Petergeist

Infobox Television episode
Title =Petergeist
Series =Family Guy


Caption =Peter comes out of Meg's butt after entering the closet.
Season =4
Episode =26
Airdate =May 7, 2006
Production =4ACX29
Writer =Alec Sulkin
Wellesley Wild
Director =Sarah Frost
Guests =Carrot Top, Jim J. Bullock, and Bob Costas
Episode list =List of Family Guy episodes
Season list = Infobox Family Guy Season 4
Prev =You May Now Kiss the...Uh...Guy Who Receives
Next =Untitled Griffin Family History

"Petergeist" is an episode from season four of FOX animated series "Family Guy". Carrot Top and Jim J. Bullock appear as themselves. In the DVD version of the episode, Bob Costas guest stars as himself. The title, and the episode itself, is a parody of "Poltergeist". Some segments of the movie's musical score are even used.

Plot summary

After Joe builds a home theatre system, Peter tries to build a multiplex in his backyard just out of spite. While digging, Peter finds the skull of a dead Native American buried in the backyard. This resembles the haunted skeleton seen in "Ready, Willing, and Disabled." Brian urges him to put the skull back, but Peter decides to use it as a novelty (playing with it, urinating in it, using it as an athletic cup, etc).

That night the Griffins start experiencing strange paranormal activity, such as Stewie talking to the TV static, the chairs and refrigerator being stacked upside down on the kitchen table, Peter mutilating his face while shaving, and Chris getting attacked by an evil tree before being saved by Herbert. (In the very same fashion that Gandalf saves the rest of The Fellowship of the Ring from the Balrog in the opening scene of ")". Lois is in denial and (Peter is oblivious) of the events that are happening, until Stewie gets sucked into his closet and disappears.

To find Stewie, the Griffins hire a spiritual medium (Bruce) to contact the other side, and learn that the entrance to spirit world is Stewie'’s closet, while the exit is Meg's ass. Unable to wait for Stewie to find his way out himself (he is obviously reluctant to exit from Meg's ass), Lois enters the portal and rescues Stewie. The enraged spirits emerge follow behind and ravage the Griffin house, sucking it into their world. As the Griffins drive off, Peter dumps the Native American skull in a garbage can.

Now homeless, Peter and Lois try and find a way to get their house back, and learn the Native American skull has to be put back in its resting place. After searching through the city dump, a garbage man tells them that the skull would be in the human remains bin, but it was cleaned out by Carrot Top for things to use as props. They go to Carrot Top's mansion and, after a chase through a hall of mirrors, they retrieve the skull and rebury it, thus getting back their house and life returning to normal. At the end Lois takes the T.V. and moves it outside the front door (mimicking the end of the movie The Poltergeist) but Peter comes out and retrieves it and takes Meg outside instead.

Censorship

The following scenes were cut/censored from the TV version due to time constraints (and in one case, content reasons), but included in the DVD:

* When Chris is cowering in bed over the upcoming storm, Peter calms him down by telling him that the storm will pass if they can name off the worst things that can happen to a child (i.e., swallowing a razor blade, getting shot in the face, having a mosquito bite on top of a scab).
* Peter commenting that the revelation of the spirit world exit being in Meg’s butt is weirder than having Bob Costas bathe with him, followed by a cutaway of Bob Costas [fully clothed (according to DVD commentary, Costas was supposed to be naked too, but the censors objected)] getting in the tub with Peter and doing color commentary on the bath he’s taking.
* After the Griffin house vanishes into thin air, Herbert and the tree monster climb out of the hole where the house once stood. Herbert invites the monster to his house for tea and cookies, then asks it if he’s a “giving tree” or a “receiving tree” (according to DVD commentary, this was cut because Standards and Practices objected to it being a homosexual intercourse joke).
* An extended version of the scene where Brian finds out that Peter wasn’t wearing the Indian skull as an athletic cup (with Chris adding that his old Scoutmaster greeted him that way) where Peter says that Brian grabbing his crotch was more awkward than having a threesome where the girl doesn’t show up, followed by a cutaway of Peter and an unnamed man waiting in bed for the girl.

Cultural references

* The plot and title of the episode are a parody of Poltergeist. When Stewie first meets the ghosts in the T.V., and again when the family is talking with medium, the music heard in the background is Jerry Goldsmith's original score. Chris' scene with Ronald McDonald making the trademark Golden Arches with his hands is a lighter, comedic version of a similar scene in the movie, as is the scene in which Peter tears the skin of his face off looking into the bathroom mirror, revealing the face of Hank Hill. Finally the closing scene is identical to the closing scene from "Poltergeist," mixed slightly with the closing scene from "The Flintstones" where Fred puts the cat out and the cat jumps back in and puts Fred out (leading Fred to pound on the door and yell, "Wilma!").
* Joe's theatre includes a Joe-centric parody of the old TriStar Pictures logo.
* Peter apparently built a balcony for Statler and Waldorf of "The Muppet Show" to criticize various television shows, especially the hit ABC series "Lost". They said that they couldn’t follow the show, making the title appropriate. Peter responds with “They don’t care for most things.” In the "Muppet Show" (and the short-lived "Muppets Tonight"), they would criticize various acts by making jokes. Also, Seth MacFarlane, speaking as Stewie during his speech at Harvard University, told the students not to "create a television series about a group of people who crash land on an island if they don't know where they're going with it, or it'll suck very quickly."
* Home Supply is a parody of Home Depot.
* Stewie's daydream about running into the bathroom and beating Peter up while he’s on the toilet is a reference to the TV show / film Jackass in which Bam Margera does the same thing to his father Phil. The initial part where Stewie proclaims his desire to beat Peter up resembles a similar moment from the TV show, while the actual attack (concluding in Peter being naked on the toilet, impotently complaining about his treatment) matches a scene from "".
* When Peter rips the skin off his face in front of the mirror, underneath is revealed the face of Hank Hill, the main character in "King of the Hill". He then says, "heheheheheh, propane," referencing Hank's job as a propane salesman.
* Peter parodies the George W. Bush interview that was filmed with Bush at a golf course holding a golf club, then saying “I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now, watch this drive,” and taking a swing at a golf ball. This clip was made popular by late night TV shows such as David Letterman’s and the documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11".
* Dick Cheney shoots Peter at point-blank range several times while hunting, and after says “I’m sorry, I thought you were a deer,” parodying the Dick Cheney hunting incident.
* Stewie sings “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins, while on the “other side,” making use of the unusual vocal effects with which his voice is heard, as well as attempting to emulate the drum sound before the final part of the song.
* A cutaway parody shows John Travolta and Kelly Preston's wedding, and implies that he is gay.
* While Peter is watching "JAG", Lieutenant Colonel Sarah MacKenzie stops her speech to Captain Harmon Rabb by asking him if anyone watches the show. Harm says that only old people watch it because the noise keeps them company. JAG was cancelled in 2005 due to poor ratings and the decreased number of young viewers.
* The film that’s being viewed at Joe’s is titled "Rocky VI". Rocky decides to challenge a Martian to a boxing match on Mars, parodying the scene from Rocky IV when he goes to Russia (Soviet Union at the time) to fight "the Russian" (Ivan Drago).
* Peter names the discovered skull “Chief Diamond Phillips,” a reference to actor Lou Diamond Phillips, who is of partial Cherokee descent. Carrot Top also calls the skull by that name, and he jokes that if you put the skull with David Duchovny, it would be called agent “Skully”, a play on X-files character Agent Dana Scully's name.
* When Stewie is being sucked into the otherworldly portal in his closet, he claims that the last time something sucked that hard was the film "I ♥ Huckabees". (According to the DVD commentary, the movie originally mentioned before Stewie got sucked in the portal was "Magnolia").
* Peter exclaims “Gee, must’ve taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque!” (one of Bugs Bunny’s common phrases) after his head appears out of Meg’s behind.
* The spirit medium’s monologue resembles the speech done by Hayes in "King Kong".
* Stewie claims to have met Jesus on the other side, where he learned that Jesus was Chinese and his surname was Hong. Commentary reveals that the original gag was that Jesus was really into Santana. and that he would keep bringing the conversation back to Santana.
* The "Guide to the Occult" that the Griffins consult appears to be written by children’s fiction author Beverly Cleary.
* In a deleted scene following the family realizing that they need Meg’s butt to get Stewie back, Peter compares the incident to be weirder than when sportscaster Bob Costas insisted on bathing with him.
* After the Griffins’ house disappears, Tom Tucker says “Who are they gonna call?” Diane says “Ghostbusters, Tom?”. Tom replies by saying "No, Diane, their insurance company. That's just stupid what you said."
* While kneeling next to the television, Stewie has a conversation about the TV shows "Friends", and the spin-off "Joey".
*In the alternate version of the scene where Stewie refuses to leave the spirit world through Meg's butt (which was seen in New Zealand and is on the volume 4 DVD set in a deleted scenes collection), Stewie says that him doing that is about as likely as anyone remembering the 1980 cast of the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live, followed by a cutaway to the opening of a 1980-1981 season episode of "SNL" starring Scott Colomby ( who played D'Annunzio in Caddyshack ) with musical guest Jack Bruce and Friends (who really were on "SNL" in the 1980-1981 season; the host was Ray Sharkey) and listing off five castmembers from that season (repertory players Denny Dillon, Gail Matthius [misspelled 'Mathius'] , Ann Risley, and feature players Yvonne Hudson and Patrick Weathers).
*The way Herbert saves Chris parodies the way Gandalf saves the Fellowship from the Balrog in .

References

*cite web |title=Petergeist |work=TV.com |url=http://www.tv.com/family-guy/petergeist/episode/664917/summary.html |accessdate=2007-06-25