Weiner of Our Discontent

Weiner of Our Discontent is the eightteenth episode of the fourth season of the animated series American Dad!.

Plot Summary

A series of flashbacks through the years (in 1956 as a businessman at an Iowan diner, in 1975 as Rollergirl from Boogie Nights at a roller disco in Detroit, and in 1994 as Kurt Cobain in a Seattle coffeehouse) shows Roger claiming to be someone important and having big plans in the works. Eventually, Stan grows tired of Roger's constant remarks about his self-importance and erratic behavior. When Roger makes a claim that he had been sent to Earth to "determine the fate of mankind," an annoyed Stan has enough and yells at him. This drives Roger (who has started to call himself "The Decider") to travel to Roswell, New Mexico in order to tell his homeworld to destroy Earth; Stan accompanies him, hoping to call his bluff. Arriving at a self storage garage, Stan finds a real spaceship and — realizing Roger is serious — he tries to talk the alien out of his plans. As Roger is repairing the ship when it fails to start, Stan discovers a note from the alien ship's manufacturers to the humans who find the ship, stating that they purposely crashed the ship on Earth to test the safety features. It also tells who ever finds the ship to disregard the alien inside (Roger) as it is a crash test dummy that they believe most likely died on impact. Shocked, Roger falls into a deep, catatonic depression. Stan laughs continuously at Roger until they arrive at home.

Meanwhile, Steve takes Toshi's chopsticks and acts like a walrus, causing the latter to have had enough. His older sister Akiko translates for him, stating that unless he apologizes, he will be challenged to a duel. Whoever loses switches to the later lunch period. At first, Steve thinks he is kidding until he randomly chooses a hotdog eating contest.

After moping around for two months — during which Stan takes sick days, claiming Francine has had a baby — Stan still refuses to apologize for his earlier remarks. Roger finally finds a job in a Hotdog Hauss warehouse. Suddenly, he becomes The Decider once more when handed a shipment of lethal nitrate-filled hot dogs which Roger calls "Death Dogs". Unfortunately, Roger hides the lethal hot dogs in the family refrigerator, and Francine finds them intending to use the hot dogs for Steve and Toshi's contest.

Stan and Roger eventually find their way into Steve and Toshi's competition and warns the group about the "Death Dogs". Thinking they are about to die Steve apologizes to Toshi, and even though Toshi didn't want Steve's forced apology, under these conditions he is honor bound to accept it. Fortunately, Toshi's mother had rejected the hot dogs Francine brought in favor of her own, and does not hesitate to rub this in when Stan reveals Francine's hot dogs are poisonous; Francine, refusing to swallow her pride, pretends to be ignorant of her speech. Roger then tries to make off with the hot dogs but Stan stops him and destroys the box in a hot dog shaped truck they drove in. As Roger whines in shame, Francine confronts Stan about his behavior toward Roger, reminding him that his annoyance at Roger's self-importance may be his (Stan's) way of concealing his own inadequacies.

Stan eventually apologizes to Roger, even as birds and dogs get sick and die around them after eating the poisoned hot dogs pieces remaining from the truck explosion. Stan reveals that he has a deadly shellfish allergy and entrusts Roger with his EpiPen, should he accidentally consume any seafood. Unfortunately, Stan has a severe allergic reaction after being tricked into having a bite of one of Roger's crawfish cookies just so Roger could experience his previous joy over the power of life and death again. When Francine yells at Roger to use the EpiPen we learned that Roger used the dose on himself while hung over, leaving Stan red-faced and convulsing on the floor.

Notes

• In "American Dream Factory", Toshi's sister Akiko appeared. In this episode, she appears to be taller and older.
• The scene where Stan does not stop laughing is reminiscent of a Family Guy episode where Peter and Stewie do exactly the same after pushing Lois's car into a river with her in the back, which in turn is heavily reminiscent of the scene in the season five Simpsons episode $pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling) where Mr. Burns continuously laughs at the childhood memory of crippling an Irish bumper car worker.
• Though Toshi's mother speaks fluent English, Francine cannot (or pretends to not) understand her and assumes she's a sushi hostess. However, in the episode The Magnificent Steven, it was said by Stan that he could not understand what Toshi's parents were saying and was assuming that they "were on board".
• Though this episode introduces that he is allergic to shellfish, Stan plans on ordering shrimp at Les Pantalons Fancie in "Meter Made"
• When Stan and Roger are waiting for their plane, Miss Swan, a recurring character from MADtv can be seen in the background walking to the plane.
• During the clip of Roger in 1994, he is dressed as Kurt Cobain. This alludes Kurt Cobain's alleged suicide for he died in Seattle, Washington, which was were Roger was.