"The Fat Guy Strangler" is the seventeenth episode of season four of Family Guy, which originally aired on November 27, 2005.[1] Lois discovers she has a long-lost brother, Patrick. She discovers he was put in a mental hospital after seeing his mother being seduced; so she consents to release him, but after a childhood flashback by Peter, he becomes traumatized and starts murdering overweight people.[2] The episode was written by Chris Sheridan and directed by Sarah Frost,[3] and guest-stars were Bob Barker and Robert Downey, Jr.[3]
Plot
Peter goes to have a meal with Joe, Cleveland, Quagmire and Brian, rather than go to his physical examination. Lois later forces him to go, and he is told by the doctor that he is fat, which he takes badly. Peter knocks over an old family picture later, where Lois realizes there is another child in the picture, whose image was hidden behind the picture frame, whom she believes to be her brother. When she telephones her father, Carter, he tells her she doesn't have a brother and terminates the call. Intent on finding out the truth, Lois breaks into her parents' house and discovers her brother, Patrick is secured in a mental hospital.
Believing Patrick to be sane, Lois authorizes his release, and arranges for Patrick to stay with the family. Patrick soon announces he has a wife, Marion, albeit she is imaginary and nobody else other than him can see her, leading Brian and Stewie to believe he is crazy, whereas Lois attempts to overlook it, as well as trying to convince Peter not to encourage people to be bad, due to his disliking of them. Peter unintentionally traumatizes Patrick later by dressing up in a bus driver's uniform (making him resemble the Jackie Gleason character Ralph Kramden), and using one of Kramden's catchphrases "Pow, right in the kisser!" which brings back memories of his mother, Barbara, having sex with Gleason.
Meanwhile, Peter announces to the family that he is fat, and decides to create the "National Association for The Advancement of Fat People (NAAFP)". Peter hosts the first meeting of the association, but it is unsuccessful due to those attending eating snacks the entire way through. Lois' father, Carter, calls her and tells her how dangerous Patrick is, but she assures him Patrick is safe, but becomes worried after she sees on the news that a fat man has been murdered. Lois remains in denial even as more murders are committed and in spite of Brian's convincing.
Peter brings the fat men back to his home to protect them from the killer, but learns from Brian that Patrick is the killer, and a chase between the fat men and Patrick ensues into the forest (named "James Woods"). Brian, still at the house, shows Lois Patrick's room, which contains one fully-dead and one half-dead fat man, and pictures of him murdering them; Lois continues to make crazy excuses, but one sharp remark from Brian finally snaps her out of her denial, and she is convinced that Patrick is dangerous. Lois and Brian pursue Patrick and Peter into the woods, where Patrick is strangling Peter, but quickly releases him after Lois threatens to stab Marion, his imaginary wife. Patrick apologizes, telling Lois that he never meant to hurt her, and the two agree he should be sent back to the mental hospital, where Lois and the family plan to visit him once a month. The last scene is the Griffins' home where the family is happily watching TV and Stewie walks in saying that there is a half-dead fat guy eating a dead fat guy. Everyone just looks the other way indicating that either they don't care or are just too disturbed to do anything about it.
Production
The origins of the episode and the character of Patrick began when Robert Downey, Jr. telephoned the show production staff and asked if he could produce or assist in an episode creation, as his son is a fan of the show, so the producers came up with the character of Patrick for Downey.[4] Show producer Seth MacFarlane believes Downey "did a great job," and brought a "very kind of half crazy, and maybe just eccentric personality to that character that really worked out great."[5] Bob Barker voiced himself presenting The Price Is Right;[5] but the actual sequence took years to make.[4] Barker has provided his voice for the show twice, although MacFarlane has never met him.[5] MacFarlane also notes, in the DVD commentary, that he likes this episode, because its rare when the show produce an episode where a lot of it takes place in the home, and where it would be possible to do it in a live action series.[5] John Veiner voiced Bobby McFerrin falling down a flight of stairs.[4] The ball-in-a-cup scene is commented upon by MacFarlane, where he states that "the voice-overs work, the drawings work" and that Walter Murphy "did a great job of creating a piece of deliberately annoying music."[5] Several jokes had been pitched for Peter's words after killing an evil dragon, but all were dropped, as they weren't deemed funny enough by production staff.[4][6]
MacFarlane notes that he was surprised they were allowed to do the pickle gag, which consisted of Stewie placing a cucumber on the sofa where Patrick's imaginary wife is sitting, but inserting it into her imaginary vagina (to see if it would turn into a pickle),[5] but suggest that maybe broadcasting standards didn't fully understand the scene.[4] The music song by the over-weight people at a funeral for a murdered obese-man was only shown on the DVD version and not televised for timing purposes,[6] and for potential boredom to viewers.[6][5]. The musical composition was recorded at Fox studios on the Gary Numan stage,[6][5] and described by MacFarlane to be "beautifully, beautifully sung by our studio singers."[5] The chicken falling out of an obese man's mouth when outside James Woods was used a promotional sequence for Fox.[6] George W. Bush is portrayed hiding in a tree house and being informed by Brian of the Hurricane Katrina, Bush was offered the opportunity to voice himself, but declined.[4]
A deleted scene had been made which showed the family traveling onboard an airplane showing Peter, rather than using the airplane toilet as "he is too fat to get out of his seat,"[5] urinates in his seat, but unknowingly urinates on Brian in the process, as he is in a dog cage below Peter's seat. If this scene had been used in the episode, it was intended for Brian, after throwing a rock aimed at Peter's head to say "that's for pissing on me!"[5][4] The gag produced for the episode showing Brian throwing a rock at Peter's head and shouting "that's for rolling up the windows when I tried to jump in to the The General Lee" is a reference to "To Love and Die in Dixie."[5]
Cultural references
When Brian shows Peter that he (Peter) has a gravitational pull, brian throws a drink, a book, and a television showing The Three Stooges. Peter laughs and groans as the TV orbits him. Patrick was traumatized as a child by Jackie Gleason after seeing him seduce his mother, Barbara.[5] When confronting Patrick strangling Peter in the woods Brian throws a rock at Peter. When Peter says that Brian had missed Patrick, Brian says: "No, that's for rolling up the window when I was trying to jump into the General Lee, you bastard!" This is a reference to a season-three Family Guy episode "To Love and Die in Dixie" as well as The Dukes of Hazard.[5] Lois is shown watching American game-show The Price Is Right, a reference to the actual show.[5]
Reception
In a review of the episode, TV Squad commented positively about the storyline, noting that "Unlike The Simpsons tonight, Family Guy actually did work their two storylines together. Their first big one, was about Peter's ever increasing weight problem. He skips out on going to his physical, so that he and Brian can go meet the guys at an all-you-can-eat steak restaurant."[7] In a review of Family Guy, Volume 4, Nancy Basile regards "The Fat Guy Strangler" as one of her favorite episodes, as well as "PTV."[8] Basile moves on to comment that "Being prejudiced against fat people just isn't talked about, but this episode sheds a harsh light on that problem. At times the episode tries to show people who are fat as being victims of unfair bias, but other times just out and out makes fun of them."[8]
References
External links
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