Due to their financial situation, Lois insists that the family start sticking to a budget. Peter, rather than stop throwing away money on whatever random whim pops into his head, instead decides that the family should win the Rhode Island state lottery, which currently has a multi-millon dollar jackpot. When he unexpectedly succeds, the lower-middle class Griffins suddenly finds themselves with more money than they ever dreamed.
Tropes:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: All the Griffins suffer this upon winning the lottery, but Peter suffers it the worst, since he starts paying Quagmire and Joe to perform various humiliating acts, climaxing with him deliberately shooting Joe's eye out with a BB gun.
- Amusing Injuries: Peter smashes himself after trying to jump into coins via Scrooge McDuck. Somehow he ends up better in the next scene.
- Conspicuous Consumption: Exaggerated to the point where the Griffins go broke in only one month after winning the lottery. While he buys rounds of beer for his friends and gives people gifts (such as a diamond ring for Lois, hiring a singer for Joe, and giving Quagmire an investment for penis enlargement), Peter also wastes the money on things like:
- Buying a pool full of coins so he can dive into it ala Scrooge Mc Duck (only to seriously injure himself).
- Buying a solid gold tuxedo.
- Not only buying expensive food, but hiring somebody to give it a helicopter tour of the city (even the guy being hired to do this wonders why the hell he's doing it).
- Crossing the Burnt Bridge: Subverted when Peter tells Lois about how he quit his job after becoming a millionaire. The way he talks about it, especially the part where he told his boss what she could do with his job, suggests he did or said something nasty but the flashback shows he was polite and eloquent... and took a dump on her desk. Played straight later with how he treats his friends. They forgive him in the end.
- Deconstruction: Played for Laughs. Peter jumps into a pool of gold coins so he can swim in them like Scrooge McDuck... only to end up brutally smashing himself instead.
- Entitled Bastard: Peter has the nerve to get offended when Quagmire finally calls him out for treating both him and Joe like crap which culminated in the latter getting his eye shot. He figured they ought to be grateful that he’s sharing his winnings with them period and quickly doesn’t care when they sever all ties with him.
- Epic Fail:
- Peter tries to swim in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck... and ends up brutally smashing himself.
- The Griffins end up losing all of their lottery money... twice.Peter: Holy shit! We won twice, and we're right back here again!
- Eye Scream: The final straw for Joe and Quagmire is when, after forcing them to perform a vaudeville act while he shoots at them with a BB gun, Peter deliberately shoots Joe in the left eye. When Peter later tries to apologize to them, it's revealed that Joe had to get a glass eye.
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: The Griffins blow through all their lottery winnings and Peter decides the only way out of their new predicament is to win the lottery again. The next scene reveals that they did win again but squandered the new winnings. Keep in mind that they won $150 million and spent it all in just a month. There's a joke near the end that they did this twice after winning the lottery a second time, but it's a one-off gag, and it's unclear if it's really part of the story.
- Fridge Logic: As part of Peter's wasteful spending, he orders some caviar to be given a helicopter tour of the city, commenting that he hopes it enjoys it as much as the lobster he ordered the same thing for. Midway through the lobster's tour, the pilot goes through this In-Universe:"Why the fuck am I doing this? I could have just said I did it!"
- Made O' Gold: One of the ridiculous things Peter buys is a solid-gold tuxedo. He had to fight three rappers for it down at the "Nonsense Store".
- Money Dumb:
- Even for somebody like Peter, blowing through $150,000,000 in a month is insane. Despite Lois warning him not to go crazy with the money, and the rest of the family spending the money on things that are quite reasonable in comparison, Peter's Conspicuous Consumption reaches ridiculous levels.
- Earlier, Peter asked Lois for $28,000 to invest in a sushi restaurant... so he could yell-greet the entering customers. Lois naturally doesn't budge.
- Stewie pays to have a giant cradle mobile suspended in the sky outside the house, so he can relax on the lawn.
- My Instincts Are Showing: Brian is thrown a curveball after he chastises Peter for gambling on the lottery:Brian: Peter, this is idiotic! Your odds of winning are like a hundred million to one! Don't you know the lottery is just a tax on stupid people?!
Peter: Would you be saying that if the prize was a hundred and fifty bags of the neighbors' garbage?
Brian: But it's not!... I mean... I mean, Is it? It's... That's an unrealistic, unfair question! - Pooled Funds: Deconstructed. One of Peter's decisions is to buy a giant room full of gold coins and dive into it a la Scrooge McDuck. However...(cue the room, Peter dives into the coins... only to bloodily hit them hard)
Peter: Aaahhh!! It's not a liquid! It's a great many pieces of solid matter, that form a hard floor-like surface! Ahhh!! - Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Quagmire and Joe decide enough is enough and ditch Peter after he shoots them repeatedly with a BB gun, going so far as to shoot Joe's eye out. Peter shooting Quagmire in the throat during the latter's rant was just the icing on the cake.
- Shout-Out:
- Peter tries to swim in a giant money bin filled with gold coins like Scrooge McDuck did. He just ends up hurting himself. Apparently, Peter wasn't paying attention when watching Disney cartoons, as Scrooge repeatedly tells people that only he can dive into money safely.
- The scene with the Russian waiter is a reference to the then-popular "Trolololololol" meme.
- Status Quo Is God: Despite ending up broke and homeless, the Griffins manage to get their normal lives back thanks to Quagmire and the investment he convinced Peter to make earlier in the episode, giving them enough money to break even.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Peter trying to imitate Scrooge McDuck swimming in his Money Bin ends exactly the way you'd expect when you jump into a giant pile of solid gold coins.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Still reeling from the loss of their fortunes, the Griffins all stare out of a different window from their house.
