McStroke
| "McStroke" |
|---|
"McStroke" is the eighth episode of season six of the FOX animated series Family Guy, which originally aired on January 13, 2008, an episode produced for Season 5. The title is a play on McDonald's terminology of putting "Mc" in front of common words. It guest stars Ricardo Montalbán as a cow.
This was the first new episode of the show in more than a month due to the writers’ strike and was the last episode to air without Seth MacFarlane's permission (the strike ended on February 12, 2008, four weeks after this episode first aired).[1] On the DVD commentary, Seth MacFarlane stated that the producers tweaked the episode after the strike.
Plot summary
While looking through Cleveland's mail, Peter discovers a magazine about mustaches. This fascinates Peter, who decides to grow a mustache himself, and then has an obsession about it, despite Brian being extremely unimpressed. Later, Peter and Brian stop at an Italian deli where Peter attempts to speak Italian to the hairy guy behind the counter. This fails miserably as the guy asks Peter to leave in Italian. After the deli scene, while walking down the street, he sees that the local fast food restaurant McBurgertown (Parody of McDonald's and possibly Burger King) is on fire. The mustachioed firemen recruit Peter to help because of his mustache. Peter enters the blaze and saves a man (who is revealed to be the owner of the restaurant) trapped inside at the cost of having his mustache being burned off.
When Lois comes into the kitchen wondering where Brian is, she realizes that Peter had taped Brian to his face as a replacement mustache until his mustache grows back. Shortly thereafter, the owner of McBurgertown comes to the Griffins' home and wants to offer Peter a lifetime supply of hamburgers as a reward for his heroism. Peter takes off Brian (his replacement mustache) and accepts this offer, but after eating 30 burgers in one sitting, he suffers a severe stroke that paralyzes the entire left side of his body. Three months later, after constant suffering from doing simple, everyday tasks, he gives stem cell research a try, which completely heals him in five minutes, causing him to question why the government doesn't fund the research.
Peter blames McBurgertown for the stroke (despite the fact that he ate 30 burgers that caused the stroke, stated by Brian) and tries to sue the franchise, but loses, due to the McBurgertown franchise having so many lawyers. Not wanting to give up, he brings Brian along and infiltrates the company headquarters to find incriminating evidence and expose it to the public, There they discover a secret slaughterhouse filled with cows, one of which has the ability to talk (voiced by Ricardo Montalbán), explaining the evils the company has committed against his species and calling the slaughterhouse "Dacow", a pun on the holocaust concentration camp "Dachau". Realizing this is the evidence Peter's looking for, Brian suggests that he and Peter release this cow and have him give testimony about the atrocities. They do so after escaping the security guards in a comical Monkees-like fashion (set to the song "Pleasant Valley Sunday" by the Monkees.) Later, as the cow gives his testimony to the public, the McBurgertown franchise is left in ruins for good. At that point, the cow thanks Peter for his help to ensure a better future for his species, but the Griffins are faced with the problem of keeping the cow now that he has nowhere else to go.
Meanwhile, Stewie complains about the teen dramas on TV, saying that anyone can become popular. So he and Brian wager that Stewie can disguise himself as a high-schooler and become the most popular kid in less than a week. Taking on the name "Zac Sawyer", he starts hanging out with Connie D'Amico and her friends and easily wins them over with his cool antics, thus winning his bet with Brian. Connie and Zac drive to Anal Point to have sex, but when Zac takes off his pants, Connie laughs at the size of his penis and drives off. The next day at school, he is ostracized by the popular kids for his "baby penis", ending his reign of popularity. Realizing that Connie was the one who revealed this to everyone, Zac asks Connie for one last kiss. Connie accepts, but when Connie's eyes are closed, Stewie angrily takes off his clothes and kisses her, making her look like a pedophile, thus having Connie arrested by school security in revenge for ending his reign of popularity. The song he walks away to is "Hurricane" by Bob Dylan.
Production
The episode was written by Wellesley Wild and directed by Brian Iles. In addition to the regular cast, actors Camille Guaty, Phil LaMarr, Denis Martel, Ted McGinley, Ricardo Montalbán, and Lisa Wilhoit guest starred in the episode. Recurring voice actors Alex Breckenridge, Ralph Garman, Mark Hentemann, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin, and John Viener made minor appearances in the episode.
Cultural references
During the fire at the restaurant, where Peter loses his mustache, the fire helmets say "57" on them in a badge that is shaped like a Heinz ketchup label, referring to the "57 varieties" referred to in the brand's promotions. In the same scene, Peter says "with great mustache comes great responsibility," paraphrasing a well known Spider-Man quote.
The cow mentions the death of his "beloved wife" at one point, parodying Ricardo Montalban's utterance of the same words in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
The chase near the end is a spoof of The Moonkees.
Critical reception
Brad Trechak of TV Squad wrote that there were "hints of really good ideas in the episode but those were superseded by some hack writing and poorly executed material" and blamed the WGA strike for the episode's perceived poor quality.[1] Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club called the episode "very haphazard" and wrote that there were only "a couple of solid gags sprinkled throughout". She graded "McStroke" C-.[2] Ahsan Haque of IGN praised the episode, saying that it "turns out to be much more entertaining than one would expect" and grading it 8.8 out of 10.[3]
The Parents Television Council, a frequent critic of the show, condemned it as the "Worst TV Show of the Week" for January 25, 2008. The central point of criticism concerned the subplot involving Stewie and Connie D'Amico.[4]
References
- ^ a b Trechak, Brad (January 14, 2008). "Family Guy: McStroke". TV Squad. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
- ^ Koski, Genevieve (January 13, 2008). "McStroke" / "Tearjerker". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
- ^ Haque, Ahsan (January 14, 2008). "Family Guy: "McStroke" Review". IGN. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
- ^ Shuler, Adam (2008-01-25). ""Family Guy" on Fox". Worst TV Show of the Week. Parents Television Council. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
External links
| Preceded by Peter's Daughter |
Family Guy (season 6) | Succeeded by Back to the Woods |