Original air date: 7/18/2001 (produced in 2000)
Production code: 2ACX-20
Continuing where "The Thin White Line" left off, Brian leaves for Los Angeles to try and make it as a screenwriter...and ends up being a porn director who brilliantly adds subtext and character development into the sex scenes. Meanwhile, The Griffins head to Los Angeles too, only they're going so Stewie can appear on the remake (at the time) of Kids Say the Darndest Things that had Bill Cosby as the host, which Stewie sees as an opportunity to brainwash America and continue his quest for world domination.
Tropes:
- As Himself: Famous porn stars Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson guest star as themselves.
- Bound and Gagged: Peter has Jenna Jameson bound and gagged with rope on the flight home with him.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: As Lois remarks that everyone came home with something, Chris has glasses and a giant pencil, Meg has a CD player, Brian has his award, Stewie has a pinata and Peter has porn star Jenna Jameson bound tied up and gagged to be taken home with him.
- Brick Joke: In the last episode, as Brian was apologizing to the family for interrupting their vacation plans and promising to make it up to them, he offhandedly mentioned he has a cousin "who works at Club Med", along with a Cutaway Gag of him partying to Buster Poindexter's "Hot Hot Hot". In this episode, said cousin gets named as Jasper, and it's his place he's staying at while in Los Angeles.
- Black Comedy Burst: A subdued, yet absolutely straight example; Peter mentions how he hasn't been to California ever since he lived with his "other family", who happen to be the Manson family.Peter: Guys, I just got invited to a party at Sharon Tate's house! You guys can come, but you got to promise not to embarrass me.
- Camp Gay: Brian's cousin, Jasper, brings his boyfriend home, and is unabashedly camp.
- Camp Straight: A make-up artist tells Stewie that Rob Lowe is straight, much to Stewie's complete disbelief.
- Censored for Comedy: When Brian accepts the Woody for best director, all the (out-of-universe) audience can make out of the award is a vague, pixelated blob.
- Creator Cameo: Among those nominated for Best Original Score in an Adult Film at the Woodies are Ron Jones and Walter Murphy, two longtime composers of Family Guy, both depicted as unflatteringly seedy-looking, out-of-shape men.
- Characterization Marches On: Brian in this episode is shown to be a brilliant porn director and screenwriter, when later episodes reveal that he's awful at writing and most of his attempts at being creative are considered hack work (the only exception being the drama pilot he did that ended up being turned into a crass sitcom because of In-Universe Executive Meddling).
- Fakeout Opening: A "Previously on Family Guy" segment opens the show and features a mashup of various cliches from different genres, ranging from Peter's car exploding to Lois as a viral researcher to Meg cutting a bomb's wires to Chris finding a brutally murdered Quagmire. The actual relevance to the previous episode is simply Peter saying "Brian's gone to Los Angeles to find himself!"
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: A porno producer asks Lois if she'd be interested in one of these movies. An outraged Lois demands Peter say something, to which Peter notes he's been suggesting this for 17 years to no avail.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Stewie hopes to use a pair of hypnotic goggles to brainwash everyone watching Kids Say the Darnedest Things during his guest spot. When he puts them on, Bill Cosby thinks they're a pair of ski goggles and does a comedy bit with them—then inadvertently ends up hypnotizing Stewie into behaving himself.
- Hypocritical Humor: Talking to Lois at the award show, Brian reflects on becoming involved in this degrading business. Then he learns he won and happily accepts.
- iSophagus: Upon arriving to LA, Peter calls Brian on a cellphone during a drive, but after hitting a speed bump fumbles with and swallows it. A few times later in the episode, he has to answer incoming calls by punching himself in the gut. As the Griffins are at Musso and Frank's for dinner, Peter gets a call from a telemarketer:Woman: I'm trying to reach Peter Griffin.
Peter: You're in him.
Woman: Mr. Griffin, are you happy with your long-distance service?
Peter: (annoyed) Yes, and I'm sick and tired of you people always calling during dinner. I demand to speak to your supervisor.
Woman: Hold, please.
(Barry Manilow's "Looks Like We Made It" starts playing)
Lois: Peter, I love this song! Open your mouth!
(Peter does, allowing the restaurant patrons to listen in) - Late to the Realization: Brian is ecstatic when he gets the chance to fill in the director's chair for a film, but it's not until he's on set and sees the stars near-nude that he realizes what kind of film it is.Brian: (to his producer) So this is some kind of shampoo commercial, right?
Actress: Do I have to sleep with the dog in this one?
Stagehand: Hey, can someone fluff Paul? He's got like a windsock thing going on.
Brian: ...so this is some kind of shampoo commercial, right? - Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Upon being told that Stewie will get to be on Kids Say the Darnedest Things, Peter remarks "We're goin' to Hollywood! Where people are sexy and clever and always say somethin' funny before the commercial break." There's a long pause...and then Family Guy itself goes to commercial break.
- Mugging the Monster: A passenger on the airplane expresses frustration over "sitting next to a damn baby." Stewie yells at the guy and, upon being ignored, spends five hours acting as loud and obnoxious as possible.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: When Stewie auditions for Kids Say the Darnedest Things, he initially thinks that the producers genuinely want his opinions on their questions and gives intelligent, rational responses. Once he catches on, though, he begins acting like a silly child ("Daddy's old! I think he's seven!") to make them laugh.
- Old Shame: In-universe. Brian takes up directing pornos since he needs work and gets the chance to be creative. He doesn't mind it, but he's aghast at the family finding out and tries to keep them away from the set. On the other hand, despite acknowledging this as a degrading business, he happily accepts the award he wins.
- Parallel Porn Titles: We don't see their content to tell if there's more similarities, but just by title alone, all of Brian's pornos are based on that of popular films: Add Momma To The Train, The Purple Foot of Cairo, You've Got Male Genitalia, and Shaving Private Ryan.
- Police Brutality: Played for Laughs during a moment as the Griffins drive down the highway but get pulled over by the LAPD. A short cut later, Peter is getting mercilessly beat up by officers with their batons... as Lois films it. After chiding them to save some tape for the Hollywood sign, they quickly stop, with Peter thanking them and the officers politely wishing him and his family a nice vacation, before delivering one last kick to the gut while he's down.
- Previously on…: Parodied with a series of clips that had absolutely nothing to do with the previous episode (or indeed, any previous episode in the series), and serve as a spoof of Cliffhangers seen in various shows and films.
- Shout-Out:
- When Brian goes over the script of the porno he directs, his producer describes it with "It's like Bang the Drum Slowly. Except the drum's a chick."
- When Stewie gets unwittingly hypnotized by Bill Cosby, he suddenly rambles about liking pudding (referencing Cosby's role as spokesperson for Jell-O pudding) and saying "Ghost Dad was the best movie I'd seen since Leonard Part 6".
- Small Role, Big Impact: Jasper is functionally a bit character to give Brian a place to stay, but it's his contacts that help Brian get work in the (adult) film industry. Later on, as Brian attends the Woody movie awards without informing the Griffins, Jasper decided to spill the beans to them anyway.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The context isn't directly shown, but among the composers nominated for Best Original Score in an Adult Film is John Williams, whose score apparently requires a full, bombastic orchestra.
- Spanner in the Works: Bill Cosby thwarts Stewie's plan to hypnotize the viewers on Kids Say the Darndest Things by mistaking Stewie's mind-control headset for skiing goggles.
- Special Guest: Ray Liotta guest stars in this episode as Zack.
- Take That!: Brian tries to fake that he's doing something glamorous in Hollywood by telling the Griffins he's going to a movie premiere, then glances at a magazine to find out what's opening. He sees a promotional photo of Val Kilmer... and shuffles it aside looking for something better. He finds a cover spread of Kevin Costner... and decides to go with the Val Kilmer movie.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: On the red carpet of the Woody awards, Joan Rivers gets played as one of these. While interviewing Brian, she jokes about how she turned down starring in a porno as "most of [her] body is less than 18 years old" and mentions how she used to host The Tonight Show. Brian remembers said stint as being "thirty years ago"... and then notices her microphone isn't plugged into anything, meaning she's not even on TV.
