Recap / Family Guy S7E2 "I Dream of Jesus"

Airdate: October 5, 2008

Peter gets addicted to The Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird," which irritates everyone around him — to the point that Brian and Stewie destroy the vinyl single Peter bought. When Peter goes to a record store to get a replacement, he meets Jesus Christ Himself, who wants to live like a mortal.

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"I Dream of Jesus" contains examples of.

• Ascended Extra: Jesus has only appeared in Cutaway Gags or set-ups for jokes, here he becomes the focus of the episode.
• Ate His Gun: While he doesn't kill himself, Stewie places a gun in his mouth because of Peter playing "Surfin' Bird" nonstop. Word of God says that at one point during the episode's production he did shoot the gun.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Initially Stewie want to hear the record play again, saying he likes repetition, but come time when Peter has been playing it over and over again, he gets sick of it.
• Breast Expansion: Jesus, on Peter's request makes Lois's breasts so big that they open all the buttons on her shirt.
• But Now I Must Go: Jesus, realizing he's not ready for the world.
• Cargo Ship: In-Universe. When Peter complains about his stolen record, he lets slip that he had sex with it, and left all of his possessions to the record in his will.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The diner at the beginning is so dedicated to capturing the look and feel of The '50s that when Cleveland steps in, a bunch of employees dressed as cops use a fire hose to spray him with enough force to send him out.
  Cleveland: Oh, that takes me back.
• Ear Worm: Surfin Bird by The Trashmen.
• Everybody Do the Endless Loop: Peter's dancing animation to "Surfin' Bird."
• God Test: When the Griffins have Jesus over for dinner, Brian asks him to prove that he is Jesus. So Jesus instantly turns everyone's dinner into ice cream. And, at the request of Peter after the above incident, enlarged Lois' breasts.
• Grapes of Luxury: Peter feeds them to Jesus during their musical number.
• Halfway Plot Switch: Probably the most infamous. Peter becomes obsessed with "Surfin' Bird", only to become a famous friend of Jesus. Although the first half gets a Brick Joke at the end when Jesus gave him a new "Surfin' Bird" record (see Oh Crap).
• Incessant Music Madness: Peter is obsessed with his "Surfin' Bird" 45" and refuses to stop playing it even when everyone else is sick of it.
• Jaw Drop: Brian in response to the above-mentioned Breast Expansion.
• Jerkass Ball: Because God recently quit smoking, Jesus says that he's been on edge lately (which is part of the reason that Jesus came back to visit), followed by a Cutaway Gag of God flipping out over minor things.
  God: WHY IS THERE A PEN CAP, AND NO PEN?!
• Jumping Out of a Cake: Jesus does this one Peter during their song.
• Limited Animation: Peter's pose-to-pose dancing to "Surfin' Bird." Only his lip movements have more effort to the animation than the rest of his body.
• Oh, Crap!: At the end...
  Peter: [Jesus] did give me something before he disappeared.
  Lois: What?
  Peter: Something very special. Lois.
  Meg: What is it, Dad?
  Peter: What, you haven't heard?
  Stewie: FUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!^note on the DVD version/CRAAAAAAAAAP!!!^note on the TV version
• Motor Mouth: Peter when he claims everyone in the family had a motive for stealing his "Surfin' Bird" record and comes up with a crazy story about it.
• Riding the Bomb: Jesus does it at one point during the musical number.
• Shout-Out
  • "Brian, I don't feel so good."
  • The scene where Stewie and Brian steal the record is based on Mission: Impossible and the scene where they destroy it resembles a scene from Office Space.
• Take That!: Lois claims that records don't just walk away, with the exception of her Allan Sherman record.
  Record: If you ain't gonna play me, don't complain when I split. There's a lot of Jews still get a laugh off of "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah". (walks out) Oh, such heat this morning. I don't need this jacket.
• Verbal Tic: Peter takes the "Surfin Bird" record home and proceeds to drive everyone crazy by playing the song non-stop, dancing to the song and making it a part of every conversation he has.
• Vinyl Shatters: Brian and Stewie manage to smash Peter's 45-RPM record of "Surfin' Bird" in a spoof of the printer destruction scene from Office Space.