James Woods hosts a special episode where viewers get to see how a typical Family Guy episode is made...and Peter's prima-donna behavior gets him removed from the show and replaced by David Spade.
This episode contains examples of:
- Adam Westing:
- It seems Adam West finally gave in and did a Batman joke.
- David Tennant appeared at the start for the Doctor Who parody
- Aesop Amnesia: Parodied. Peter needs to be fired every week in order to be more humble.
- When he's fired for diva behavior Peter begs the network to let him stay. The moment they agree he immediately starts swearing at them.
- Animated Actors: The focus of the episode is the Griffins being this.
- As You Know:Peter: "Thank you, Stewie, who I can understand."
- Batman Gambit: It turns out that Peter becomes a diva every Monday, so the writers pen a fake script where he gets killed off, and then they shoot the real script on Friday when he comes crawling back.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: The way Fox greenlights and renews series is smacked.Peter: They bought the pitch, but, um, after a series of network notes, Bumbler with a Tumblr eventually aired as Bambler with a Famblr, which made sense to nobody and is now in its third season.
- Continuity Cavalcade: Several props and costumes from previous episodes appear on display at the studio, including Stewie's ray-gun, the Petorian flag from "E. Peterbus Unum", Stewie's needlework from "North by North Quahog", the Gary the No-Trash Cougar suit from "Blind Ambition", Brian's banana costume from "The Courtship of Stewie's Father", a What Really Grinds My Gears poster from "Stewie B. Goode", Stewie's presidential portrait from "Lois Kills Stewie", the Lois puppet from "Foreign Affairs", and Meg's birth certificate from "A Fistful of Meg".
- Darker and Edgier: Brian starred in a remake of Old Yeller, but it ends with him delivering an action one-liner and shooting the kid.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Parodied. Chris says the show was originally about him as a teenage doctor.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: This episode presents the Griffins as Animated Actors who star in their own show.
- Groin Attack: The episode ends with a montage of Peter getting hit in the nuts with a bag of nickels.
- Hand Waved: Parodied, Stewie's time machine got a virus that meant Peter would die again any time he tried to save him.
- Hidden Depths: The Greased Up Deaf Guy regrets that his character isn't explored beyond his general gimmick.
- In Memoriam: Parodied; at the end of the montage of Peter getting hit in the nuts, a card appears reading "In loving memory of Peter's Griffin's left testicle".
- Killed Off for Real: Parodied in the script that kills off Peter (entitled "Peter Dies, We're Really Serious; No Joke, He's Dead and Never Coming Back"). The first line is Lois saying Peter has committed suicide. When Peter suggests the time machine undoing this or that this is just a dream, lines from Stewie and Chris immediately shoot that down.
- Pandering to the Base: In-universe. Brian's Old Yeller remake was designed to appeal to dogs. He notes they overestimated how many dogs actually buy movie tickets.
- Remember the New Guy?: Parodied; when Peter gets kicked off the show, he is replaced by David Spade as "Uncle Ricky".
- Rock Bottom: After getting fired, Peter breaks with the family, but he gets tossed out of a fancy apartment, struggles to find other jobs, and ends up working as a street performer.
- Rule 34: In-universe, after being fired from the show, Peter spends his spare time making erotic Minions tapestry.
- Self-Deprecation: The time when Brian was temporarily killed off gets bashed, with Lois mentioning that it happened so Brian can star in a remake of Old Yeller.
- The opening montage had Brian smiling for a tour group with cameras, then zooms out to show behind him a picture of The Simpsons.
- It's revealed that the show's famous Cutaway Gags are directed by the guy that sells the writers Vicodin and enjoyed by no one but the studio ostrich.
- Next week's script features one of the show's usual ridiculous Half Way Plot Switches
- Stewie (voiced by the show's creator) denounces the show as awful.
- Shout-Out:
- When he gets evicted from his fancy apartment, Peter requests that he get thrown out the way Uncle Phil throws out Jazz.
- In his new run-down apartment, Peter sees some writing saying that "Brooks was here".
- At the end, Peter gets rid of David Spade by getting Sofia Vergara deported and having Spade replace her on Modern Family.
- Take That!: Brian says Peter is hard to work with, though notes that he's not as disgusting as Jim Belushi.
- Temporary Substitute: Vinnie (the dog who temporarily replaced Brian from "Life of Brian" to "Christmas Guy") is referred to as such so that Brian could film his movie.
- Verbal Tic: David Spade keeps putting a "Hmmm..." at the end of his sentences.
- Wag the Director: In-universe, the reason why Peter gets fired. His ridiculous demands, treatment of the writers, and lack of professionalism cause everyone to turn against him. Apparently Peter never learns from his humbling for very long at all, to the point the production just pretends to fire him routinely to keep him co-operative in the interim (which turns out to be every week).
