The Fat Guy Strangler

"The Fat Guy Strangler" is the 17th episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series Family Guy. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 27, 2005.^[1] In the episode, Lois discovers she has a long-lost brother, Patrick who was institutionalized after seeing his mother being seduced. Lois gets him released, but after a childhood flashback induced by Peter, Patrick becomes traumatized and starts murdering overweight people.^[2]

The episode was written by Chris Sheridan and directed by Sarah Frost,^[3] whilst guest stars were Bob Barker, Dave Boat, Max Burkholder, Barclay DeVeau, Robert Downey Jr., Margaret Easley, Kim Parks, Will Sasso, Anne-Michelle Seiler and Tara Strong.^[3]

Plot

Instead of going to his physical, Peter goes out with

Meanwhile, Peter announces to the family that he is fat and decides to create the "National Association for the Advancement of Fat People" (NAAFP). Peter hosts the first meeting of the association, but it is unsuccessful due to those attending making too much noise, such as breathing heavily, passing gas, and munching junk food the entire way through.

Believing Patrick to be sane, Lois authorizes his release, and arranges for Patrick to stay with the family. Patrick soon announces he has a wife, Marion, although she is

Lois' father,

Peter brings the fat men back to his home to protect them, but after learning from Brian that Patrick is the killer, a chase between the fat men and Patrick ensues. Brian, still at the house, shows Patrick's room to Lois, where several of his victims are either deceased or had been left for dead, and photographic evidence of Patrick killing them. Lois continues to make exaggerated excuses, still wanting to believe her brother is a nice person, but ultimately she snaps out of her denial and realizes that Patrick is a threat. Lois and Brian pursue Patrick and Peter into the woods, where Patrick is strangling Peter. Patrick quickly releases Peter after Lois threatens to stab Marion, his imaginary wife. Patrick apologizes, telling Lois that he never meant to hurt her, and the two agree he should be sent back to the mental hospital, where Lois and the family plan to visit him once a month.

Cultural references

The episode's premise (a pleasant uncle revealed to be a strangler) is similar to that of

The origins of the episode and the character of Patrick began when

MacFarlane notes that he was surprised they were allowed to do the pickle gag, which consisted of Stewie placing a cucumber on the sofa where Patrick's imaginary wife is sitting, but inserting it into her imaginary vagina (to see if it would turn into a pickle),[4] but suggests that maybe broadcasting standards did not fully understand the scene.^[5] The music song by the overweight people at a funeral for a murdered obese man was only shown on the DVD version and not televised, for timing purposes,^[6] and for potential boredom to viewers.^[4][6] The musical composition was recorded at Fox studios on the Gary Numan stage.^[4][6] George W. Bush is portrayed hiding in a tree house and being informed by Brian of Hurricane Katrina. Bush was offered the opportunity to voice himself, but declined.^[5]

A deleted scene had been made which showed the family traveling on board an airplane on which Peter, rather than using the airplane toilet as "he is too fat to get out of his seat,"^[4] urinates in his seat, but unknowingly urinates on Brian in the process, as he is in a dog cage below Peter's seat. If this scene had been used in the episode, it was intended for Brian, after throwing a rock aimed at Peter's head, to say "that's for pissing on me!"^[4][5]

Reception

In a review of the episode,

External links

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• "The Fat Guy Strangler" at
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