Airdate: November 10, 2013
Meg becomes the target of a new, mentally unstable student who wants to fight her after she accidentally spills her lunch on him, while Brian is being sexually harassed by Peter, who won't stop flashing his naked body in front of him.
"A Fistful Of Meg" contains examples of:
- Adults Are Useless:
- Played straight with the principal, who actually encourages the fight between Meg and her bully; averted with Quagmire, who actually helps her out.
- Also, as shown in Quagmire's past story in high school.
- Artistic License – Education: In real life, someone as dangerously unstable as Mike would never be allowed to attend a public school without, as a bare minimum, an adult to monitor him. But that's Quahog for you.
- Batman Gambit:
- Lois says what Peter is doing to Brian is unfair and offers to disrobe in front of the dog to make things even. Brian agrees and then sees a naked Peter was hiding under her robe the entire time. They both laugh at him for falling for this.
- Brian lures Peter out into the open by putting a Snoopy doll on the couch and playing a recording of himself talking.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted with Meg during her fight with Mike. Also parodied, as Meg gets punched so hard that she becomes beautiful; one of the students asks Mike to leave her like that.
- Body Horror: Brian's hairless body, and Mental Mike's death and his body.
- The Bully: Mental Mike and Quagmire's former female bully.
- Bully Brutality: For starters, Mental Mike knifed somebody to death, then beat up the knife.
- Butt-Monkey: Both Meg and Brian, who actually win in the end (though Meg still dies, only it's because she masturbated with a hot dog and died of an infection from it).
- Can't Get in Trouble for Nuthin': Meg's desperate attempts to get expelled and avoid the fight fail miserably.
- Comically Missing the Point: Quagmire reminisces how his (female) bully assaulted him both physically and sexually. He ends the flashback saying, "To this day, I can't have sex with a woman against her will without thinking of rape."
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Apparently the menstrual cycle Stewie imagines really exists.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Mike lives up to his nickname by intending to beat Meg to death for accidentally spilling some of her lunch on him. Note that the accident caused only a small bit of sauce to land on his jacket; Meg got most of the food on herself.
- The Dreaded: Mike Polaski, a.k.a "Mental Mike"
- Dude, Not Funny!: This is Brian's reaction to Peter's constant nudity.
- Embarrassing First Name: Meg's first name is revealed to be Megatron.
- Eye Scream: Chris does this to himself, literally 'scratching his eyes out' in response to seeing Brian without his fur.
- Fan Disservice: Peter always showing up naked in front of Brian.
- Also, Brian without his fur.
- Forceful Kiss: Meg gives one to Mike during their fight.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Brian beats Peter by giving him a taste of his own medicine.
- Horrifying the Horror: Meg does this to Mike when using the gross parts of her body during the fight.
- Imagine Spot: When Brian tells Stewie about the menstrual cycle, the latter imagines it as a cross between a bicycle and a bizarre, Dr. Seuss-esque contraption.
- ISO-Standard Urban Groceries: In one scene Lois carries a grocery bag with a baguette stiking out.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Peter suffers this when Brian shaves off his fur, and gives Peter a taste of his own medicine.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Peter taunts Brian by mailing his penis, collapses after losing too much blood, which he didn't pay attention to.
- Meaningful Name: Mental Mike, who is mental.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Mike subjects Meg to one, but then she performs a more unconventional one on him.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Quagmire sympathizes with Meg because he knows what it's like to be bullied (and by someone of the opposite sex, no less).
- The Pig-Pen: Peter, as shown in the cutaway scene when he doesn't shower for six months.
- Please Put Some Clothes On: Brian to Peter throughout the episode, and Stewie to Brian in the final scene after Brian shaves himself.
- Posthumous Narration: Parodied when Meg talks about dying of an infection caused by masturbating with a hot dog.
- Put on a Bus: A year later, Meg's friends still have yet to reemerge from the shadows. Of course, that's assuming she forgives them for abandoning her.
- Running Gag: Peter showing up naked in front of Brian. Also, the "Menstrual Cycle" bike.
- Shout-Out: Peter running down the stairway dressed as a woman is a parody of Gone with the Wind.
- The main plot is reminiscent of Three O'Clock High.
- Meg saying "Oh, fudge," spoofs the scene from A Christmas Story. Jean Shepherd even
provides the narration. - Meg and Quagmire training is done in the animation style of Punch-Out!!. Quagmire even lampshades it by asking Meg if she ever played the NES.
- Slow "NO!": Meg at the cafeteria when bumping into Mike.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Stewie and Quagmire both say the Menstrual Cycle is a good way to get around town.
- Take That!: "Hi, I'm Judge Judy. I get paid $45 million a year to yell at people who have nothing. Now here's an ad about a fat-people disease you have."
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Meg is threatened, her attempts to stop Mike are met with failure, and her friends abandon her. She's at her absolute lowest when Quagmire offers to help her.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Neil doesn't mind getting folded into a balloon animal and popped with a knife by Mike.Neil: Awesome.
- Truth in Television: The uncaring administration when Meg complains that Mike has threatened her personal safety is, sadly, a real-life occurrence in too many junior high and senior high schools in America.note There is also the fact that Meg's friends deserted her because they could "be targeted for association" and the fact that, when Quagmire was being bullied, his classmates did nothing, both of which also occurs in real cases of bullying.
- Villainous Breakdown: Mike when faced with the various gross elements of Meg's body.
- Weak, but Skilled: Meg isn't as physically strong as Mike, so Quagmire focuses his training on her making use of her biggest asset: her (as he puts it) gross body.
- With Friends Like These...: Meg's friends (Ruth, Patty and Esther) refuse to help Meg in her hour of need and leave her to deal with Mike by herself.
- Would Hit a Girl: Mike had no problem fighting Meg Griffin, potentially to the death.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Quagmire reveals he was hit several times by his bully – a girl – but he doesn't hit back.
- Subverted, as he claims he wished he had stood up to her (although there were other ways he could have done so).
