The Fat Guy Strangler

"The Fat Guy Strangler"

“The Fat Guy Strangler” is an episode from season four of FOX animated television series Family Guy. Guest stars Robert Downey Jr as Patrick Pewterschmidt and Bob Barker as himself.

Plot summary

After finding an old family picture showing a brother she never knew she had, Lois sets out to find her unknown sibling. Meanwhile, after a physical with Dr. Hartman, Peter realizes that he is fat and decides to fight for fat people’s rights by founding a fat people’s club. Lois finds her brother Patrick in a mental hospital, where he’s been locked up since childhood and thinks he has a wife whom no one but him can see. After talking with him for a few minutes, she decides to take him home. There, Patrick explains that he was locked up because he was traumatized as a child when he walked in on their mother having an affair with Jackie Gleason, who apparently ejaculated in her face while saying his catchphrase, "Pow! Right in the kisser!". Peter brings back the trauma from that event and triggers Patrick's killing spree by wearing a bus driver's uniform identical to the one Gleason wore on The Honeymooners and repeating this phrase several times.

Lois is reluctant to believe that Patrick is the Strangler, even with obvious signs (pictures of Pat strangling fat guys, a dead fat guy in Meg's room, being eaten by a half-dead fat guy in Meg's room, and others). Finally, she gives in and believes everything, and it’s up to her and Brian to save Peter from being strangled. They arrive just in time as Patrick is strangling Peter. Lois threatens to “kill” his imaginary wife, distracting Patrick. Brian takes the opportunity to hit Peter with a rock for “rolling up the damn window when I tried to jump in the General Lee.” By the next day, Patrick is brought back to the mental hospital.

Notes

• It is revealed in this episode that in addition to Lois’ sister Carol (and the illegitimate mulatto boy who Lois mentioned in “Screwed the Pooch”), she also has a brother named Patrick.
• As payback for what happened in the season three episode “To Love and Die in Dixie,” Brian hits Peter in the head with a rock “for rolling up the damn window when I tried to jump into the General Lee” [according to the DVD commentary, Brian was supposed to throw the rock at Peter in retaliation for peeing on him (the original draft of the episode’s script had the entire family flying in an airplane to visit Patrick and Peter goes to the bathroom in his seat and his urine spills on Brian, who is in a carry-on case)].
• According to the doctor in this episode, Peter’s astrological sign is Cancer.
• At home, Lois is watching an episode of The Price Is Right, where one contestant says, “Fuck you!” to another contestant after she bid $1 more than him in contestants row, a rather common tactic. The “Fuck you!” is bleeped out on both the FOX and Adult Swim versions, and on the censored audio track of the Family Guy DVD set. The uncensored track, however, has the word intact.
• There is a scene cut from the TV version, but which appears on the DVD, where Peter and the members of the NAAFP are at the funeral of one of their members who was killed by Patrick, and they sing the NAAFP anthem in his memory.
• Stewie plays with, and a fake commercial is shown for the game ball in a cup. The commercial repeats the phrase “ball in a cup” several times to comedic effect and claims that the toy has been Mexico’s favorite for over 340 years.

Cultural references

• Stewie recalls a time he “saw Bobby McFerrin fall down all those stairs.”
• Patrick was traumatized as a child when he walked in on his mother having an affair with Jackie Gleason, who apparently ejaculated in her face while saying his catchphrase “Pow! Right in the kisser!” Peter triggers Patrick’s killing spree by wearing a bus driver’s uniform identical to the one Gleason wore on The Honeymooners and repeating this phrase several times. This may be appropriate, as Seth MacFarlane has said that Gleason was a major influence on the formation of Peter’s character.
• The Paul Shaffer Fire Alarm sounds like Shaffer’s laughter on The Late Show with David Letterman.
• Peter bravely slays a “dragon,” i.e. Cybill Shepherd. She is reportedly quite acerbic and difficult to work with. However, in the Family Guy universe, she is actually able to fly, roar, and breathe fire.
• Peter refers to the infamous baked-goods sex scene in American Pie while speaking to a pie he’s contemplating eating.
• Peter starts an organization called the NAAFP (National Association for the Advancement of Fat People), which is a reference to the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). In actuality there is an actual NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance); the organization was featured on an episode of Penn and Teller: Bullshit!
• A cutaway scene shows Brian finding George W. Bush in his Crawford, Texas treehouse (reading Superfudge) and letting him know about Hurricane Katrina.
• When Brian puts a TV in orbit around Peter, there’s a broadcast of an episode of the Three Stooges.
• The chorus of fat men’s flatulence and belching during Peter’s meeting might be an oblique reference to the campfire scene in Blazing Saddles.
• A cutaway scene shows the invention of music by cavemen. There was a similar scene in History of the World, Part I. However, in this episode, the cavemen invent music through grunting, while in the movie one of them invents it by dropping stones on the feet of his fellow cavemen.
• The song the cavemen sing is Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time.”
• When Peter and the NAAFP are chasing after Patrick, they follow him into a forest called James Woods.
• Stewie’s “French fried potaters” (sic) comment is a reference to the film Sling Blade, in which a murderer who is released from a hospital eats french fries, which he calls “French fried potaters.”
• Sportsfan is a reference to the movie The Great Santini

Goofs

• In the scene where Joe pulls out a gun to shoot at his steak, it can be seen that on Brian's plate there is a steak. In the other scenes Brian's plate is empty. The steak can be seen again when Brian takes Joe's gun away.
• An illustration error was made in the scene when the NAAFP meet. In the beginning of the scene there are plenty of chairs, but when the man on the farthest left in front sits down there is no chair.
• When Brian shows Peter his orbit, the apple goes through Peter’s hand twice.
• In the NAAFP meeting scene, the man farthest left in the third row changes each time the men are shown. When the scene begins he appears as an Asian man, the second time he is shown he is a man with dark brown hair, and the final time the men are shown, he has blond hair.