Deacon Stan, Jesus Man

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“Deacon Stan, Jesus Man”
American Dad! episode
Steve Smith impregnated
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 7
Written by	Nahnatchka Khan
Directed by	John Aoshima
Production no.	1AJN07
Original airdate	June 19, 2005
Newspaper Headline	"Bush Finally Gets Joke About Last Name"
Season 1 episodes
American Dad - Season 1 May 1, 2005 – May 14, 2006
Pilot Threat Levels Stan Knows Best Francine's Flashback Roger Codger Homeland Insecurity Deacon Stan, Jesus Man Bullocks to Stan A Smith in the Hand All About Steve Con Heir Stan of Arabia: Part 1 Stan of Arabia: Part 2 Stannie Get Your Gun Star Trek Not Particularly Desperate Housewife Rough Trade Finances with Wolves It's Good to Be Queen Roger 'n' Me Helping Handis With Friends Like Steve's Tears of a Clooney

	Season 2 →
List of American Dad! episodes

"Deacon Stan, Jesus Man" is an episode of American Dad!.

[edit] Plot

In this episode, we are introduced to the White family. Stan hates the father, Chuck, who always beats the Smiths to church where Chuck gets the shady parking spot and Stan has to park in the sun. At church, the deacon chokes to death on a communion wafer and Chuck volunteers to be deacon. Stan, wanting to beat him, also volunteers. Steve becomes friends with Betsy, Chuck's daughter who has no freedom (is forced to do gymnastics) and is forbidden to hold hands with boys (it leads to kissing and could end with pregnancy).

Meanwhile, Roger is going through his reproductive cycle. His breasts give off a milky substance, and he is left feeling emotional as a result. Tricked by Klaus, Roger eats all of Francine's potato salad that she had prepared for the deacons wake. Trying to make a replacement, he uses his breast milk when he finds out they are out of mayonnaise. Francine serves Roger's salad and it is an instant hit. Discovering the advantage, Stan uses Roger's milk to make more potato salad, with some help from Karl Rove, and is elected deacon. However, Stan's technique of harvesting the alien breast milk has bad effects and Roger chokes. Steve then gives Roger mouth-to-mouth. By doing this, Steve accidentally becomes the host for Roger's egg and becomes pregnant.

Naturally, the family is concerned about Steve becoming a "father," and Stan is additionally worried that this will hurt his chances of becoming deacon. Hayley suggests that Steve could get an abortion, but Stan refuses. In order to deal with the problem, he decides for the family to go to Mexico ("God's blind spot"), where Steve can have the baby in secret. There, however, Stan brings Steve to a doctor planning to abort the alien baby, and Steve reluctantly agrees, saying he is willing to do it for Stan. Stan, realizing how far he is willing to go just to beat Chuck White, decides to let Steve keep the baby, and they return to America. Soon afterwards, however, Betsy talks to Steve from his window and talks about how her life is miserable. They then kiss and accidentally, the baby is transferred to Betsy, who is the one now pregnant. Disowned by her parents who believe she has "been doing splits all over town" and forced to move out, Betsy tells Steve that she has never been happier now that she is pregnant. She no longer has to do gymnastics, which was like a prison and now she is free. Stan then gives up his deacon position, pretending he is possessed by a demon.

[edit] Cultural references

Karl Rove

Karl Rove was George W. Bush's senior advisor and chief political strategist. Although critics often described him as evil (which explains Hayley's line that Rove is "...the amoral puppet-master behind George W. Bush"), this episode takes this portrayal to the extreme. Rove is made to look like Emperor Palpatine. Whenever his name is spoken, a wolf can be heard howling and he lowers the temperature of the room he is in (in one instance freezing Klaus' bowl), this possibly could be a reference to the Dementors from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban or possibly Frau Blücher from Young Frankenstein. Also, his body begins to burn when he attempts to enter the church. He departs the episode by transforming into a cloud of bats, which disperses. He wears an amulet round his neck featuring an elephant (the mascot of the Republican party).
Béla Károlyi is a well-known gymnastics coach, with a reputation for being very strict. This episode takes this to the extreme, when he confronts his pupil Betsy at a funeral scene and shoves half a lemon in her face as punishment for garnishing her water with a lemon wedge.
Stan's quote "It's a bizarre situation. Not 8 Simple Rules, let's-keep-it-going-after-the-father-died bizarre, but close." is a reference to the show 8 Simple Rules, which the ABC network decided to keep going, despite the death of John Ritter who played the titular father.
Chuck White's laugh is almost identical to Phil Ken Sebben's from the adult swim adult cartoon Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law.
When Roger is "milked" by the machine he screams Kill me... kill me which is a reference to Alien Resurrection as Ellen Ripley is begged to kill her mutant clone

[edit] Notes

Langley Falls Post front page headline: "Bush finally gets joke about last name", a reference to George W. Bush and the use of the word "bush" as a slang term for pubic hair.
The religion of the Smiths is officially revealed to be Episcopal, the same faith as the series creator Seth MacFarlane.
Karl Rove's medallion has an elephant on it, which is the symbol of the Republican Party.
This is the first episode to allude to Francine's hatred for George Clooney. She attempts to kill him in the episode Tears of a Clooney.
Josh Groban appeared in this episode as a whiny parishioner.
The experiment Klaus is talking about when Roger fears that his head will be ripped off, instructing him to keep blinking his eyes for as long as possible, is a reference to Antoine Lavoisier's rumored final experiment to find out how long a head can remain conscious after being separated from the body.
The song playing when Betsy enters the church is Get Ready for This by 2 Unlimited.