No Meals on Wheels

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“No Meals on Wheels”
Family Guy episode

Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 94
Guest stars	Patrick Stewart Ben Stiller
Written by	Mike Henry
Directed by	Greg Colton
Production no.	5ACX09
Original airdate	March 25, 2007
Episode chronology
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"Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey"	"Boys Do Cry"
List of Family Guy episodes

"No Meals on Wheels" is a season 5 episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. Its title is a parody of the Meals on Wheels program. The episode accumulated a Nielsen rating of 5.0/8 HH, meaning about 7.97 million viewers tuned in.^[1]

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Peter is annoyed by Mort constantly borrowing his things, so he makes a "ScareJew" out of an old suit, which is actually his suit with a Nazi uniform on. Furious, Lois takes him to a secondhand clothing store to get a new suit, where Peter finds some flannel pajamas. While wearing them, he begins to notice that he can shock people with static electricity by rubbing his feet on the carpet. Annoyed by this, Lois has the carpet completely removed. When this is done Quagmire finds an old coin under the carpet, which is sold for fifty thousand dollars. With the money, Peter and Lois decide to live their dream of owning their own restaurant, naming it Big Pete's House of Munch. The restaurant at first is a complete failure, however, Joe promises to bring his friends. Peter is at first excited because he believes it will become a hang out for police officers, only to find that Joe is actually bringing in fellow paraplegics. The restaurant becomes a huge success among handicapped people, however, Peter is convinced handicapped people are "uncool" and he bans them from entering. The handicapped people come back, and when not allowed into the restaurant, they unite into "CrippleTron" (a giant robot reminiscent of the Devastator from Transformers and, to a lesser degree, Megazord from Power Rangers) that destroys the restaurant. After getting trapped under the rubble, Peter is wheelchair bound for two weeks. When he discovers how hard it is to be handicapped after 45 minutes, Peter apologizes to Joe.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Notes

This is the second reference in the series to M. C. Escher and his Relativity painting, the first being in Brian Goes Back to College.

[edit] Cultural references

At the beginning of the episode, an enraged Tyra Banks produces a giant iguana out of her mouth, which devours a displeased America's Next Top Model contestant.
Peter states that Mort is a bigger mooch than the "Mexican Super Friends." This leads to a cutaway where we see a gathering of Mexican versions of various superheroes from DC Comics in the "Mexican Hall of Justice", among others Mexican Green Lantern, Mexican Aquaman and Mexican Superman. When the landlord complains about the number of people residing in the house, Mexican Superman claims that they are only visiting. This is proven to be false when Mexican Batman turns up with 60 copies of the key to the house.
Peter says that he would want to switch vocal cords with Patrick Stewart. This is the second time Patrick Stewart has appeared on Family Guy, the first being Peter's Got Woods. In the cutaway, Peter, in Patrick Stewart's British accent, declares to Lois that he has compiled a list of Armenians. It only included film and TV actor Eric Bogosian, tennis player Andre Agassi, and college basketball coach Jerry "Tark the Shark" Tarkanian yet none of the members of System of a Down are mentioned.
Brian recalls the time when he and his African-American roommate where watching the verdict in the OJ Simpson trial. Brian disapproved of the "Not Guilty" sentencing while his roommate cheered it. This caused for an awkward moment between the two.
Peter's statue at Big Pete's House of Munch is a parody of the Big Boy statue.
The show makes a reference to the theme song to Maude and makes fun of its rather long theme song.
In a cutaway, Stewie is seen having a psychiatric session with Violet and Pig-Pen, where he mocks Violet for not knowing why she gets urinary tract infections.
Peter states that he hired M. Night Shyamalan to direct the TV commercial for his restaurant. This commercial is shown to be a parody of The Sixth Sense.
Peter mistakes the word paraplegic for the word parallelogram, a four-sided figure.
Peter tells his friends that it was Ben Stiller who taught him to be himself. In the cutaway, Stiller is shown to have ridiculously large ears (like Dumbo), which he can even use to fly. As he flies away, Peter says proudly "His movies are terrible". Later in the episode, Peter calls Stiller a "mutant offspring of comedy people." Ben Stiller voiced himself for this episode.
The first scene featuring Ben Stiller is a send-up of the animated/live action Don Bluth film Pete's Dragon.
Peter makes a reference to M. C. Escher in a parody of MC Hammer. The setting of the video was based on Escher's Relativity.
Stewie finds an "On the Rag"-gedy Ann Doll. An obvious parody of Raggedy Ann and Andy
When Mort Goldman is scared by Peter's "ScareJew," he screams "Protect Jon Stewart! He's our most important Jew!" The "ScareJew", though dressed as Adolf Hitler, is similar to Princess Clara's "JewCrow" from Drawn Together, though the "JewCrow" was a waiter with a sign saying "Tips please".
When Joe and the other paraplegics form into a robot called the "Cripple-tron",it is almost like the robot formed by Asian kids in the Drawn Together episode "Gay Bash".
Tom Tucker says that Peter's restaurant is "where the elite with no feet meet to eat". This is a reference to Akbar and Jeff business operations in Life in Hell.
The "Crippletron" assembled by Joe and his fellow paraplegics is a parody of the "Devastator" from Transformers. Peter's tangle with the Crippletron is also reminiscent of various boss battles throughout the Sonic the Hedgehog series, in which characters must avoid slamming fists and then series of projectiles.
Similarly, the scene shown before the formation of the "crippletron" is similar to that of a scene in Dawn of the dead, in which the protagonists of the film observe the undead converging upon the supermarket.
Peter uses a photo of Mark Harmon as proof that cool people do not use wheelchairs. Peter also makes a reference to Gil Gerard during this speech; a similar speech appears in The Kiss Seen Around the World, in which a teacher is ejected from the high school for teaching the "evolutionary theory that Gil gerard went back in time and ejaculated into the primordial ooze".
During a montage of Peter in a wheelchair, "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" is playing by Elton John. It was his 60th birthday the day this episode aired.
Joe invites Peter in to watch Grey's Anatomy, and Peter responds "That sounds awful."