Peter starts his own religion themed after Fonzie after Lois makes him realize he's been blindly following his father's faith for years. Meanwhile, Stewie is diagnosed with a weakened immune system (caused by Francis baptizing him in tainted holy water) and forced to live in a germ-free bubble.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Religion:
- In addition to Peter converting to Mormonism, Peter takes three new wives, a reference to the common misconception that modern-day Mormons still practice polygamy. In reality, polygamy has not been a part of the LDS church for over 100 years; only break-off groups which are not affiliated with the actual church practice polygamy, and any member of the actual Mormon church who is found practicing polygamy is excommunicated.
- Though Francis performs the symbolic actions of Baptism correctly, the Baptism itself is not valid under current canon law. In order for a non-ordained person to deliver the sacrament, the receiver must be in imminent danger of death and a minister must not be present, of which neither conditions are satisfied. However, this error could likely have been done on purpose to show the irony that a devout Catholic such as Francis does not fully understand Baptism himself.
- Bait-and-Switch: After Sherman Hemsley and Gavin MacLeod peel away members of the congregation for churches based on George Jefferson and Captain Stubing, respectively, Kirk Cameron arrives. Peter assumes he's formed the Church of Mike Seaver, but Kirk says he's just there to promote Christianity.
- Bowdlerization: Stewie's line, "Nothing says, 'Eat up' like a bleeding Jew nailed to a piece of wood." after Francis hangs a crucifix in the kitchen was cut on the FOX TV version, but not the DVD version or the version shown on cable.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Stewie, at one point, urges the viewer to look at some of the women of Desperate Housewives on ABC, Family Guy's competition in the same time slot at the time, and even waits for five seconds until the viewer switches back.
- Brick Joke: A man tells his wife to imagine “a happy healthy baby boy at play. Now put him in a magic bubble and release him into the universe.” When Stewie, in a bubble, rolls by, the man tells his wife to imagine Lindsay Lohan naked and doing a backwards crab walk. Later on, Lohan appears at Peter’s door doing just that.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Conversed. Peter briefly discusses what became of Chuck Cunningham while addressing the congregation.Peter: Let us pause to reflect on the sacred mystery of Richie's elder brother Chuck, who ascended the stairs with his basketball in Season 1 and never came down again.
- Domestic Abuse: Peter literally threw his three mormon wives away in garbage cans outside his house once he learned that Mormons don't consume alcohol.
- Drugs Are Bad: In one cutaway gag, Peter is seen having taken steroids, accidentally spilling his mashed potatoes and then hitting Meg for it.
- Fan Disservice: A cutaway gag shows Kathy Bates stripping down to join Stewie in the bath.Stewie: Yeahhh...I think I'm gonna get out.
- Foreshadowing: On the DVD commentary, one of the cast members, while discussing the Vaudeville Duo Johnny and Verne, said, “God rest their souls,” accidentally hinting of their deaths in “Saving Private Brian,” which aired just nine days before the DVDs were released.
- The Fundamentalist: Francis, who believes that Stewie (a baby) will burn in Hell if he's not baptized. He also forces Lois to sit at a different table just because she's not Catholic and beats Brian with a Bible after Brian sarcastically says, "Oh, that's very Christian: 'Believe what I say or I'll hurt you.'"
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: After learning that Mormons don't drink alcohol, and Peter is an avid drinker, Peter promptly throws his three wives away in garbage cans and pretends that he never converted to mormonism in the first place.
- Holy Water: Francis' attempt to get Stewie baptized is refused by the church's stuff because their supply of holy water was tainted by a priest who didn't wash his hands. Francis decides to perform the baptism himself, insisting there's no such thing as tainted holy water, which results in Stewie becoming sick.
- Karma Houdini: Brian gets away with pranking Stewie (unprovoked, mind you) throughout the episode. Though Stewie tells him he's planning on getting him back.
- Kick the Dog: After Stewie is forced to live in a plastic bubble because of his weakened immune system, Brian torments him in several ways for basically no reason. This includes Brian making Stewie watch a show he hates, kicking him down the street (which somehow causes him to end up in a giant pinball machine), and spray-painting his bubble black so he can't see where he is.
- Polyamory: Peter is happy with the idea of having three wives at the same time when he converted to mormonism.
- Shout-Out:
- Peter describes Jesus going through a journey similar to Quantum Leap.
- Stewie bathes with Kathy Bates in a parody of a scene in About Schmidt.
- When Francis baptizes Stewie “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,” Peter adds in “and Space Ghost.” Space Ghost was the protagonist of both an old Hanna-Barbera television show, and a late-night talk show parody from the mid-1990s.
- When the doctor tells Lois and Peter of Stewie’s condition, Lois asks if Stewie “will have to go through what John Travolta did in that movie.” Peter fearfully asks if he’ll have to take Stewie’s face off, like in Face/Off, in which the protagonist and antagonist traded faces. Lois then states that she was actually referring to The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.
- Vern sings “Fatty’s in a little jam, dead girl, dead girl” while Johnny plays “Camptown Races”. This refers to silent movie comedian Fatty Arbuckle and accusations that he raped and murdered budding starlet Virginia Rappe.
- After Peter converts to Mormonism, he says that one of his new wives is the “Kramer” of his collection, a reference to Seinfeld.
- Stewie became the pinball in the Sesame Street segment Pinball Number Count.
- After Stewie is released from his bubble, he says to Brian that he and his friends at Cobra Kai will take him down, referring to the name of the gang of bullies in The Karate Kid.
- The ending sequence of Family Guy mirrors that of the opening for Happy Days and uses the song “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and his Comets, the opener for Happy Days’ seasons one and two. According to the DVD commentary, they used the Bill Haley song because they were refused the rights to the Happy Days title theme song.
- Peter dances with Paula Abdul in footage of the video for Opposites Attract. He is superimposed over the animated role of MC Skat Kat, and sings an altered version of the original song’s lyrics, mainly replacing the line “Opposites attract” with “I’m dressed like a cat.” According to the DVD commentary, Paula Abdul had to come in and rerecord the song since the technical staff couldn’t separate her singing and replace MC Skat Kat’s lines with Peter’s.
- In the opening sequence, Peter summons Bill Lumbergh from the film Office Space to tell Lois she needs to “not complain about this” and then, “and if you could sit at the kids’ table, that’d be great.”
- Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Francis recalls Peter's behavior at a cousin's wedding. After the priest said the line, Peter looked around and was perturbed no one was saying anything.Peter: Really? Nobody's going to speak up? I'm the one who's going to have to say it? Ahhh. All right... GENITAL WARTS!
- Start My Own: Peter starts his own religion based on the Fonz from Happy Days. Near the end, Sherman Hemsley and Gavin MacLeod start their own religions based on the sitcoms they used to star in.
- Take That!:
- In a flashback, Peter buys an Aaron Neville megaphone.
- After everyone leaves Peter’s religion, Peter, Brian, and Francis talk about their disgust with Madonna’s career, attitude, clothing choice, father issues, and the men she has dated. The audio commentary admitted this segment was added because the episode was too short.
- Stewie tells the audience to go watch Desperate Housewives on ABC for five seconds to see how ugly the women are. He then makes a comment about actress Marcia Cross’s face looking like someone stretching silly-putty over their knee. The first half-hour of Desperate Housewives timeslot competes with Family Guy on FOX and, in most of Canada. Coincidentally, Marcia Cross is on screen for that entire five second flip.
- Brian torments Stewie by forcing him to watch The View. In this version, the women act very much like farm hens, clucking and such as they sit. Star Jones Reynolds even lays an egg.
- Peter watches Jaws 5: Fire Island, where everybody seems to be a stereotypical homosexual.
- The opening scene shows the Griffin family watching Aquaman on television portrayed as a lazy, unfair ruler who abuses his powers to command sea-life by giving them trivial errands.
- Tempting Fate: When succumbing to the tainted Holy Water, Stewie tells Lois not to take him to a black doctor. The next scene at the hospital shows that she and Peter did just that.
