Production code: 2ACX-06
In this Bizarro Episode, the Griffins are survivors of the apocalypse caused by the Y2K computer virus and head off to Natick to rebuild society near a Twinkie factory. Oh, and it was also the episode that gave us Ernie the Giant Chicken.
Tropes:
- After the End: The setting of the episode (after Y2K happens).
- All Just a Dream: The whole episode is revealed to be a dream of Pamela Ewing's, parodying Dallas.Pamela Ewing: Oh, Bobby, I just had the weirdest dream. I dreamt I saw the strangest episode of Family Guy, and there was a giant chicken and Stewie was an octopus.
Bobby Ewing: Hey, hey, hey. Come on, now. It's all right. Everything's going to be OK. ...What's Family Guy? - Bait-and-Switch: Twice. After being told all about Y2K, Peter asks the man dressed as a giant chicken if he's selling chicken or sex jelly (K-Y). After the man corrects him again about the upcoming dangers of Y2K, Peter lets out a Big "NO!"... because he saw the Trix Rabbit got a box of the cereal and chastises the rabbit before asking the chicken man again what was he was explaining to him about Y2K.
- Big Eater: Even after the Y2K apocalypse happens, Peter manages to eat an entire year's worth of food. Granted, it was dehydrated food, and upon eating it, he swelled up to the point that he had to badly poop.
- Black Comedy Cannibalism: After the end of the world has happened and Quahog is in ruins, Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons have decided to cannibalize their Asian co-worker Tricia Takanawa.Tom Tucker: So what do think, Diane? Can I cook or what?
Diane Simmons: Mmm, delicious, Tom! I guess we should be eating her with chopsticks. (both end up laughing) - Body Horror:
- After accidentally falling into a puddle of nuclear waste, Stewie's arms morph into octopus tentacles, with the mutation continuing until the whole lower-half of his body has become that of an octopus.
- After Y2K happens, Cleveland and Quagmire ended up with both their bodies fused together. They're more concerned about what their combined name is.
- Joe's wheelchair melted into the ground with his lower half stuck inside the gravel (it doesn't stop him from fighting and beating a giant rat). Even after he's dug out, he's stuck in a large concrete block.
- Bring It: After the family leaves for Natick, Joe (fused to his driveway) is approached by a giant rat. His response? "BRING IT ON!"
- Digital Destruction: This episode suffered greatly from this on Region 1 DVDs (though not Region 2 and 4) and Hulu, due to the master file being what is presumably a bad VHS transfer that nobody fixed, resulting in a much duller palette and cruder-looking outlines that
◊ almost make it look cel-animated◊ (despite every episode being inked and painted digitally). - Does This Make Me Look Fat?: In one scene, Stewie wears only his diaper with a "Happy New Year" sash to dress as the Baby New Year. His reaction:Stewie: Yes, yes, I rather like the sash, but do the Huggies make my ass look big?
- Dramatic Irony: After being kicked out of New Quahog, Peter apologizes, saying that people apparently didn't need guns, all of them unaware of what's transpiring in the gun-less town behind them.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Peter has his very first fight with Ernie the Giant Chicken in the episode, and it's noticeably different compared to later "chicken fights" in the series. It's much shorter, clocking in at only a little over a minute, Peter suffers less battle and Clothing Damage than he usually does, the fight causes less property damage with only a tanker and cargo ship getting destroyed in the middle while later fights causes property damage everywhere the two go, and it's the only fight to occur in one of Peter's Cutaway Gag flashbacks.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Lois catches Octo-Stewie from falling, she notes that he is "getting heavy". Not long after this, Stewie gives birth to many eggs in his octopus form.
- Gainax Ending: The whole nuclear disaster episode's ending is resolved with the reveal of it all being All Just a Dream set to Dallas and Pamela Ewing waking up. But that just makes it more confusing.
- Hazmat Suit: Peter has the family wear ones while hiding in the basement.
- Here We Go Again!: After being kicked out of New Quahog, the Griffins decide to look for another location center around a indestructible snack cake and start singing "left foot right foot" on their journey.
- Indestructible Edible: Why the family seeks out the Twinkie factory, Peter claiming that they, along with cockroaches, are guaranteed to survive a nuclear holocaust.
- I'm a Humanitarian: While savaging for food at the abandoned Local Stop-And-Shop, Peter and Brian are drawn to the mysterious smell of barbecue and are shocked to discover the source of the smell: Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons have cannibalized Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa.Brian: (horrified) My God! They're eating Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa!
Peter: That's crazy! They're just gonna be hungry again in an hour. - Insane Troll Logic: Lois tells Peter that he's had 1000 years to get ready for the Y2K party, despite Peter only being 42 years old.
- Irony: Lampshaded and discussed by two random guys when Octo-Stewies overrun the town after they get rid of the guns.Random guy: Hey Bob, you remember the other day you were asking me what the definition of irony was and I said-
Octo-Stewie latches onto his face
Random guy: AHHHH! - It's All About Me: Meg moans that Kevin got vaporized when she finally got a date with him, claiming it's "not fair".
- Killed Offscreen: Meg's date Kevin Swanson got vaporized by the nuclear blast of the Y2K apocalypse. Chris says he's just saying that so he won't date her.
- It's implied that Bonnie also perished.
- Lifesaving Misfortune:
- Peter locks the whole Griffin family up in their basement in a panic concerning the so-called Y2K phenomenon, missing out on Quagmire's New Year's Eve party in the process. Thankfully but unknowingly, he ends up saving his family from said disaster and moves to Natick, Massachusetts. Had the Griffins not listen to Peter and went to the party instead, they too would possibly be mutated or even dead.
- It happens again when the Griffins are thrown out of New Quahog due to Peter's seemingly stupid decisions, just as everyone's destroying the guns he made. Stewie's eggs hatch and his offspring proceed to kill everyone in town, with the Griffins once more avoiding certain death.
- Mister Sea Horse: Stewie, after morphing into an octopus hybrid, lays an egg and then lays a huge pile of more eggs.
- Noodle Incident: After being thrown out of New Quahog, Peter admits he hasn't been thrown out of any place since that time he worked at a bulimia clinic.Peter: (to a group of bulimics) Man! Did anyone else throw up after eating that fish last night?
- Obituary Montage: The episode satirizes such montages. A New Year's Eve 2000 news broadcast plays a montage of noted people who passed away in the last millennium, including Joan of Arc, Leonardo da Vinci, and, um... Norman Fell.
- "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: The episode ends with the Griffins walking off into the distance as the camera pans up to the night sky, before fading to the Dallas ending.
- Properly Paranoid: After hearing about the Y2K rumor, Peter immediately builds a fallout shelter in the basement and forcibly barricades the family in it. Despite Lois's disbelief, The End of the World as We Know It does happen. Following that, Peter leads the family to Natick where he believes that a Twinkie factory survived the apocalypse, and turned out to be right again. These instances lead Peter to believe that New Quahog needs guns and so cannibalizes the town's plumbing to fashion them, which unfortunately gets him and the others thrown out of the town. Despite the town's disbelief however, it turns out they do need the guns when Stewie's Weaponized Offspring go on a rampage. Ironically, however, the Griffins are unaware of this and Peter says that he's not always right.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: Joe ends up fused to the driveway in his wheelchair. Before the Griffins leave, Meg thoughtfully sets some rat traps around him, only for a giant mutant rat to lumber into view and contemptuously swat one of the traps away. Joe's response: "BRING IT ONNN!" (And he later reappears unscathed!)
- Shout-Out:
- When the family first sees Peter in a hazmat suit, Chris screams that the government is here and tells E.T. to run. We then see him do just that.
- "Game over, man. Game over!"
- The Griffins encounter a band of survivors that play a parody of Family Feud.
- There is a cutaway of Peter feeding Tom Selleck on Magnum, P.I..
- Awestruck by the Twinkie factory, Peter parodies the movie Contact, saying "No words...should have sent...a poet..."
- When the family is on their way to find the Twinkie Factory, they come across a house in a green area. This is a reference to the short lived Fox series Woops!.
- Stewie, as a mutant, climbs onto the ceiling declaring he is Fred Astaire, the actor/dancer. Specifically, he is referring to "You're All the World to Me", one of Astaire's most memorable dances, from the film Royal Wedding. In it, a rotating room was used to enable Astaire to dance on the ceiling.
- When Peter's orders for guns have been met, he holds a hand gun while saying "A chicken in every pot, and a cap in every ass," referring to Herbert Hoover's 1928 campaign slogan "A chicken in every pot, and a car in every garage."
- Peter's line, "When the end of the world happens you'll have to meet those two dead bailiff ladies from Night Court, and you won't know which is which, and it will be really awkward, so bite me!" is a reference to actresses Selma Diamond and Florence Halop, who died in 1985 and 1986, respectively.
- In the scene in which the family is walking to Natick, Lois tries to get Chris to stop singing "Left foot, right foot" by saying "Stopiiiiiit!" This is similar to Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Jean tries to stop her mother from yelling at her while she's driving.
- Staircase Tumble: Peter pushes Lois down the stairs leading into the basement when she refuses to listen to him.
- Tempting Fate: After throwing the last of the guns into a huge fire, the townspeople of New Quahog ask what would they ever need guns for? Cue the army of evil Stewie-hybrid offspring coming right at them.Random guy: What the heck would we ever need guns for?
Army of Octo-Stewies: (entering, together) VICTORY IS OURS! - Time Skip: Act 2 takes place a week after New Year's Eve, while Act 3 takes place a year after the Griffins found the Twinkie factory.
- Weaponized Offspring: The nuclear holocaust mutates Stewie into a half-human-half-octopus creature, who then lays a huge pile of eggs. Next scene, an army of human-octopi march through the town chanting "victory is ours", and attack the people by jumping at them and grabbing their faces with their tentacles.
- Would Hurt a Child: Averted. Peter immediately asks Lois if she is pregnant to which she replies "no" before pushing her down the stairs into the basement.
