Prick Up Your Ears (Family Guy)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Prick Up Your Ears” | |
|---|---|
| Family Guy episode | |
 Lois starts teaching sex-ed. |
|
| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 6 |
| Written by | Cherry Chevapravatdumrong |
| Directed by | James Purdum |
| Guest stars | Gary Cole David Cross Mindy Cohn Drew Barrymore |
| Production no. | 5ACX01 |
| Original airdate | November 19, 2006 |
| Season 5 episodes | |
| Family Guy - Season 5 September 10, 2006 – May 20, 2007 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ← Season 4 | Season 6 → |
| List of Family Guy episodes | |
“Prick Up Your Ears” is the sixth episode of season five of Family Guy. The episode originally broadcast on 19 November 2006,[1][2] with guest stars on the show including David Cross, Drew Barrymore and Gary Cole.[3] The plot follows Lois discovering that Chris's school has no sex education program, successfully applying to become a teacher there herself, and then being dismissed in favor of abstinence education. Meanwhile, Stewie attempts to find and kill the tooth fairy after being told horror stories by Brian and Chris.[4] Three scenes originally scheduled for broadcasting were censored and only made available on the DVD; as well as receiving positive reception from critics.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Annoyed at a pizza delivery man for delivering the wrong kind of pizza, Mayor Adam West chases him across town using a "cat launcher", and accidentally breaks a window to the adult movie store. Upon discovering the smashed window, Chris and his friends steal a selection of the movies. When they return to the house, Stewie joins them to watch them, but they are all disturbed when Lois comes in and tells Chris he should talk to his sex-education teacher, only to be informed Chris's school doesn't have one. After applying for the job as the sex-ed teacher, she gives the children in-depth lessons on condoms and sexual aids. Meanwhile, Stewie loses a tooth — but is worried about the tooth fairy after being told horror stories by Chris and Brian. Meanwhile, Lois is dismissed from her job after protests from Quahog civilians, and because the principal is worried that her attitude encourages premarital sex.
After the termination of Lois's sex-ed classes, the children are taught information about sex by a reverend, who encourages the children to be abstinent and wait to have sex after marriage. In the assembly, Meg meets Doug, whom she begins dating. Stewie attempts to scare away the tooth fairy by using his toys as protection, but this plan fails when he discovers the tooth fairy has already been there. After Peter looks at the information booklet that Meg brought home, he decides to become abstinent himself. Meanwhile, Meg and Doug, in order to honor their own abstinence commitment, have ear sex, much to Lois's horror. Lois eventually rapes Peter, and he gives up on abstinence.
Stewie sets up a trap in his bedroom in an attempt to capture the tooth fairy, but when Brian tells him that the tooth fairy is not real, Stewie is disappointed. In protest, Peter and Lois go to the school. They get past security, and Lois gives the children a speech persuading them that safe sex is okay and that they should decide when they're ready. Doug is excited about now being able to see Meg naked, but after he does, he ends his relationship with her, leaving her distraught.[5]
[edit] Production
Throughout the episode, several scenes were not broadcast on the television version as they were deemed inappropriate. When the doctor is discussing the woman's health problems on 'Genital hospital', the original gag was for viewers to see him undoing his zipper, but this was removed for broadcasting standards, and is thus only available on the DVD.[6] When Lois is forcing Peter to have regular sex with her (rather than his new found tradition of ear-sex), this scene was not shown on television, as it too was deemed inappropriate by broadcasting standards .[6] When Brian is informing Lois that his food tastes funny, he asks her why this may be, to which Peter replies with "yeah, it's been on my penis", this was censored and replaced with him saying: "yeah, it's been on my crotch", again so the show would adhere to broadcasting standards.[6]
When Mel Gibson apologizes to Jewish people for offending them, yet continuing to insult them in the process, this entire scene was not added until a later date and after the episode had been made, but still prior to broadcasting.[7] When Stewie enters Herbert's house, there was originally meant to be a picture of Chris Griffin's face on the wall, with the body of a model, but this was removed from broadcasting.[8][7]
In the original FOX broadcast, Peter, after reading Meg's "sex ed" pamphlet, tries to say the word 'abstinent', but says it wrong. When Meg corrects him, he grounds her. In the DVD scene, he says the word correctly, adding, "I'll be as untouched as a turn signal in an Asian woman's car." A cutscene then shows an Asian woman driving and causing a major traffic accident by cutting across eight lanes of traffic without signalling. As with most material cut from the FOX broadcast, this scene is aired unedited on Adult Swim.
[edit] Cultural references
The scene where Brian shakes and slaps Stewie in an attempt to calm him after telling him about the tooth fairy, which then has Chris and Quagmire taking over ahead of along line of characters with various weapons is an homage to the movie Airplane!. As Lois is informed the sex education classes will be terminated, she exclaims "Oh, no!", a cutaway scene then begins of a sports car driving along the road with music playing in the background, this is a reference to Knight Rider.[7] When Stewie is using his toys in order to capture and kill the tooth fairy, the toys are SpongeBob from SpongeBob SquarePants, Starscream (although the toy was colored blue and yellow rather than the character's red and gray appearance) and Man-E-Faces, all of which are fictional characters for television programs.[6] When Peter is watching television, he is watching Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, the women shown on the episode are actually cartoon animations of the real actors for the show. When Peter says he has missed too many other opportunities he shows the that he missed out on being the winning piece in a game of Tetris.[9]
[edit] Reception
This episode received little reception, with positive reviews being given by IGN's Dan Iverson who commented that the story had "great satire of the issue of sex education vs. abstinence",[10] he also noted that "the random flashback jokes are often what are most memorable about each episode" and that the episode had a couple of "manatee gags". Overall, Iverson gave the show a final rating of 7.8/10.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ Prick Up Your Ears: Broadcasting information. Tv.com (2006). Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
- ^ Family Guy: Prick Up Your Ears. Imdb.com (2006). Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
- ^ Prick Up Your Ears: Recurring roles. Tv.com (2006). Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
- ^ Prick Up Your Ears: Brief plot synopsis. Bbc.co.uk (2006). Retrieved on 2007-12-14.
- ^ (2006). Plot synopsis information for the episode "Prick Up Your Ears" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b c d MacFarlane, Seth. (2006). Family Guy season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "Prick Up Your Ears" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b c Goodman, David. (2006). Family Guy season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "Prick Up Your Ears" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Smith, Danny. (2006). Family Guy season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "Prick Up Your Ears" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Makkos, Suzanna. (2006). Family Guy season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "Prick Up Your Ears" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b Family Guy: "Prick Up Your Ears" Review. tv.ign.com (2006). Retrieved on 2007-12-14.
[edit] External links
