Peter and Chris are sent to a fat camp while Stewie tries to conquer his fear of the cover art for Queen's News of the World.
"Killer Queen" provides examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: Brian uses a Jack-In-The-Box to lure Stewie into another trap of his. Instead of the album cover appearing in the place of the clown, Stewie lowers his guard, turns around, and sees that Brian painted the cover all over a wall in Stewie’s room.
- Batman Gambit: Yamamoto’s plan following his murder of Chris was to cover his tracks by releasing Patrick from the asylum and having him take the fall for his crimes.
- Big Damn Heroes: Stewie, after conquering his fears of the News of the World cover, uses it against Yamamoto as the latter tries to kill Chris. Yamamoto is equally horrified by the image and dies from the resultant heart attack.
- Bowdlerise: In one version, Stewie doesn't put the gun in his mouth.
- The Bus Came Back: Lois' brother, Patrick, returns in this episode as a suspect for the murders at the fat camp.
- Call-Back: After helping Brian scare Stewie, Carl thanks him for letting him be Yoda, a call-back to the Star Wars parody episodes where Carl portrayed Yoda.
- Chekhov's Gun: Stewie uses the album cover for News of the World to scare Yamamoto in order to save his brother. Ironically, it causes an incident that a real gun would do, making Yamamoto suffer a sheer heart attack after seeing the album cover.
- Consulting a Convicted Killer: Patrick agrees to co-operate with the police and offers insight into the killer's motives — he initially thinks the killer will stay near the fat camp so as to have a good supply of victims, but later realises he has a specific target in mind and his first victims were unfortunate victims of mistaken identity.
- Contrived Coincidence: It’s never explained how Yamamoto knew about Patrick and his murderous exploits or his familial connections with Chris and his family. Then again, the last episode to feature Patrick did have a news coverage on his murders, so it's likely that Yamamoto knew about it this way.
- Crossover: Barry Robinson from American Dad! appears as one of the fat kids attending the fat camp with Peter and Chris.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Yamamoto attempts to murder Chris for defeating him in the hot dog-eating contest.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: The true murderer turns out to be Charles Yamamoto, who is upset that Chris defeated him in the hot dog-eating contest.
- Hidden Depths: Brian must be a very good painter to put the News of the World cover on Stewie's wall.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Charles Yamamoto has a Japanese surname, but when he walks into the hot-dog-eating contest, one of the people behind him is holding up a sign with Korean hangul on it.
- Jack the Ripoff: Yamamoto secretly arranges for Patrick 'The Fat Guy Strangler' to be released from the mental hospital where he's being treated, then kills his victims by strangulation in an attempt to have him take the heat for the murders.
- Jerkass: Brian takes every chance he can to scare Stewie with the Queen News of the World album cover, only stopping when Stewie attempts suicide to get away from the constant torment.
- Murder by Mistake: The killer has a specific murder target in mind, and his first few victims were unfortunate cases of mistaken identity. Patrick realises this when noticing that all of the victims thus far had similar body builds and appearances to Chris, one had a similar hat to his and the latest victim was also sleeping in the bed next to Chris.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Charles Yamamoto is a parody of Takeru Kobayashi, a hot dog-eating champion.
- Not Me This Time:
- Patrick denies having any involvement with the murders at the fat camp. Unsurprisingly, no one considers that he might be telling the truth. It's only after Joe receives a phone call that they now know Patrick is innocent.
- After the first victim is found, Joe asserts the camper was indeed murdered. The assembled group then notices Jason Voorhees standing there, but he says he's just there dropping off his overweight son, Justin.
- Sore Loser: Played for Horror. Yamamoto took losing to Chris in the hot dog-eating contest so badly he tried to kill him.
- Tempting Fate: When Peter calls Lois to inform her about the murders, he tells her that her brother is crossed off as a suspect since he’s still at the asylum, then Meg comes to show Patrick in at the Griffin household.
- Titled After the Song: The episode takes its name from the Queen song "Killer Queen".
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had Peter not pushed Chris into competing in the hot dog-eating contest, Yamamoto wouldn't have been trying to kill Chris, the murdered obese kids at fat camp would still be alive and his brother-in-law wouldn't have been accused of the murders.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Stewie is deathly afraid of the album cover for Queen’s News of the World. Stewie manages to turn this around on Yamamoto at the end, causing the latter to die from a fear-induced heart attack while trying to kill Chris.
