Airdate: January 6, 2013
Peter and Lois are in a meeting with the principal of Chris’ school to discuss his recent bad behavior. At home, Peter and Lois have a talk with each other about Chris’ future and Lois admits that she feels embarrassed about him. Unfortunately, Chris overheard them and his self-esteem is destroyed. Feeling bad about what they said, Peter and Lois decide to send him to a camp and he picks a space camp in Cape Canaveral. Chris fails to fit in and calls his family to pick him up. When they arrive, Chris gives them a tour of the space shuttle before they leave, but Stewie pushes the launch button and the Griffins are lauched into space.
The words gets out of the Griffin’s predicament and mission control tries to get them to safety, but when the reception is lost, Peter attempts to fix it, but only succeeds in losing communication entirely. As the family tries to land the shuttle themselves, the shuttle spins out of control. Chris uses what he learned at space camp to straighten out the shuttle and he successfully gets the family back to Earth. Chris is declared a hero and his family thanks him for saving them.
"Space Cadet" contains examples of (YMMV goes here)
- Break the Haughty: Chris can be a pain sometimes, but he was quite devastated when he overhears his parents talking bad about him.
- Brick Joke: Consuela is interviewed by a reporter over how she feels about the Griffins possibly being dead and she takes the house. When the Griffins finally return to Earth and come home, they find the house in Consuela's neighborhood (which is run-down, has chickens in the yard, two Latino thugs on the sidewalk, and a bonfire burning from an oil drum).
- Also, Peter wacthes Breaking Bad, which is shown to hypnotize people to say good things about it and The Wire. Later, Peter is seen talking about them and Stewie comments "Ugh, he never shuts up about those shows".
- Butt-Monkey: Chris surprisingly more than Meg in this episode, though the writers do acknowledge that she does get treated like crap (and Meg does tell off Peter with a well-placed "Fuck you").
- Captain Obvious: In the spaceship when the Griffins are unwillingly launched into space:Brian: I think we're launching!
- Chekhov's Classroom: The information Chris learned at his brief time at Space Camp proved instrumental in saving the day when he and the rest of his family get launched into space.
- Flipping the Bird: Stewie does this to Lois when the family is being launched into outer space.
- Furry Reminder: Brian sticks his head out of a moving vehicle like any dog would...only said vehicle is a space shuttle upon liftoff.Brian: Yes! This is the best version of this!
- Genius Ditz: Chris is doing poorly at school at the start of the episode and initially finds space camp too hard but he does manage to apply what he learnt to save his family at the end.
- Hypocritical Humor: Lois points out how she was ashamed of calling Chris stupid, yet they verbally abuse Meg all the time and don't seem to mind (unless the writers decide to shed some reality on it and show that the verbal abuse is not okay).
- Idiot Ball: Stewie of all people holds this near the end, with him pressing the red button that launches the shuttle they're on after Chris explained what it did, and he even starts pressing other buttons without having a clue what he's doing and outright killing Meg. What makes this example of the idiot ball even more ridiculous is Stewie is the mad genius of the group and has been shown flying numerous aircraft and using various complicated high tech devices, and thus the one person in the family who should know perfectly well that you do not to press buttons on a vehicle you don't know the purpose of.
- Italian-American Caricature: A cutaway gag shows an Italian-American climbing in a space shuttle and going into orbit so just he can say he's "had it up to here" with a friend he's upset with.
- Jerkass: Peter. Unlike Lois, he doesn't seem to feel bad about calling Chris stupid (or lying about it by shifting his abuse onto Meg). Later, he bullies Stewie (after thinking that negative reinforcement as a parenting technique actually works), throws an egg at Chris for "being a nerd" when he's trying to figure out the equation to get the space shuttle back to Earth and announces that he will be leaving Lois for a hotter woman when he comes out of the shuttle taller and thinner due to gravity decompression at the end (before cowardly changing his mind after he turns back to normal).
- Konami Code: Peter says the code while trying to fix the shuttle.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Lois when she finds out Chris heard her and Peter secretly badmouth him.
- Precision F-Strike: After Chris overhears being badmouthed, Peter tries to cover with a bad lie.Peter: We were talkin' about Meg. We call her "Chris" so she doesn't know.
Meg: [off-screen] Fuck you!
Peter: Shut up, Chris! - Special Edition Title: The usual title sequence is replaced with a parody of the opening to Monty Python's Flying Circus.
- Take That!
- Chris' principal shows a drawing Chris sent in as his advanced art project, which is a picture of Bob Belcher. Peter and Lois are ashamed and embarrassed, and the principal says, "Someone should be."
- Peter watches Breaking Bad, which is shown to hypnotize people to constantly say that Breaking Bad (and The Wire) are the best shows on TV.
- When Peter mentions the family passed a Down Syndrome camp, Lois corrects him that it was the University of Florida. Later, Peter says this as the family are being launched into space:
"If this is what is takes to get out of Florida, then fine."- When Chris' camp counselor sees him with a Russell Brand haircut and voice, he is amused by his Cockney British accent and gives him money to be on TV.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: As a prank, Chris and Stewie open the shuttle's payload doors while Meg is in the cargo hold, blowing her into the void of space. Naturally, she appears later with no explanation.
- What Does This Button Do?: When Chris shows the family the launch button in the shuttle, Stewie is intrigued and presses it, sending the family into space.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The plot is a lot like the film SpaceCamp.
