Original air date: May 7, 2006
While trying to build a home theater in his backyard, Peter unearths the skull of an Indian chief, which causes a poltergeist to haunt the Griffin house.
Tropes used in the episode:
- Anachronism Stew: In order to properly parody Poltergeist, Peter and Lois's TV broadcast cuts out after they've gone to sleep. While they haven't gone away completely, broadcasts going off the air have been incredibly rare since the mid-90s.
- Artistic License – Linguistics: Stewie briefly mentions having met Jesus, discovering that he's a Chinese guy whose last name is "Hong". This is obviously just a brief gag, but a few things of note:
- If Jesus were actually Chinese, he probably wouldn't call himself "Jesus"; that's an anglicization of the Latinized form of "Yeshua" (ישוע), the Hebrew form of "Joshua".
- Stewie implies that "Hong" is Jesus' "real" surname, and that Jesus has "no idea where people are getting Christ," playing into the common misconception that "Christ" is Jesus' last name — it's a title coming from the Hebrew "מָשִׁיחַ", designating him as Messiah and Savior.
- Butt-Monkey: Meg learns her butt is a portal to the other side, she's abandoned in the house when things really get out of hand, and is put out on the porch by Peter in the last scene.
- Crossover Punchline: Peter goes into the bathroom and rips off the skin on his face, and when it all comes off, he has turned into Hank Hill:
- Peter/Hank: Hehehehehehe. Propane.
- Divine Race Lift: Mentioned in a brief gag, where Stewie mentions that while on the other side, he met Jesus... who's a Chinese man whose last name is "Hong".Stewie: Says he has no idea where people are getting "Christ".
- Gainax Ending: The ending is a parody of the ending credits of The Flintstones, that has nothing to do with the episode.
- Goo Goo Get Up: When the Griffins come to Quagmire's house, he answers the door dressed like a baby.
- Newhart Phonecall: The scene when Bruce performs a seance.Bruce: Hey, how y'all ghosts doing? Y'all got a little friend of ours named Stewart up there. We was just wondering if you could send him back. (...) Uh-huh. (...) Well, yes, but I- (...) Well, I don't see how that's anybody's business but my own. (...) Well, how about you and my father go and hang out at the gun range some afternoon and you can spend the whole day just agreeing with each other.
- Overly Long Gag: Bruce's speech:Chris: Will I ever see my baby brother again?
Bruce: Only if he can find his way into the light, Chris. For some people, it's easier than others. Some people just get lost on the way to the light. They're walking along, they stop and say, "Oh, is that a new restaurant? That place must've just opened up 'cause I remember there was another place there a few weeks ago. I went in there once and there was a guy with a harelip eating soup, and I was like "Eeew..." It wasn't the restaurant's fault, I know. But I still never went back there. I mean, I guess there's only, like, a one in 50 chance of me getting the same spoon that he had, but I still don't like them odds." - Pun: Carrot Top's seesaw, a saw with glasses.
- Shout-Out: The episode's plot is a send-up of Poltergeist.
- Tom Tucker does his best Fred Schneider voice at the end of a broadcast day.
Tom: Now, try to, get some, sleep out, there! Not bad. Gettin' better.- In one scene, Peter goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night and starts ripping the flesh off his face. Underneath it all is Hank Hill's face.
Peter: Hehehehehe, propane.- Stewie plays around with the weird effect the ghost world has on his voice by singing part of "In The Air Tonight."
- There's a recreation of a scene from Jackass where Stewie beats up Peter while he's sitting on the toilet.
Peter: Come on, Stewie. You're acting crazy out there, man.- When a mutated tree in the Griffin backyard tries to take Chris, Herbert tells the tree, "You shall not pass!" He then proceeds to fight the tree, falling through the earth as he does so.
- During the newscast:
Tom: A bit of breaking news. A local family is forced out of their home by ghosts. Who are they gonna call?
Diane: Ghostbusters, Tom?
Tom: No, Diane, their insurance company. That's just stupid what you said.- When testing the portal through Meg's butt, Peter reenacts a scene from Fahrenheit 9/11 by hitting golf balls through the worm hole, saying "We're gonna get those terrorists! Now watch this drive!"
- In an alternate scene, Stewie refuses to get out of Meg's butt, saying that it's almost as likely as anyone remembering the
1980 cast of Saturday Night Live, followed by a cutaway of the opening sequence for that season, which consists of the female castmembers (Denny Dillon, Gail Matthiusnote , Anne Risley, and super-unknown black female cast member Yvonne Hudson), along with male feature player, Patrick Weathersnote . - Joe's home theater logo spoofs the TriStar Pictures opening with him replacing the Pegasus mascot and taking flight.
- One scene has Ronald McDonald sit at the end of Chris' bed, with Chris wishing he would go away.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Both Peter and Carrot Top came up with calling the skull "Chief Diamond Phillips."
- Take That!: The TV asks Stewie about Joey:Stewie: What? No, they did a spin-off. Um, he's still playing Joey, but, uh, it's not doing so well.
- "I haven't seen something suck this much since... I HEART HUCKABEEEEEEEES!"
- When Peter is relieved that Lois and Stewie are alright and grossed out because they're covered in slime.
Peter: You guys are alright—! Ew! You're covered in slime!Stewie: Ugh, this must be how Tom Arnold felt on his wedding night. - The Unfavorite: Peter and Lois agreed that if a situation meant they could only save two of the kids, Meg would be the one left behind. Lois feels guilty about it. Peter not so much.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: On the TV version of this episode, the scene of Herbert fighting the haunted tree and the two of them falling through the earth did not have a resolution to that scene. The DVD version actually has a conclusion to that scene: Herbert and the tree climb out of the hole and settle their differences by going back to Herbert's place for tea and cookies. Herbert then asks the tree if he's a "giving tree" or a "receiving tree". The reason why it was cut was because the FOX censors objected to the anal sex implications (the
DVD commentary mentions this).
