Plot (Spoiler)
After being placed under house arrest for hitting a pregnant woman who looked very manly at a soccer game, Peter decides to build a bar in the basement of his house. This is another unforgettable classic from the first season.
Lois seizes the chance to play the piano and sing in the impromptu bar since she feels overworked and underappreciated. To Peter’s dismay, Lois quickly becomes popular with the audience, who are enraptured by her beauty and singing prowess. In order to put an end to Lois’ singing career, Peter decides to invite the envious wives of the bar patrons to come over and take their husbands home after his house detention is ended. Stewie, who is going through excruciating teething problems, determines that the only way to stop the pain is to create a time machine and travel to a future time when it won’t happen. Quagmire accidently sets the pub on fire when things go out of control, trapping Lois and Peter inside with little chance of escape. Similar to the last episode, Stewie accidentally saves the day by turning on his time machine, traveling back in time, and wiping out the majority of the episode’s events.
It’s amazing how much they were able to fit into a half-hour and still found time to add some hilarious asides that had nothing to do with the main plot. That’s a lot of story for one episode. In this collection of groan-inducing “manatee” jokes, Stewie begs his mother to murder him by saying, “Shake me like a British nanny” (in reference to a news event from the time). In a brief scene with Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street, Peter complains that while under house arrest, all television programs are mixed together and suggests a show called “Homicide: Life on Sesame Street.” This scene is quite notable. One of those incredibly witty jokes with just the proper amount of crudeness to stick in your mind.
When you reflect on these episodes, it’s simple to see that the multi-layered depth of the random humor isn’t present as it once was. Today’s random jokes are simply too random and lack substance beyond portraying ridiculous scenarios or pointless musical routines. Even the ridiculous parody of a Mentos commercial that depicts the pointless murder of Abraham Lincoln is clever enough to evoke some basic social commentary and is written in such a way that the segment’s punchline occurs outside of the random flashback or scene with Peter in a trance suggesting that he murder Lincoln.
These days, it’s uncommon to see the storyline and odd gags combined like that. These days, it looks as though the authors have hours’ worth of these odd, pointless jokes stored away and haphazardly add them as filler to episodes. The writing is careless, and it is very evident that the same amount of thought that went into these previous episodes is simply not present now.
Other noteworthy scenes in this episode include one when Peter accidentally applies paprika on Stewie instead of talcum powder and receives a vindictive urinal spray in return. Although Stewie has a few memorable comments, it is becoming clear that his character is a one-dimensional enraged world-domination seeker. Although it’s natural that the character had to change in some way, we certainly don’t know which course was chosen for him.