No Chris Left Behind
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“No Chris Left Behind” is a season five episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. The title is a parody of the No Child Left Behind Act.
Plot summary
Brian notices that Chris’s textbooks are from 1948; due to budget cuts caused by the No Child Left Behind Act, the school can’t afford new books. Upset by this, Lois goes to a PTA meeting to ask Principal Shepherd to do something about it; the principal decides to improve the school’s performance average by expelling the dumbest student, who happens to be Chris.
Lois asks her father, Carter, to pull some strings to get Chris into the upper-class Morningwood Academy; Carter agrees, on the condition that Peter humiliate himself by starring in a shot-by-shot remake of Liar Liar.
Chris doesn’t fit in at the academy because he’s not rich, so Carter invites him to become a member of Skull and Bones. The Griffins, meanwhile, are all taking extra jobs to pay for Chris’ tuition; Peter is selling “butt scratchers” at the baseball park, Lois and Meg are working as prostitutes, and Stewie is following fat people while playing comical music on a tuba.
Feeling bad about the sacrifices his family is making, Chris asks Carter to help him get back into his old school. Later, Chris happily moves back home.
Meanwhile, in a series first, an entire episode subplot is dedicated to Peter’s ongoing feud with the Giant Chicken; here they engage in a fight which consumes as much time as is ordinarily dedicated to an episode’s B-story. Here the Chicken befriends Peter, and after a quarrel of who should pay the check (since the Chicken took him out for dinner with his wife Nicole), they enter another fight, in which the ending has Peter beating the Chicken’s head several times with a pot, and yet again with the Chicken still being alive.
Notes
- This episode marks the third appearance of The Giant Chicken, who first appeared in “Da Boom” and again in “Blind Ambition.” We also find out that the Giant Chicken’s name is Ernie, and that he has a wife (who is also a giant chicken) named Nicole. As expected, Peter and the Chicken fight for the third time and the battle ends in a cliffhanger.
- This episode also reveals other details about other secondary characters: James William Bottomtooth, from the episodes “Brian Goes Back to College” and “You May Now Kiss the...Uh...Guy Who Receives” is revealed to have a son, James William Bottomtooth IV, who shares his distinct lower jaw. The name of the effeminate performance artist voiced by Mike Henry is revealed to be “Bruce.”
- Another hint to Stewie’s ambiguous sexuality is given when Stewie asks if there is a preschool program at the maritime school where there are only men. It’s implied that they have sex with each other.
- The boarding school that Chris enters with Mr. Pewterschmidt’s help is called Morningwood, which is also another name for nocturnal penile tumescence. The boarding academy is exclusive, with a sign that says “No Irish” with a line through it.
- This is the third episode in the season to make fun of Brian not being toliet-trained, and also provides more evidence that Meg might be a drug user. In “Peterotica,” she was willing to buy some marijuana from Carter Pewtershmidt. A cutaway in “Boys Do Cry” shows her deflated after smoking it, and in this episode she admits that she has pot connections at school.
Censorship
A preview clip released before this episode aired had Peter and Quagmire talking to each other on their cell phone, with Quagmire telling Peter that he was dragged to the ballet by “this broad I’m trying to screw.” On the actual FOX episode, the line was changed to “this broad I’m trying to nail,” although it wasn’t changed in the subtitles. The original scene can be seen here: [1]
Goofs
- Peter claims to have never eaten at the restaurant where he dines with Ernie and Nicole the Giant Chickens, but he has been there on three occasions: (1) in “Brian Wallows, Peter Swallows,” he was there feeding the baby birds in his beard, (2) in “Petarded,” when the maître-d’ had to put a helmet and water wings on Peter as a safety precaution now that Peter was revealed to be mentally retarded, and (3) in “Sibling Rivalry,” when Peter humiliated Lois because of her weight gain.
Cultural references
- The show starts with a clip of the show How I Met Your Father. This is making fun of the show How I Met Your Mother. The characters in the clip are Josh Radnor and Neil Patrick Harris where Josh is talking about marriage and then Neil says that he should be talking about getting laid. Then Josh says that he loves Neil and Neil replies by saying “Suit up” holding a condom to Josh and then they both make out. This is probably a reference to Neil Patrick Harris’ recent coming out.
- Stewie says he made a speech in Braveheart right after William Wallace.
- Stewie reveals he taught Cleveland how to make Jiffy Pop.
- Peter imitates the scene from Liar Liar when Fletcher is stopped by police and quickly admits a long past of breaking traffic laws.
- Stewie references the Neighborhood of Make-Believe from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, saying that he wishes to become more powerful than King Friday XIII. The cutaway features a live action hand puppet.
- The scene where Chris is beaten by his fellow students is reference to Full Metal Jacket where Leonard “Gomer Pyle” Lawrence is beaten by his fellow soldiers with socks full of soap, although Chris is beaten with socks full of money.
- A student at Morningwood Academy recalls the third time he slept with former Florida congresswoman Katherine Harris.
- Carter says Ryan Seacrest was once a member of the Skull and Bones Society.
- Mr. Herbert is a member and Grandmaster of the Skull and Bones.
- The scene at the Academy in which the students are eating food is made to look like the “Great Hall” from Harry Potter. There are four long tables representing the houses of the students at Hogwarts.
Chicken fight
- When Peter slashes the giant chicken with a large glass shard, the giant chicken ends up licking the blood. This is a reference to a similar scene in Enter the Dragon.
- While on the subway fighting the chicken, Peter smashes a boombox over the chicken. This is a reference to the character Radio Raheem from Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing.
- The subway crash during the chicken fight is similar to scenes in Speed and Die Hard With a Vengeance.
- When Peter and the Chicken push the man out of the biplane, one can hear the now famous Wilhelm scream.
- While on the biplane, the Giant Chicken attacks Peter with a snake, a reference to a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark and an indirect reference to Snakes on a Plane.
- During the fight scene, the fighting on the Ferris wheel is very similar to a scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, and also to a scene in 1941.
- The scene in the fight between the chicken and Peter where the chicken grabs the electric knife and Peter fights back with the boiling water is a reference to The Living Daylights and The Punisher.
- It’s revealed that they don’t remember what they’re fighting about. The chicken says that it was “something about a coupon.” This is a reference to “Da Boom” where they have their first fight over an expired coupon.