E. Peterbus Unum

Infobox Television episode
Title =E. Peterbus Unum
Series =Family Guy


Caption =The flag of Petoria
Season =2
Episode =18
Airdate =July 12, 2000
Production =2ACX13
Writer =Neil Goldman
Garrett Donovan
Director =Rob Renzetti
Guests =Shawn Pyfrom
Episode list =List of Family Guy episodes
Season list = Infobox Family Guy Season 2
Prev =He’s Too Sexy for His Fat
Next =The Story on Page One

"E Peterbus Unum" is an episode from the second season of the FOX animated series "Family Guy". It is the 25th episode of "Family Guy".

The episode lampoons tiny unrecognized micronations (e.g. Sealand, Republic of Minerva and the Kingdom of Lovely or in some cases Vatican City) declaring independence. The episode title is also a parody of the United States motto "E pluribus unum".

Plot

Peter gets audited by the Internal Revenue Service, and is denied a tax refund. His plans to build a backyard pool are further derailed when a request for a zoning variance leads to Mayor West revealing that Peter's house is not even part of the United States.

Peter declares his house to be the new micronation of "Petoria." (a reference to Pretoria, which is the capital city of The Republic of South Africa). which becomes an Oligarchy. He spends a night in Quahog insulting Horace (at The Drunken Clam) and bringing beer out into the streets, stepping on grass that can't be touched and violating numerous laws such as littering, sexual harassment and vandalism. He flaunts his diplomatic immunity by singing a parody of MC Hammer's song "U Can't Touch This" and mentions that he can't be sued by Hammer.

Snubbed at the United Nations, Peter follows the advice of a diplomat from Russia and annexes Joe's pool, calling it "Joe-hio." Days later, when Chris tries to go to school, he is turned away because the US Army surrounds and blockades the nation of Petoria with tanks and missiles as part of "Operation: Desert Clam." Further, all electricity and water has been cut and Lois homeschools the kids. Peter is forced into negotiating for a repatriation, after Lois and the children leave him to the US, under the threat of "Operation: Bomb the Crap Out of Your House" (according to the General, "the guy who makes up the names is on vacation" and "my grammar sucks"). Brian on the other hand stays with Peter, since he's been through worse stuff than this (which proves useful, since Peter has no white canvas and must use Brian as a surrender flag). After some negotiations, Peter ends up repatriating his country and returning Joe's pool. Grateful to Peter, Lois promises to scratch his back with a matchbook every night. In the end, all the events of the episode turn out to have been filmed and used ever since in social studies classes 200 years in the future.The episode ends with a student asking if the Griffin family even notices Stewie talking.

Notes

* A flashback shows Peter getting "another dog", who honks a bicycle horn whenever he wants a treat. The dog returns as Brian's cousin Jasper in a cutaway scene in "The Thin White Line" and is properly introduced in the following episode, "Brian Does Hollywood."
* In a meta-reference, one of the students asks "So, like, can the family understand the baby or what’s the deal with that?" This has been wondered by many "Family Guy" fans.
* At 07:11 in the episode, when Mayor West shows Peter the map of Spooner Street, the street right under Spooner is "McFar Lane."
* According to the map of Peter's neighborhood, Joe lives at 33 Spooner St., Quagmire lives at 29 Spooner St., and Cleveland lives at 28 Spooner St.
* When Spooner St. is shown, it is shown to be on a really long street, going for at least another block. But on the map, Spooner St. is just a block long. It gets cut off by Clover Leaf and Westwood Terrace.

Cultural references

* When Joe, Cleveland, and Quagmire discuss tax refunds, Charlie Brown in a ghost costume claims he only "got a rock." This parodies a scene from the "Peanuts" Halloween special "It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" in which the characters trick-or-treat and Charlie Brown consistently receives rocks.
* Joe mentions his fondness for action film star Steven Seagal, and home cinema. A parody of a Seagal film is shown with Seagal fighting Sea Lions for polluting the beach, parodying both his action films and the green message films he has done. He is drawn with a beer gut.
* When Peter digs in the backyard, Stewie warns him that he may find "a human skeleton with a Lincoln Log", a popular toy, "jammed in the temple." He also states that he wants the log back so he can complete a recreation of James Madison's cabin.
* When Quagmire's sex doll shuts down, it says "Goodbye", as the Internet service provider America Online does when users log-off.
* The scene in which Peter insists on drawing the repairman nude parodies the scene in the 1997 film "As Good as It Gets" in which Greg Kinnear draws Helen Hunt nude ("You're why cavemen painted on walls" is a direct quote from the film).
* Lois gives Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa a televised tour of her house. This is a parody of the tour First Lady Jackie Kennedy gave CBS newscaster Charles Collingwood in 1962. Lois is dressed in a pink suit similar to the one Jackie Kennedy wore the day her husband was assassinated.
* As First Lady of Petoria, Lois says she wants to be like the President Bill Clinton's wife Hillary, "only, you know, without the penis", a reference to the seeming control she ironically had over him.
* A flashback shows Peter’s ancestor "Ulysses S. Griffin", based on Union General Ulysses S. Grant, winning the American Civil War in a drinking contest against Confederate general Robert E. Lee. In reality, Lee never drank. When he says "OK, but we still don' t have to read books" and Grant agrees, it is a reference to the stereotype about the poor quality of Education in the southern United States.
* Peter asks Drunken Clam bartender Horace, "Do you think G. Gordon Liddy paid for his drinks when he was strangling people with piano wire for the good of our nation?" Liddy was one of President Richard Nixon's chief operatives in the Watergate scandal.
* During the M.C. Hammer song, Peter sings "Just like the bad guy from Lethal Weapon 2, I’ve got diplomatic immunity." In that film, Joss Ackland's character plays a diplomat who runs a drug smuggling ring out of the South African consulate in Los Angeles.
* Anti-litter mascot Woodsy Owl appears during the song in reaction to Peter’s littering (see "Give a larbage, throw out your garbage.")
* Regis Philbin makes a cameo during Peter's song when Peter mentions "Let's see Regis rap this way."
* The Albanian diplomat next to Peter states "Excuse me, some of us are here to learn", in reference to the poor education and conditions of the country at the time.
* A diplomat at the United Nations tells Peter, "I used to be a laughing stock around here until my country invaded Kuwait," referencing events of the 1991 Gulf War.
* When asserting his right to annex Joe’s pool, Peter senselessly refers (via section, paragraph, and word) to the word “the” in Geneva Conventions, which regulates treatment of prisoners and civilians during a time of war.
* The U.S. Military refers to the stand-off against Petoria as "Operation Desert Clam", a parody of Operation Desert Storm, their name for the 1991 Gulf War.
* The political roundtable talk show in which the guests are separated by four squares ends with Alice from "The Brady Bunch" appearing in the center square as she did in the show’s theme song.
* Actress Susan Sarandon appears to do an ad campaign seeking donations to feed the children of Petoria (Stewie). She says, "Many of you know me as Tim Robbins' mother... but I'm actually his girlfriend" referring to jokes about their age difference. Sarandon is twelve years older than Robbins.
* When Stewie uses newspapers as diapers, he gladly defiles the comic strip "The Family Circus", referencing Jeffy, a character in that strip.
* Peter holds a pool party for leaders of nations who congratulated him on Petoria’s "invasion" of the US. Former President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević jokes that his coleslaw is "made out of people", a reference to the film "Soylent Green". The former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein talks with Libyan president Muammar al-Gaddafi at the pool party about "The Junior Mint" episode of Seinfeld. Interestingly, another Seinfeld episode featured a Hussein lookalike warning a coatless Kramer and George "you’ll catch your deaths" from being out in the cold. Peter’s pool party is also attended by Cuban president Fidel Castro and Panamanian General Manuel Noriega, despite the fact that Noriega had been in a Miami prison for drug smuggling for more than seven years at the time this episode originally aired. Some famous leaders who are now dead attend the party including Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong, who died in 1976, and Ayatollah Khomeini, who died in 1989. Slobodan Milošević died in 2006 while Saddam Hussein was hung in the same year, but both were alive when the episode was made.
*Mayor West invited civil rights leader Jesse Jackson to open the negotiations with a prayer. However, he could not be there, so West settled for La Toya Jackson, singer and sister of Michael Jackson.
*Peter claims that his grandfather gave this country "one of its best characters". The scene flicks to a committee of cartoon artists and the chairmen, with a picture of Bugs Bunny in the center. The chairman says, "Okay, we've narrowed the names down to two possibilities: All in favor of Bugs Bunny?" All but Peter's ancestor raise their hands. "And all in favor of...Ephraim the Retarded Rabbit?" Peter raises his hand alone, and when no one agrees he abruptly says "Oh you can all go to hell!" and walks away.

References

* S. Callaghan, “E. Peterbus Unum.” "Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3". New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 112–115.
* A. Delarte, “Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 2” in "Bob’s Poetry Magazine", 2.May 2005: 24–25 [http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02My.pdf http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02My.pdf]

External links

*FGwiki
*imdb title|0576931
*tv.com episode|25465