Love Thy Trophy

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“Love Thy Trophy”
Family Guy episode

Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 12
Guest stars	None
Written by	Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman
Directed by	Jack Dyer
Production no.	1ACX13
Original airdate	March 14, 2000
Episode chronology
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"If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'"	"Death Is a Bitch"
List of Family Guy episodes

"Love Thy Trophy" is an episode from the FOX animated television series Family Guy. It was produced for season 1 but aired in season 2. The episode title is probably a parody of the famous Christian saying in the Bible: Love Thy Neighbor.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Stewie is evil for pancakes

For Quahog's yearly harvest festival parade with floats, the theme by Peter, "that episode of Who's the Boss? in which Tony sees Angela naked," is chosen. The float built by Peter, Quagmire, Cleveland and Joe Swanson wins, but the men can't agree at whose house the golden clam trophy should reside. They eventually decide on having it be placed over the road, held up by the statues from the float. The next day, though the trophy is found missing, and everyone immediately suspects each other of stealing it. Meanwhile, Meg gets a job so she can buy herself a Prada purse. She lets restaurateur Flappy believe that Stewie is her crack-addicted baby and she is a single mother so that people will give her higher tips, leading child services to place Stewie in a foster home. Upon finding this out, Peter, Lois, Quagmire, Cleveland, Loretta, Joe, and Bonnie put their argument aside to bail Stewie out. When an espionage mission fails, they instead trade Meg's newly-acquired Prada purse for Stewie, but they still don't know what happened to the trophy. That night, it is revealed to the viewers that Brian buried it in the Griffins' yard.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Notes

Two people are killed in this episode: Joe kills Charlton Heston accidentally when the safety on his firearm is off. Brian kills Rod Serling.

According to the Family Guy Volume 2 DVD in a featurette about the show's politically incorrect humor, Seth MacFarlane cites this episode as the one that solidifed Glenn Quagmire's character as a heartless sex hound (cf. the scene after he has sex with the social worker, she asks, "Glenn, honey, I have a question for you: what do you do for a living?" to which Quagmire replies, "Hey, I got a question for you too: Why are you still here?")

Lois points out that Peter's idea is esoteric; he believes it means delicious. Esoteric actually means something which is recognized by a select few, i.e., a rather specific cultural reference.

As of now, this is the only time Meg ever laughs like Peter.

[edit] Cultural references

Actor Charlton Heston chooses the winning parade theme by shooting pigeons who have suggestions for parade themes tied to their legs. This is a reference to the fact that Heston is a strong supporter of gun ownership and his presidency of the National Rifle Association. His line “Let my pigeons go!” is a parody of his line “Let my people go,” from the film The Ten Commandments.

Peter’s parade theme is “the episode of Who's the Boss? where Tony sees Angela naked in the shower.” Who’s the Boss? was an ABC sitcom, lasting from 1984 until 1992, starring Tony Danza and Judith Light. The episode in question was the second episode of the sitcom titled "Briefless Encounter".

Stewie's letter blocks spell "REDRUM," or "MURDER" backwards, a reference to the 1980 horror film The Shining.

After watching Peter dance, Stewie exclaims “Michael Flatley must be turning over in his grave” before noting that Flatley is still alive and marking him down in a murder list. Flatley is the creator and star of the Irish stepdancing production Lord of the Dance.

Brian reads a magazine called BONE that features a lay-out similar to that of TIME.

In a cutaway, Quagmire tries to guess a woman’s astrological sign. After two incorrect guesses, he says “Well, I know you’re not a Virgo” causing the woman to punch him. Virgo is generally associated with purity and virginity. On the floor, Quagmire says “From down here, you look like a Pisces,” a reference to the vagina’s supposed resemblance to a Vesica Piscis.

Rod Serling, former host of The Twilight Zone, appears in the episode to give a typical exposition seen on the show. The neighborhood strife is similar to the episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street".

Under Meg’s encouragement, Stewie says he is “cuckoo for crack," a reference to the slogan “Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.”

When Stewie says "My God, I've been adopted by a Benetton ad!", this refers to Benetton clothing adverts that had people of many cultures in them.

Stewie asks his foster parents for pancakes in Spanish, French and impromptu Swahili.

After Stewie encourages infighting between his foster siblings, the Indian boy is derogatively called “Gandhi” referring to Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, and the Chinese girl “Mulan,” referring to the Chinese folk character Hua Mulan.

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The end credits, in which Stewie is haunted by a vision of himself crawling on the ceiling while coming down from his pancake addiction, is a parody of a scene in the 1996 film Trainspotting.

[edit] Goofs

When all the women are in the van, Lois mistakenly refers to Bonnie Swanson as "Debbie". Also, at the end of the episode, after Brian says that "some mysteries are better left unsolved", Bonnie says "Peter's got a point", referring to Brian as "Peter."
During the scene where Peter and Lois confront their neighbors about how Stewie was taken away, if you look while Lois is talking, the Griffins' station wagon is blue, but when it shows the rest of the neighbors and any other scene containing the car, it is the usual color, red.

[edit] References

Callaghan, Steve. "Love Thy Trophy." Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1-3. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 56 - 59.
Delarte, Alonso. "Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 2." Bob's Poetry Magazine May 2005: 11 - 12. http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02My.pdf