Ready, Willing, and Disabled
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| "Ready, Willing, and Disabled" | |||
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| Family Guy episode | |||
 Joe at the Special People's Games. |
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| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 15 |
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| Directed by | Andi Klein | ||
| Written by | Alex Barnow Marc Firek |
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| Production code | 3ACX07 | ||
| Original air date | December 20, 2001 | ||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| Family Guy (season 3) List of Family Guy episodes |
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"Ready, Willing, and Disabled" is the 15th episode of the third season of Family Guy. It guest stars Tony Danza as himself portraying Joe Swanson, Valerie Bertinelli as herself portraying Bonnie Swanson, and Alex Rocco as Bea Arthur portraying Peter Griffin. The title is a pun on the saying, "Ready, willing, and able."
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[edit] Plot summary
At a local fundraiser organized by Chris, a masked thief steals the proceeds. Joe Swanson chases after him and recovers the money, but fails to catch the thief. Depressed by his own failure, Joe quits the police force and retreats to his sleeping room. Lois instructs Peter to talk to him. When Peter does, an ad announcing the Special People's Games coming to Quahog is shown on television, and Peter encourages Joe to enter the Games, offering himself as a personal coach.
Peter subjects Joe to harsh physical training. As the Games commence, Joe's primary rival is an athlete strongly resembling Stephen Hawking, who repeatedly insults Joe using a voice synthesizer. Joe heads the competition until he performs poorly in the long jump. Realizing Joe must win the last competition, a running race, Peter drugs Joe's drink with steroids. Some of the drink spills onto the ground, and a ladybug drinks it and promptly grows into a ferocious monster that plucks a boy out of the audience and flies away in search of more victims.
Joe then proceeds to win the Games, earning a gold medal and becoming a notable public figure alongside his trainer Peter. Shortly into his newfound fame, an agent approaches Joe and offers him a contract. Joe then appears in advertisements on his own and is awarded his own TV movie. Upon seeing the movie, Peter becomes infuriated, as it contradicts the actual events and portrays Peter as a discouraging antagonist. Brian explains to Peter how Joe is rightfully being praised, since his disability makes his story inspirational. Peter then decides to fake his own disability, produces video footage of an accident in which he is paralyzed, and runs into Quahog's TV station demanding he is honoured with advertisements and TV movies as well. However, Tom Tucker quickly sees through Peter's alleged "footage" (in which he runs over a Peter-resembling scarecrow alleging this is how he was injured) and leads him out.
Some time later, Joe is publicly honoured in front of a large crowd by Quahog's mayor, and as Joe fails to acknowledge Peter's part in his success, Peter reveals to everyone Joe used doping to win the Special Games, namely the steroids that Peter gave him. Joe surrenders his gold metal and sinks back into depression.
Meanwhile, Stewie, Chris and Meg discover a clip of 26 dollars at Chris' fundraiser. The siblings engage in a long-dragging conflict over who is to keep the money, even after Joe tells them of their legal obligation to look for the money's original owner first. Their conflict leads Brian, as the neutral party, to act as the money-keeper, but he eventually grows tired of the sibling's paranoia over the money and leaves it with them. Once again, the three have a lengthy fight over the money, only to end when Brian lets in a man claiming to be the money's original owner. As the man leaves with the money, Joe recognizes him as the thief stealing the proceeds at the fundraiser and chases him, this time successfully. Joe regains his confidence and re-enlists with the police force, however unintentionally severs the thief's spine in the chase, killing him.
[edit] Cultural references
- While Peter is stealing steroids, Mort is singing "I Got a Name", a famous song by Jim Croce.
- The thief is wearing a Jimmy Carter mask, just like in the movie Point Break.
- Peter works out with Richard Simmons.
- Stewie says that he was the one who introduced John Lennon to Yoko Ono.
- Stewie shows his grief for returning the money clip to his owner by saying "AAAUGH!" like Charlie Brown in Peanuts.
- 100 metre dash for people afraid of yellow tape is like having a marathon for people with no sense of direction, like in Monty Python.
[edit] Trivia
- Alex Rocco, who voiced Bea Arthur in this episode, once guest-starred in a Season 1 episode of The Golden Girls.
- The Evil Monkey's background story is revealed in this episode.
- Joe's rival at the Games is the same as Brian's physics teacher at Brown.
- Peter realizes that his chin looks like testicles for the first time in this episode.
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ready, Willing, and Disabled |
| Preceded by Peter Griffin: Husband, Father... Brother? |
Family Guy (season 3) | Succeeded by A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas |
