the restaurant, they unite into "CrippleTron" (a giant robot reminiscent of the Devastator from Transformers and, to a lesser degree, Megazord from Power Rangers) that destroys the restaurant. After getting trapped under the rubble, Peter is wheelchair bound for two weeks. When he discovers how hard it is to be handicapped after 45 minutes, Peter apologizes to Joe.

Notes

• This is the second reference in the series to M. C. Escher and his Relativity painting; the first being in Brian Goes Back to College, where Stewie refers to it as "crazy stairs".
• The same sleazy salesman from Ready, Willing, and Disabled, Hell Comes to Quahog, When You Wish Upon a Weinstein, Model Misbehavior, and the made-for-DVD movie Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, appears in the shop where Peter buys the flannel pajamas.
• Ironically, The Crippletron (the robot that Joe and his handicapped friends make) is capable of walking.
• The Parents Television Council, which has frequently criticized the series, named the episode the "Worst TV Show of the Week" for the week ending April 6 for its insensitivity toward the disabled and a scene depicting Adolf Hitler as a "Scare Jew". [1]

Cultural references

• At the beginning of the episode, an enraged Tyra Banks produces a giant iguana out of her mouth, which devours a displeased America's Next Top Model contestant. This is a reference to Tyra's infamous aggressive behavior on a misbehaving contestant on the early "Cycles".
• Peter states that Mort is a bigger mooch than the "Mexican Super Friends." This leads to a cutaway where we see a gathering of Mexican versions of various superheroes from DC Comics in the "Mexican Hall of Justice", among others Mexican Batman, Mexican Green Lantern, Mexican Aquaman and Mexican Superman. It is revealed that Mexican Superman is housing all those people, despite that he told his landlord when he signed the lease that only about five people would be living there, hence Peter's "mooch"-statement.
• Peter says that he would want to switch vocal cords with Patrick Stewart. This is the second time Patrick Stewart has appeared on Family Guy, the first being Peter's Got Woods.
• Brian recalls the time when he and his African American roommate were watching the verdict in the O. J. Simpson murder case. Brian was shocked by the "Not Guilty" sentence while his roommate was thrilled, reflecting the racial split of public opinion about the trial, which is another poke at Brian's racial problems with blacks.
• Peter's statue at Big Pete's House of Munch is a parody of the Big Boy statue. Not surprisingly, it also appears similar to the other Big Boy parody, the Lardlad Donuts statue in The Simpsons.
• The show makes a reference to the theme song to Maude and makes fun of its rather long theme song.
• In a cutaway, Stewie is seen having a psychiatric session with Peanuts characters Violet and Pig-Pen, where he mocks Violet for not knowing why she has urinary tract infections.
• Peter hires M. Night Shyamalan to direct the TV commercial for his restaurant, which is a parody of The Sixth Sense.
• Peter tells his friends that it was Ben Stiller who taught him 'to be himself'. The cutaway with Stiller is a send-up of the animated/live action Don Bluth film Pete's Dragon. In the scene, Stiller has ridiculously large ears (like Dumbo), which he can even use to fly. As he flies away, Peter says proudly "His movies were terrible". Later in the episode, Ben Stiller re-appears telling Peter that he heard what Peter said about his movies (due to his large ears). Also later in the episode, Peter calls Stiller a "mutant offspring of comedy people." Ben Stiller voiced himself for this episode.
• Peter makes a reference to M. C. Escher in a parody of MC Hammer. The setting of the video was based on Escher's Relativity.
• Tom Tucker describes the restaurant as "where the elite without feet meet to eat," a reference to old time radio program "Duffy's Tavern." It could also be a reference to Akbar and Jeff business operations in Life in Hell.
• Stewie finds an "On the Rag"-gedy Ann Doll, an obvious parody of Raggedy Ann and Andy
• When Mort Goldman is scared by Peter's "ScareJew," he screams "Protect Jon Stewart! He's our most important Jew!" The "ScareJew", though dressed as Adolf Hitler, is similar to Princess Clara's "JewCrow" from Drawn Together, though the "JewCrow" on Drawn Together was a waiter with a sign saying "Tips please".
  • Peter using a "ScareJew" also resembles Uncle Ruckus' use of a "scarenigger" in a deleted scene from season 1 of The Boondocks.
• Peter rudely insults a customer after he is asked whether the restaurant accepts the Discover Card, poking fun at the card's relatively smaller merchant network.
• The "Crippletron" assembled by Joe and his fellow paraplegics is a parody of Voltron and Devastator from Transformers.
• Similarly, the scene shown before the formation of the "crippletron" is similar to that of a scene in Dawn of the Dead, where the protagonists of the film observe the undead converging upon the supermarket.
• Peter uses a photo of Mark Harmon as proof that cool people do not use wheelchairs. Peter also makes a reference to Gil Gerard during this speech; a similar speech appears in The Kiss Seen Around the World, in which a teacher is ejected from the high school for teaching the "evolutionary theory that Gil Gerard went back in time and ejaculated into the primordial ooze".
• During a montage of Peter in a wheelchair, "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" is playing by Elton John. It was Elton's 60th birthday on the day this episode aired and was done to honor and pay tribute to that.
• The final scene has Joe inviting Peter to watch Grey's Anatomy, to which Peter flatly responds - "That sounds awful."
• The way Peter exclaims "Kneel before Christ!" is similar to a scene from Superman II, in which General Zod tells Superman to kneel down in a similar manner.

Goofs

• In the beginning of the episode Quagmire is seen stripping the carpet. However, in a later scene, when Peter and Lois are watching TV after they opened the restaurant, the carpet is back to normal.

Censorship

• The cutaway of Peter speaking with vocal cords he got from Patrick Stewart has two versions. In the FOX version, Peter (in Stewart's voice) tells Lois that he can list several famous Armenians, including actor Eric Bogosian, tennis player Andre Agassi, and college basketball coach Jerry "Tark the Shark" Tarkanian. On Adult Swim, Peter (in Stewart's voice) apologizes to Lois for staining the bathroom and blames his faulty urination on having sex with her.